The Old 80-20 Rule
Close. Very close.
An interesting article in My Budget 360. The title is worth the read:
A true measure of economic vitality is measured by wealth. We can look at incomes or other measures of productivity but real wealth is measured by net worth. Who controls wealth in the U.S.? According to a study from the Joint Center for Housing Studies the top 25% of U.S. households control 87% of all wealth in the country. That number comes out to a nice hefty sum of $54.2 trillion.
If we look even closer at income distribution, we will find that the top 1 percent in our country control 42 percent of all financial wealth. By all measures being able to acquire a piece of financial wealth was the hallmark of the middle class of previous years.
One percent own 42 percent of all financial wealth. A somewhat sobering (I better start drinking heavily…) statistic. After noting that even after the financial problems our nation grows wealthier, there is this:
Yet more and more of this added wealth is filtering its way to a smaller group and not necessarily the most productive in our country. In the first quarter of 2010 some of the biggest banks in this country made continuous profits without really adding any benefit to our economy or society.
Anyway, an interesting read, especially the comparison of corporations to psychopaths.
BP anyone?
