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With Just $10 "You're Wealthier Than 25% Of Americans"
Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,
Last week Credit Suisse released its annual Global Wealth Report.
The big headline grabber was their analysis showing that the top 1% of people now own 50% of the world’s wealth.
That is true and rather astonishing.
However, the report had another finding that was even more astonishing and largely overlooked.
What they found was that, as a percentage of the world’s population, there are now more poor people in the United States and Europe than there are in China.
Shown here, along the left side of the graph you can see that 10% and 20% of the world’s poorest are in North America and Europe.
Here, they aren’t talking about income. They define poor as lacking ‘wealth’, i.e. taking into account assets and liabilities like cash and debt.
Credit Suisse estimates that half of the world has a net worth less than $3,210. And a large chunk of Americans and Europeans can’t make that cut because their net worth is negative.
That’s especially the case for young people these days, who graduate from university with an incredibly expensive degree and an average of $35,000 in student debt.
Of course, plenty of people are in debt up to their eyeballs in the Land of the Free, and not just student debt.
Debt has become the American Way. People go deeply into debt that they can’t afford to buy stuff they don’t need to impress people they don’t know, simply because everyone is doing it.
And it’s just so damn easy.
The US financial system encourages debt by keeping interest rates at effectively zero. You can borrow money in many cases for less interest than you can save. The priorities are pretty out of whack.
This is even more the case in Europe where some banks are actually paying people to borrow money, creating some of the most ridiculous moral and financial hazards imaginable.
Credit Suisse estimates that 25% of Americans are in this situation of having a negative net-worth.
“If you’ve no debts and have $10 in your pocket you have more wealth than 25% of Americans. More than 25% of Americans have collectively that is.”
The thing is– not only did the government create the incentives, but they set the standard.
With a net worth of negative $60 trillion, US citizens are just following dutifully in the government’s footsteps.
- Taking a fresh look at the country, you have to admit that when the vast majority of the wealth is held in the hands of the tiniest percent;
- When a quarter of the population has negative net worth;
- When the government has $18 trillion in debt and another $42 trillion in unfunded liabilities;
- And when the central bank is borderline insolvent;
It becomes really hard to make the case that you’re still the richest country in the world.
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Next time we start a war, we should send our almighty Free-Shit Army to fight it. ;-)
Looney
"Next time we start a war, we should send our almighty Free-Shit Army to fight it"
Who would run the nations banks ?
Oh those student loans.
According to the pretty graph, there are no poor people in China.
lmfao!
This article is about net worth, not income. Until 1998, everybody in China got a home as part of their job. They own it, and there is no property tax. About 65% of the citizens pay no rent or mortgage because of this. Also, every Chinese has a bank account for old age and "just because".
This is why they don't show up. They can still be poor with a house and money in the bank.
Good points. You forget to add the Chinese definition of "home" is a very liberal construct. There are slum dwellings in South Central that are millionaire mansions compared to the glorified animal pens of rural Chinese peasants who still make up 70% of the population.
I've actually spent time with Chinese peasants, visited their homes, eaten with their families, and celebrated weddings and holidays with them. Yes, there are very poor people in China and urban America, but they are the exception, not the norm. I have relatives In Jiangsu province who live in a small village that is very hard to find on any map. No outsiders ever visit there. Most of their homes are clean and well decorated. They may have an outhouse, but they have TV, Internet, bicycles and mopeds, mobile phones, western style clothes and consumer goods. Their kids wouldn't look out of place at an American mall. You can believe what you like, based on your conjectures or ideologies, but you should really visit the areas you claim to have knowledge of before speaking.
This won't end well.
My son is gonna be rich. He is only two, and already has a nice stack to his name. Everytime someone gives us money for him, i buy bullion. His money will never see the inside of a bank. a little over 50% of my family thinks I am crazy, and I should start him one of those tax free college investment funds and "let the market grow his money" over the next 16 years, and maybe I am, but I just don't trust it. And with a few thousand already to his name before he can even wipe his own ass, Id say he is doing quite well compared to the rest of the world.
Although Im pretty sure the USgov thinks he is on the hook for the 55k per person national debt we have, which is really more like 500k with all the unfunded liabilities. "wealthiest nation on earth" huh? Not when each child is born a slave to half a million in debt.
Try not to be short sighted. If you'd gear his savings towards FRNs, then when he is ready to wipe his own ass
he'd have something to use. Just food for thought.
In this land called America, or the USA, or hell on earth, or whatever your chosen name for it, I have decided that if i am called crazy i am doing the right thing. This land where people EASILY spend $3,000-$4,000 a year for smart phone service, something that is crazy but considered normal, i strive to be given the label of crazy. We are turning into a pit of face tatoo and nose ring loving vipers. Land of the free my ass, it is the land of the free-loader.
but I've been told my debts are an asset
that is so only if you were a bank
Or anyone holding most any financial instrument, such as Fed Notes.
I'm thinking I wanna paste a $10 Fed Note to the bumper of my car to proudly proclaim to the world my lofty position in the Top 75%.
You'll wake up in the morning with a missing bumper lol.
Many aspire to the Top 75%.
+1000
Only after you default.
Just tells you the professional asset-strippers (central banks in collusion with bribed governments) are about done with europe and the USA and are starting to train their guns on China and Russia.
Funny how we seem to be trying to pick a fight with them
Except they don't give you a token fine or make you Prez....they sieze your assets, execute you and kick your kids out of the country....the way it should be done!
The people & governments in the rest of the world plans for years, decades and centuries. The US doesn't plan for the week in front of them, except for what football game to watch.
The wars are for hiding the looting.
If you are including mortgages, I believe that number is more like 60% of all Americans. Even old people have mortgages and reverse mortgages now.
Yeah, I thought 25% was a little low... if mortgages were excluded that makes a big difference. I don't know why they'd exclude them, other than tryin to massage the data to fit an agenda.
figures lie and lars figure
They likely use mark to unicorn valuations on the houses to prevent the reality of underwater mortgages from showing through the cracks in the facade.
& that's assuming the fed never "lifts off" & starts a snowball of falling real estate prices...
I don't care about the exact percentage, I think think someone at Credit Suisse needs to come out of the closet and admit they read ZH.
+1 Urban Redneck: "Without understanding (and controlling) indebtedness, its almost impossible to climb the financial ladder, because, unfortunately, access to credit is very often critical to building wealth."
reminds me how shocked a niece of me was when she went to the US and wanted to open a bank account and get a debit card, as she was used
I still remember her complaint: "Uncle G, without a credit rating you aren't even a proper human, there!". this little personal story is old, I don't know if it's still so
With Just $10 "You're Wealthier Than 25% Of Americans"
I think I just figured out what's happening to McDonald's and Walmart.
The American Communist Party Leader Obama said it before he took office!
And the big difference between the rich and the poor countries!
Now....
1. You can try to make everybody rich and that's what everybody tought would happen... they tought Obama would pay all their bills...
or...
2. You make everybody as poor as the poorest and then there's no real difference and it's fixed.
In Europe for example, anybody who made 2000 euro's in the year 2000 would need to make 3200 euro's to have the same purchasing power.
That never happened and the only "wealth" now also lies in housing so that means we'll also have a crash like the Americans had. And then the game will be over.
In the next 7 years, that number will double to 50% or more. And at the end, look to greece where suddenly we'll be talking about the same kind of numbers but with a title that says: "25% of Americans' can't affoard 1 hot meal a day anymore".
It really is the boiling frog syndrome.
That's why you don't only need to buy gold and silver every month, you need to save money as well!
For every month you work, you need to put asside enough to "survive" a month without a job.
And that means you need to cut the crap out of your life.
People buy to much crap. IT's the Primark syndrome, it's cheap so I buy more. Everything's a deal untill the credit cards are denied.
And to learn that, you need to know what a hard life is. I had months that I made no money, it's painfull! I had savings but I rattioned it to make sure I have enough for 5 years if need be. Without my gold or silver, that's for Armegeddon.
How many Americans are to fat? And poor? You'll see that it lines up!
I only eat as much I need untill I'm no longer hungry. That's about 200gr of meat, 200gr of vegetables and 200gr of fruit per day.
Could I eat more? Yeah I can! You should see me eat when we have a BBQ!
Here, the first week to week and half, of each month, is busiest. Then, the traffic in the stores and restaurants slows down gradually until the next month. At this pace, I can see some places running shorter daily schedules later in the month.
That 35K student loan debt is skewed low, too, I'll bet.
Very few of my kids' friends have less than 70K in debt when they leave school, and a few of them are north of 100K. Two of them I know have student loan payements of $1600 a month. Fuck buying a house or raising a family, they barely have enough to last paycheck to paycheck.
I tell ya, I'd like to be clearing $1600 a month, never mind servicing debt for that much.
So it may need to read:
If you owe less than $75,000 dollars, you are wealthier than 25% (50%?)of americans? 100K? 150K?
As per the World Bank (or some other whatever organization) the top 1% income earners (as measured by Gross Unadjusted Before Tax income) globally, make about $25,000.
Bit of perspective
What the heck are you talking about....you have an entire govermnet printing trillions and EBT...the world is your oyster!
The thing to remember is that this obscene poverty is not a sign of systemic failure- the system is doing exactly what it was designed to do in transferring the public wealth into the hands of private bankers. It is a sign of systemic success!
Monday, while driving home from "senior softball", there was a fairly attractive women standing beside the freeway offramp with a homeless sign.
I looked around for a sign of her pimp, but not seeing one, she might have been actually homeless.
So, should I: Give her $20, report her to the police, or take her home and introduce her to the wife?
*Senior Softball: What you get to do when you're old and move to Florida.
A note about Florida: There is a nasty Black Plague that hasn't been reported in the news media. 40% of the population is infected, so don't travel to Florida.
You could put her up in a small apt around the corner from your place and tell your wife you're going out for a 2-hr jog each evening
at the same time. Beats wtaching the Cubs get their asses handed to them by that NY Mets Murphy fellow.
You mean Negroes or the actual pathogen?
Is there a difference?
#Black Plague Matters!
Off topic but why is it that Delaware, which has the lowest percenatge of caucasians and only moderate sunshine compared to florida, CA and Hawaii etc, has the highest per capita rate of skin cancer in the US?
Fort Detrick.
Fort Detrick is in Fredneck, MD.
Wind.
DuPont?
I suppose now that this country is up side down, if you're a saver and have no debt, you're considered an economic terrorist.
Seems like we are all going to be labled terrorists in the near future. If you are not 1984 obedient, fat, dumb, unhappy, a ward of the state, a debt serf and not a 1%er, then by definition you will be a terrorist. Subject to extermination. We used to call this the middle class in the olden days.
If you cannot live on what you're earning now, try living on what you're earning now minus the prospective interest and principle payments and see how that feels. Getting in debt is like getting fat. You think you're hungry when you walk away from the table without stuffing yourself? You have no idea what hungry really is until you try to lose that lard you stored up by overeating. Just don't go there...
My youngest is 17 and has saved a lot more than ten bucks. I'm telling him about these stats and reminding him about drugs, er, debt tonight.
Fat City USSA
What if I got a big stack of Gold and Silver in my pocket. Wealthier than a tenner or just a non-producing barbaric relic?
The Squid in action
bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34589198
So how does this jive with the post I read a few days ago on ZH that the "average" retirement savings in USA is $150,000????
Tylers---please post the instruction pamphlet that shows how to spin the two ------
In a country like the USA with a huge weakth gap, the mean or average can be misleading. The median should give you a better picture of how the average American is doing.
You misread it - the average is about 60K, it's ~150K for Americans 65-74.
1% have $14,000,000
9% have $100,000
40% have $2,000
25% have $1,600
25% have -$800
That article just talked about retirement savings, which is necessary, but retirement savings of even $300k does nothing if you're 55yo and you have other debts that in excess of the $300k retirement savings. Or at 55 you decided you finally wanted that McMansion...bad mistake!!
People in this country never look at NET income, they always talk about what they have and not what they owe on the things they have.
It's a terrible trap but one of our own making. People didn't do a good enough job educating their kids about money / finance when they had the chance and that just let the banks / .gov get in there and teach them.
$300k in gold & silver bullion sets you up to be king when this house of cards meets the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The moral of the story is clear: be the 1%.
Pop always said, "It's better to be rich and healthy than to be sick and poor."
It took some years of concentration, discipline and study, but I was eventually able to decipher and divine the meaning of this mysterious Hieroglyph. Ernie, my tire guy said, "Well, shit, man, you just grew up," which was his way of dismissing and demeaning the intellectual breakthrough that I had achieved.
In a similar vein, someone once told me that it was much better to be wealthy and miserable than to be poor
and miserable. I can dig it. Totally. Be. The. One. Percent. Period.
If you stop paying that death pledge. You can turn around those figures in a split second and not only be in the 75% bracket. You can live rent free for 5 years which will help you move up the ladder even more. Just need to look it as a strategic business plan. Emotions are for the 25% with less than $10 to their name.
does that include equity in the house or not? Most people are still upside down on their mortgages, i assume.
I wondered that if most people could offset their house with their retirement account - these numbers make me think that answer is no.
As a Brit, the student debt thing used to make me really worry for my kids, not now.
My daughter, studying to be a vet, with a 5 year course, will have around £85,000 ($131,282) in loan.
Just to pay off the interest she will need a starting salary of £71,000 ($119,000)
Why does it not bother me? Because our student loan repayments are calculated as 9% of your salary over £21,000. If you do not earn over the £21,000, you pay nothing.
Basically, UK STUDENT LOANS WILL, IN JUST A FEW SHORT YEARS, BANKRUPT THE UK GOVERNMENT.
I did write to them to explain this, but they gave me a nice reply to the effect "You don't know how to use a spreadsheet as well as we do".
When she does eventually get to pay some back, the Government will probably be looking to erase them all and re-think education, or the SWHHTF by then and no one need worry.
She should switch to a culinary school.
It won't be long before people will be eating their pets, let alone taking them to a vet.
"101 ways to wok your dog!"
Meh.
That $10 Bill is *also* debt; and there is another $18+ Trillion behind that, (soon to be $20+ Trillion once Ways and Means god Paul Ryan shoves through another debt ceiling increase); and all Americans are saddled with it; "collectively, that is."
Right, every single american has about 700,000 in government debt tied to them. So, unless you are worth OVER 700k, you is flat ass broke.
Good points. http://www.usdebtclock.org/
We all carry at least 57.2k on our heads in regards to the debt.
.
"If you’ve no debts and have $10 in your pocket you have more wealth than 25% of Americans. More than 25% of Americans have collectively that is.”
This describes myself perfectly...except, I have $27 in my pocket...
"If you have no debt..."
Holy shit that made me laugh.
Why?
Some of us have no debt beyond monthly expenses. Admittedly, it's not an accidental state of affairs but a conscious decision to allocate savings.
pfft. Richest country in the world measured in monetary terms is so 2000. Now the metric is based on the number of narcassists and celebrities per capita - USA, USA!!!
I measure wealth based on the number of upvotes on Facebook and Zerohedge.
Even if you had a $10 in your pocket it's only good for rolling up to snort coke.
I'm fuckin' rich!!
If you allocate that $18 Trillion in debt among all Americans the negative net worth folks probably amount to 50%. If you allocate the $18 Trillion debt among only the Americans who pay taxes, it's probably 75%.
If the average person keeps their savings away from the corruptocrats' reach, their share needn't be paid.
I got 10 bucks and 2 bits in my pocket, so I am feeling mighty fine today !!!
Man with hole in pocket feel cocky all day.
Student loans? Yesterday my son was surprised to learn his professor earns $160,000 teaching part time. University is simply the ultimate good ole boy's club where they only hire those with the correct political views and the privet sector hires based on what club you came from. Hi tuition funds the politics, the politics keep the degree from some colleges worth more than others. Even the wealthy man's duffus son gets the gentleman "c", i.e. G.W. Bush.
I start calling people plebs.
A roll of quarters is $10.
Is that a roll of quarters in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
True story, walking into High Court at the Four Courts in Dublin with 2 property developer clients, one of them reached into his pocket and gave a €2 coin to a beggar on the sidewalk.. 2nd client asked why did you do that, to which first client replied "sure the poor guy doesn't have penny" ... angrily 2nd client scolded "well isn't he Fu**ing €30million and €2 better off than you.. you idiot"
While it was funny at the time, it drove a very serious point home... the vagrant on the street was immensely better of than these developers who at one stage had over 200 employees, developing decent family homes and paying vast amounts of tax. Coincidently he was made bankrupt later that day. So in summary this study confirms the anecdotal essence of this story.
This is why I try my best to steer ordinary people away from debt and on to saving - if they have no income to save they can use the affiliate marketing system to earn a few bucks to acquire their gold..
If any if you want to get involved, now is the time get in touch
www.teamramgold.com/about-us
It is simple. It is your ego and pride that gets you into debt. Before I retired as an IT manager I often got cajoled (because I made big bucks – which was untrue) about my lack of big purchases. I was often told at lunch I needed a car that fit my station rather than my 7 year old SUV (that I paid off in 3 years) and a bigger suburban house rather than my modest ranch. Then I floored them all a few months later when I retired early.
Is there a secret? Here is an example. The 7 year SUV is now a 15 year old SUV that still runs great because I take it to the shop annually to have it checked over. Others would have had 5 new lease cars in the drive way during that period. If you do the math it cost me a heck of a lot less. Using that same principle with other purchases avoids the huge interest charges that make the bankers rich. I had paid off my house in 11 and half years.
Then there is a final part of the equation. In our final years before retirement we maxed out our 401Ks and saved all the cash we could find. When others were taking the big fancy vacations we stayed home.
Then two years ago my wife retired early. We are now debt free. We live a modest life. But the sacrifice to be out of the corporate stress jungle was worth every sacrifice. The attention to money detail still shows. My wife last night walked in the door said “… you have got to see this. I was at the mall buy small items. I caught a big sale sign in that… expensive store…swim suits were at their final markdown…it originally cost $96…it was a steal at $6…” That is why I do not have a negative net-worth…
I hate it when my wife comes home from shopping and says she saved $200 -
Me - How much did you have to spend to save that much?
Her - I had coupons that were going to expire!
I'm close to your scenario. With a 1999 Honda Civic and 2004 Hyundai Sonata. House paid off, but have been hit w/ required maintenance costs of late. Also nailed more and more each year with f*cking PROPERTY TAX increases.
RabbitOne, You left out the most important part that you may not even be aware of so I'll detail it for you. What you did will add relaxing years to your life while your ex co workers will be dropping dead on the job from stress and long hours. So, what it comes down to is how many dollars worth of small pleasures here and there would a person give up for each extra month of living.
Let ME eat cake.
I have missed how USA has become The Land Of The Slave
Some where in the book of Proverbs it says " a good man leaves something for his childrens children".
Looks like no one has been reading the good book much in Merica.
My grandfather left me 7,700 acres of mineral right in a county of Oklahoma that there is no such thing as a "dry hole".
I intend to leave that to my grandsons. They should not have to give blowjobs to TPTB just like I didn;t have too. It also makes good cash payments instead of debt. Keep burning that gas boys, keep it going for the grandkids. It those natural gass burning power plants that Obummer demanded that will keep the grandkids in spending money!
!
Is real wealth determined by Dollars? (a.k.a. the Federal Reserve Note...of arbitrary value, but guaranteed to depreciate indefinitely...and guaranteed to default once the net debt service exceeds the economy's free cash flow???)
Or is real wealth deterimined in STUFF? (a.k.a. real physical goods, including real property, durable goods like art and PM's, etc)
Both Jim Quinn and this article today defined wealth as Dollars. This is the second article today that declared holding Dollars to be wealth.
But is that really true?
Are Dollars really wealth at all? Or merely a temporary means to wealth?
Is the wealth the Dollar? Or is the wealth all the things we would want to buy with Dollars?
What does Gresham's Law suggest?
Right. Every dollar is someone else's debt. Real dollars died in Aug. 1971. Get real money!
so..... they forgot about that 211+trillion owed... so assuming the 320million all pay-equally:
1% have $13,340,625
9% have -$559,375
40% have -$657,375
25% have -$657,775
25% have -$660,175
Good way to save money.....
I never spend a five dollar note.....save them up and when I get 50 of them change them over to 5 $50 notes.
That then goes into a stack.
BTW.....I have no debt.
Better yet, turn those 5 $50's into silver coins or bullion.
Any one remember the tune I've got $5 dollars and its Saturday Night? Of course those coins were 90% silver.
" Europe where some banks are actually paying people to borrow money,"
WHERE PLEASE ?
I keep my ten dolla (ten singles) in my bathroom... costs less to use than toilet paper...
debtocracy + demoncracy
First the cabals drowened whole America with the debt
now they are dragging the whole world down with instruments like CDOs
---
'The chaff shall be burned in fire'
as always