There has been much talk of the top “one percent”. It makes for great slogans, but putting the top 1% (whether by income or by wealth) into a single group is an over-simplification. When hearing about the “one-percent”, most people immediately think of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Carlos Slim. However, in a recent article about US millionaires, the Economist stated that the average millionaire drives a Ford. This apparent contradiction needs to be resolved.
Within the “one-percent” there is a distribution of incomes/wealth which approximates to a log-normal distribution i.e. increasingly fewer members the higher up the scale you go.
In fact, the top 1% can be divided into six distinct groups. Based on wealth, over and above their principal residence, these are:
- Slightly rich – 0.5 to 4 million
- Rich – 4 to 25 million
- Very Rich – 25 to 100 million
- Extremely rich – 100 to 750 million
- Filthy rich – 750 to 2500 million
- Obscenely Rich – over 2.5 billion
This is not a scientific division, and you can argue about the amounts. The currency also does not matter – US dollars, Euros, UK pounds, Canadian dollars or Australian dollars are all equivalent for this purpose.
The differences between these groups can be seen in the way they fly:
- Slightly rich – economy, or business class on rewards points
- Rich – business/first class
- Very Rich – rent private business jet
- Extremely rich – own private business jet
- Filthy rich – own commercial airliner
- Obscenely Rich – own Airbus A380
Def PNG after over sharing your lovely new blog with the office and VP. However my supervisors and coworkers were instantaneous in supporting my right to share. I was gob smacked at the reactions (oftentimes post shares to a tweet or 2). Re read blog ….did I miss something?
Regards.
Crumbs and detritus.
Under new management.