I keep hearing the lie that the bottom 5% of the US richer than 68% of the rest of the world.

[Sub Atomic]

I know. I know. It's bullshit.

But I'm curious: are there any numbers that compare the top 1% in the US to the rest of the world?

How many countries' entire wealth is less than the accumulated wealth at the top of ours?

[Scuba]

1. And why would it matter?

[Sub Atomic]

2. Why? I've found that if I counter absurdity with actual facts and real numbers, the trolls run away

Funny how exposing their bullshit for what it is makes them scurry away like cockroaches exposed to the light.

[pipi_k]

3. Just wondering...

I've been looking for facts on the percentage of Americans who are actually more poor than most of the world...

could you point them out? Thanks!

[Sub Atomic]

7. Honestly I can't even find numbers that claim what I wrote in the OP.

I fling poo on another board with many of those afflicted in the head (aka Teabaggers).

The 'US poor are really rich!' meme has run for years and years. I've never seen where they come up with their numbers but I'd really like to know how those numbers play out the other way as well.

If the richest 1% are collectively richer than 80% of the world, how is that not a liberal talking point? (Caveat: this number was pulled out of my ass, much like I believe the right did with their 68%).

[pipi_k]

13. Oh, I see...

Well then. Isn't it a bit disingenuous to run around exposing "lies" with faux rage over things that can't be proven?


The truth of it is, according to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty

that the entire North American continent consists of LESS THAN 2% of people who make less than $1.00 per day.

Check out the numbers for many of the countries in Africa. Check out India.


Even the homeless in this country are better off than many people in Africa. We have shelters for people to go to. Food banks. The Salvation Army. Churches that donate food and clothing (albeit with the price of having to listen to sermons). More than one doctor per every 5,000 people.

Which is not to say that being poor in the US is a happy life. But when was the last time you saw a thousand children, all in one area in the US, with running sores, bloated belly, and covered with flies?

THAT is poverty.

[Gormy Cuss]

17. No, that is destitution.

Even your link points out that the definition of poverty for developed countries is relative and that's why we tend to cite Gini coefficients rather than absolute poverty measures.

Frankly, it's pretty scary that up to 2% of Americans are destitute.

[OnlinePoker]

5. This is from a wiki article on International Inequality

Some of the economic disparities among nations can be better appreciated when rich and poor countries or societies are contrasted. For example, with regard to income inequality, according to some estimates by Branko Milanovic from the World Bank:

"An American having the average income of the bottom US decile is better-off than 2/3 of world population." (Milanovic 2002, p. 50)
"The top 10 percent of the US population has an aggregate income equal to income of the poorest 43 percent of people in the world, or differently put, total income of the richest 25 million Americans is equal to total income of almost 2 billion people." (Milanovic 2002, p. 50)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_inequality

This is probably where the figure comes from, though I haven't looked at the original Milanovic source to see what standards he's using for his comparison (income, food and housing availability, sanitation, health access can all be factors). I think that the growth in Asia since 2002 might have shifted the numbers somewhat.

[Sub Atomic]

8. Thank you for posting this.

[Scuba]

16. I'm still wondering why it matters? If you starve in a month in Somalia or in a year ...

... in Slidell Louisiana, what's the difference? Your still dead, a victim of poverty.


The point is, there is ample wealth in this country to care for ALL or our citizens and more.

[KurtNYC]

4. turn off Fox News

problem solved

[fascisthunter]

6. who cares? Even if it were so, are they that audacious to think we should not want better

while they themselves are the most greedy self-centered pricks in the World. These people are an Orwellian wet dream... fucking dumb and crazy.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. it is absolutely true that outside of the west and a few other wealthy places most of the world does

live in abject poverty. It would be pointless to and delusional to deny this. Anyone who has traveled into the third world is more than well aware of the incredible gap between the west and a few other wealthy countries and how the vast overwhelming majority of humanity does indeed live.

However, out of 137 countries _ the Quality of Life Index for 2011 ranks the USA at Number 31 for overall quality of life, # 20 for wealth, # 39 for health, # 15 for level of democracy, and # 22 for Education



http://nationranking.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/2011-qli/


.

[ChazII]

14. Thanks for sharing this. n/t

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. Richer in what sense?

In terms of earnings, possibly.

But that fails to account for our cost of living. Some of the poorest of our poor might earn enough to live in a hut with a thatch roof and dirt floors - but we largely prohibit folks from living in such conditions. We'll make these folks homeless. And then we'll force them to move along in an efforts to get them to go elsewhere.

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. +1. nt.

[Iggo]

11. ...and spreading it, too.

Thanks.

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. 25% of US households have negative net worth. Their wealth is less than zero.

[applegrove]

18. Obviously if most poor people in the world are living on $500 a year and that

is one month's rent in the USA then the poor in the US are better off than the poor in the less developed nations. What is the point?

[Zywiec]

19. Here you can compare your income with the rest of the world

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

How do you measure up?

[redgiant]

20. That's not hard to believe at all

There are too many millions of really poor Americans.

But, there are billions of really, really poor globally. If the 68% figure is too high, I bet it's not by much.

[quaker bill]

21. What question does this answer?

Our poor "have it too easy"?

Would the country actually be better off if the poor scavenged at trash dumps, as is not uncommon elsewhere?

Where are they going with this logic? Is it a place that even they would want to live in? Really?

I don't actually think so. I just don't think they know what they are begging for and they have no clue just how close they are to becoming one of the poor.

Once you have actually met and worked with really poor people, it becomes suprising just how little separates many of them from the rest of us. They are not as different as most seem to think.