World is home to more than 10 million millionaires acorrding to CNN.com

[musicblind]

The number of people around the world with at least $1 million in assets passed 10 million for the first time last year, according to a report. And their bank accounts are growing even faster.

The combined wealth of the globe's millionaires grew to nearly $41 trillion last year, an increase of 9 percent from a year before, Merrill Lynch & Co. and consulting firm Capgemini Group said Tuesday.

The United States still reigns supreme when it comes to fat wallets, though: One in every three millionaires in the world lives in America. Combined, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America account for one in 10.

The rarefied group of the superrich -- those with at least $30 million in assets -- got richer, too. There were 103,000 of them around the world last year, 9 percent more than the year before, and their wealth grew by nearly 15 percent.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/24/world.wealth.ap/index.html




You know, I find it fascinating how we are getting more and more millions, yet a big part of that is because of the decrease in the value of the dollar. Then on the other hand, we have so many people living in poverty :(

I wonder how many of the "superrich" live in America? I wonder how many billionaires live in America?

[Divine Discontent]

1. there are some great people who use their wealth for good

but they're clearly few and far between... could you imagine if 100,000 people with $30 million+ to their name actually gave half of that vast mega-wealth to charities that build homes, feed, clothe and medicate those in need?

[B.S. Lewis]

2. The question is why should anyone be given the legal right

to horde wealth and *not* use it for good.

[Divine Discontent]

3. ah...

that is a valid point that the far-right calls socialism, but it's morally criminal to have so much, drive one of your 10 1/4 million dollar cars, go to one of your mansions each week, and have 1 billion in the bank - and not lift a finger to try and help solve the world's problems and ease the suffering you see around you.

We all must answer for our choices, I believe, and shameful is the person who would do as you point out...

[B.S. Lewis]

5. Well, it is

socialism, insofar as it advocates using productive wealth to meet need rather than make profit.

There are degrees of socialism. It doesn't have to mean taking away the small businessman's corner store. And I think use of the word as a general bogeyman is declining in its effectiveness. I'm actually pretty hopeful that the fall of entrenched "socialist" states, primarily the Soviet Union, will allow for a lot more independent thinking about socialism vs. capitalism that doesn't follow any specific political line.

IOW, now that the USSR has fallen, socialism is an idea whose time has come. :)

[Dover]

4. And at today's rates, a million dollars is probably worth about half as much.

But then all our dollars devalued.

[Hannah Bell]

6. To put this in perspective, if you own a large business in a

small town, you'll generally have a million in assets, excluding your residence.

This group of people has pretty much the same social position they did 40 years ago; the "millionaire" designation is the result of inflation.

In some ways, they may even be more insecure than they were 4o yrs ago.

PS: i know 3 millionaires personally & intimately, and i am strictly lower middle-class.

[Selatius]

7. These people are ants trying to be gods. The real rulers are the billionaires.

The ones who have net worths in the hundreds of millions to the tens of billions of dollars are the ones who decide war and peace, prosperity and poverty, and freedom and tyranny.

For most of the over six billion humans in this world, their fate has been relegated to poverty, war, and tyranny.