That’s exactly the question that GoBankingRates asked recently.
I’m disappointed that I hadn’t come up with that simple question before. I’m used to reading crazy statistics like 95% of America’s wealth is controlled by 5% of the people. (Note: That’s just an example, not a real mathematically-based statistic.) In this case, GoBankingRates analyzed the numbers, and 50% of America owns 3% of its wealth. Simple math: The other half owns 97% of its wealth.
America is truly a land of “haves” and “have-nots.” It’s quite possible that other countries are even more extreme.
I try to avoid getting political in this space. (Note: I often fail – notably around the election last year, which was a special circumstance.) Republicans have tried to paint a picture of Democrats as Marxist Socialists. It’s been too long since I took a history class with Marx in it, but I know what socialism is. That’s the idea of the people in the country collectively owning assets. For example, Social Security is socialism – it’s right in the name. Most people agree that it’s a good thing and most (maybe all) well-developed countries have something like it.
Essentially, the GoBankingRates question imagines an extreme version of socialism. It’s purely hypothetical. No one is advocating it, as there would be no incentive to work. If nobody works, there would be no money to spread evenly, right?
GoBankingRates answered the question and determined that each person would have $471,465. That includes kids. A family of four would have $1.89 million. For many people, that would be a great deal, right? You’d think that most of America would want it to be a little closer to the GoBankingRates extreme than the current situation, right?
One thing that I found interesting is that GoBankingRates measured the “have nots” (the lower 50%) total wealth. That was about $4 trillion dollars, which works out to $23,588 if it were split equally among them. That’s not a lot of wealth. My kids almost have that much wealth with money that I’ve invested for them when they were 2-3 years old and their kid Roth IRAs.
That’s a short article, but it’s all I have for this week at this time. I’ve got ideas for another article, but that would be Thursday or Friday. Finally, I should disclose that GoBankingRates did NOT contact me or pay me to promote their article. I simply thought it was interesting and worth sharing.
