• grue@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    FYI (and I expect to be downvoted because y’all don’t want to hear this), but when an article talks about the “global 1%” it’s probably talking about YOU.

    Yes, you. And me. And probably most of the people reading this, who live in the US or another Western country and consider themselves “middle class.” WE are the global 1%.

    From https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2023/9/15/23874111/charity-philanthropy-americans-global-rich :

    If you earn $60,000 a year after tax and you don’t have kids, you’re in the richest 1 percent of the world’s population.

    Also, if you prefer to measure by wealth instead of income, that’s lower than you think, too. I’m having trouble finding a more recent figure, but as of 2018, the threshold to be considered global 1% in terms of net worth was only $871,320. No, didn’t typo: it really is only hundreds of thousands, not millions or billions.


    (The billionaires are more like the 0.01%.)

    • mako@lemmy.today
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      9 months ago

      But what’s your point? Are people making $60k/year causing world hunger through artificial scarcity or is it the greed and mental illness of the capitalist class?

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The math doesn’t even math though. It’s 80 million people, globally. Are we to believe no other country contributes to this number? The entire rest of the “Western world” doesn’t contribute at all?