Almost Half of the World’s 1 Percent Are Americans
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Remember the Occupy Movement, the campaign against the ultra rich “1 percent,” corporate greed, socio-economic inequality? Latest research has found that the United States holds a disproportionate amount of wealth in the world, with American’s making up 48 percent of the world’s “1 percent.”
Remember the Occupy Movement, the campaign against the ultra rich “1 percent,” corporate greed, socio-economic inequality? Latest research has found that the United States holds a disproportionate amount of wealth in the world, with American’s making up 48 percent of the world’s “1 percent.”
World Bank economist Branko Milanovic has recently published a book, and through his research, claims that a startling 48 percent of the world’s top earners are Americans. That is, there are almost 60 million people in the top one percent of the world, and approximately 29 million are from America.
Calling America a “wealth ghetto”, Milanovic made reference to the recent anti-inequality “Occupy” protest, calling for more attention to be given to wealth disparity across the globe.
Related Story: Is Occupy Wall Street Bringing Back “Read” Capitalism?
The rest of the worlds’ wealthiest live in Germany (four million of them) and are spread throughout Europe (France, Italy, England), Latin America (Brazil) and a few in Asia (Japan and Korea).
However, there is a twist: Looking at the world population as a whole, it takes only $34,000 post-tax annual income to be part of the world’s richest one percent.
On the other hand, Milanovic calculates that the world’s middle class have an annual income of $1,200 – which means the poorest 5 percent of America are richer than two-thirds of the entire world.
Or, in other words, a middle-class salary in an emerging economy would be considered living in poverty in the United States.
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In his controversial book, Milanovic challenges orthodox views of inequality, and laments:
[quote] It doesn’t seem right to define as middle class people who would be on food stamps in the United States. [/quote]Related: Rich Nations, Poor People: The Causes For Rising Poverty In The Western World
At the same time, the gap within the United States and between nations is growing. According to the Huffington Post, “a report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that, since the mid-1980s, income inequality has increased by 77 percent in the 22 countries surveyed. In these countries, the average income of the richest 10 percent of the population is nine times that of the poorest.”
Related Story: Why Inequality Will Only Lead To Our Downfall: Nouriel Roubini
Related Story: A Global Transcendence of Change – What The 99% Really Want: Joseph Stiglitz
