MetaChat - 3 Richest People Have More Money Than 48 Poorest Nations Combined

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12 December 2006

3 Richest People Have More Money Than 48 Poorest Nations Combined →[More:] Half the world -- nearly three billion people -- live on less than two dollars a day. The three richest people in the world have more money than the poorest 48 nations -- combined.

The research finds that assets of just $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world's wealthiest. To be among the richest 10% of adults in the world just $61,000 in assets is needed. If you have more than $500,000, you're part of the richest 1%, the United Nations study found.

These rough numbers illustrate how wide the gulf really is between the haves and the have nots. Its really quite frightening to think about how wide the gap is and what that means in terms of quality of life.

post by: fenriq at: 20:25 | 6 comments

Woo hoo! I'm rich! I'm RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICH!

Awful, I know.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 12 December | 21:20

"...Awful, I know."
posted by ThePinkSuperhero 12 December

It's not awful, and it's not exalted, either, TPS. I feel for the folks in refugee camps in Darfur tonight, but impoverishing myself voluntarily wouldn't help them past the day after tomorrow.

We're members of a murderous race, full stop. We'll kill one another for sport, or imagined slight, or in the midst of mass hallucination, with our puny teeth and bare hands, if no better weapons are readily to hand.

Being one of the fortunate keeps me and my brother out of harm's way, and karmically, he's been given enough shit in life to cover us both, in any scenario in which we do, finally, meet the Buddha.

posted by paulsc 13 December | 00:15

I need more details. I have more than $61,000 but less than $500,000, so where, exactly do I fit in? I'm not happy being somewhere between the top 10% and the top 1%, I want to know precisely where I place on the continuum of the filthy rich, damnit!

posted by dg 13 December | 00:26

Don't feel bad, TPS, I pretty much thought the same thing when I first read it.

paulsc, quite true and, though good fortune birthed me into this country to well-educated and well-off parents, I have a duty to do my best for my own children now.

dg, there was a site not too long ago that actually gave you a rank. I'll see if I can find it again.

posted by fenriq 13 December | 00:36

The research finds that assets of just $2,200 per adult placed a household in the top half of the world's wealthiest.
Well, count me out. If these numbers reflect the sum of assets and obligations, then I have a net worth of approximately negative $34,000.

posted by pieisexactlythree 13 December | 01:05

This is sort of silly, because none of the top 3 - I'm assuming they mean Bill, Warren and Shecky - could realize their wealth in cash. It's mostly in stock holdings, and if they started selling it off, the share price would tank.

posted by ikkyu2 13 December | 03:00

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