We are the world - or?

The richest 10 percent have almost 90 percent of the total assets in the world, while the poorest half of the global population has a mere 1 percent of the assets. The richest percent alone controls 46 percent, almost half of the world.

 This and a lot more can be found in the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook 2012*. Their figures show that global household wealth totaled USD 222.7 trillion in mid-2012, equivalent to USD 48,500 for each of the 4.6 billion adults in the world. The corresponding values for the end of the year 2000 are USD 113.4 trillion in aggregate and an average of USD 30,700 for the 3.6 billion adults alive at that time. Thus global household wealth rose by 96% between end-2000 and mid-2012 and wealth per adult climbed 58%.   

"To be among the wealthiest half of the world, an adult needs only USD 3,700 in assets, once debts have been subtracted."

Averages are deceitful, especially when it comes to distribution of wealth. Some are dirt poor while others are stinking rich. 

Credit Suisse estimates that there are 84,500 Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) individuals worldwide with net assets exceeding USD 50 million each. North America dominates the regional ranking, with 40,000 UHNW residents (47%), while Europe hosts 22,000 individuals (26%), and 12,800 (15%) reside in Asia-Pacific countries, excluding China and India.


The enormous Indian middle class. really? 95% of the population in India have assets below 10,000 dollars.

First, it is even hard to comprehend how such a skewed distribution of wealth is at all possible. Second, it is astounding that there is not more attention to it, Third, I think is is absolutely clear that redistribution of wealth is  the easiest, the quickest and the most morally just approach to global poverty. Not the only approach of course;  over time it is essential that wealth creation is reaching everybody. But even to start that process presupposes that the dirt poor get access to resources, which equals wealth.


Read also:
Growing inequality, between people, between countries, between region, between urban and rural.
Who gave you your property?
The wealth Pyramid - a sign of poverty
And of course, I write a lot about this in Garden Earth. 


*Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook. – an in-depth project that offers investors the most
comprehensive study of world wealth, and which remains the only study that analyzes the wealth of all the world's 4.6 billion adults.