People selectively underestimate how rich the world's richest people are, according to a study. Increasing income inequality in many countries is driven by steep gains among the top 1% of earners. In the United States, support for policies that would redistribute wealth has not increased since the 1970s, even as the share of incomes held by the top 1% of Americans jumped from 10% to 19%.
If you have $20m you are EASILY making 500k/year in interest/dividends/investment growth. You’d have to try pretty hard to not grow your $20m.
The point was, how is top 1% determined? Some people have high income and spend it all, others are good savers but don’t have a high income. Or is it based on net worth? I realize this may sound ridiculous, but as I mentioned, I believe 1% is a lower bar than people think it is.
To me net worth makes the most sense. I do agree 1% isn’t as high as people think. When people talk about the 1% they are probably thinking more about the top 0.1% or even 0.01%.
Looking just at the states with ~330 million people that would be 3.3 million 1%ers. Tons of people who never made huge salaries, but are great at saving and investing will be in that category.
Thank you.