Your “sad, depressing unless you’re a millionaire” video of the day.
How equal is the USA? Is it really 99% vs 1%? Actually, it’s more like 99.99% vs. .01%. This video from The Guardian’s datablog breaks down the numbers of rich vs poor. Like:
-the super rich - the top 0.01% of the population - own more of the national wealth now than at any time since 1929, just before the Great Depression. And the richest 1% of the US population? They own a third of US net worth.
- 1 in 6 Americans have no health insurance - 50 million people, a population twice the size of Texas (27m people). Of every 17 Americans, at least one will be earning below the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
- 14.5% of Americans households are defined as “food insecure”. That means for every seven households, one will have trouble putting enough food on the table
- If you earn between $100,000 and $200,000 you will be paying up to 25% effective tax rate - and that’s before payroll taxes kick in. The 400 richest tax returns surveyed by the IRS paid just 18.1% in 2008.
Yup, the numbers aren’t pretty. So, grab your anti-depressants (unless you’re in Rich category) and press play. Happy Thursday!
-baierman
