Are You in the Top One Percent of the World?

Are You in the Top One Percent of the World?

Excerpt:

The growth of income inequality has long been a hot topic around the globe, but it wasn’t until the “Occupy” movement that the amount of wealth concentrated in the top 1% of society received so much attention. Indeed, it's an incredibly powerful club.

According to Oxfam, a leading poverty-fighting organization, eight men own as much wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up for the poorest in the world, and one in ten people survive on less than $2 per day.

Still, the top 1% consists of a lot more than just eight people. This raises an interesting question: Who exactly are the 1%?

The surprising answer: If you’re an American, you don’t have to even be close to being uber-rich to make the list. According to the Global Rich List, a website that brings awareness to worldwide income disparities, an income of $32,400 a year will allow you to make the cut. 

Comment: My responses on the Global Rich List website (not my actual numbers):

Income: $ 75,000
Total Wealth: $ 800,000

"If you have $3,650, you’re among the wealthiest half of people in the world"

Are you among the world's wealthiest?

Excerpt:

• The average person is worth $56,000.
• If you have $3,650, including the value of your home, you’re among the wealthiest half of people in the world. (This is net wealth - so, once debts have been subtracted.) The other half own less than 1pc of global wealth, while 77pc of adults - that’s 3.3bn people - have less than $10,000.
• The top 10pc of people - membership requirement is $77,000 - hold 87pc of the world’s wealth.
• You need $798,000 to make it into the top percentile of the world’s wealthiest. This select group accounts for almost half - 48.2pc - of global assets.

Comment: Image source - Scrooge McDuck. Scriptural perspective:

• Luke 12:15-21, "And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”"
• I Timothy 6:6-10, "But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.