exnavynuke
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
I'm not in the top 1%. I wouldn't mind the money, as then I'd be able to save so much more and FIRE sooner, but I'm not chasing new, higher paying jobs these days.
Maybe not ready to retire yet. RE demands a balance between employment earnings and net worth.
I still struggle with the idea that because others are doing better than you that is somehow harms you. I just don't "feel" harmed, and my experience indicates no harm to me. The conclusion of the study is that the top 1% are doing better at the expense of everyone else, rather than just stating they had more gains. Like it is a zero sum game.
I click on these threads and polls dealing with comparisons, even though I know better.
They are fiscal empty calories, providing some momentary guilty pleasure but making not a whisker's difference to my own situation.
Whether I'm in the top X% or the bottom X% shouldn't matter. I'm not living anybody else's life, so what they do and what they have is their business, not mine.
But on the other hand, there are policy implications, like taxation and benefits. Everyone wants to tax "the rich" but so there's a need to look at stats to help define.
Gotta move to Rio Grande City, TX and then 122K gets ya in the top 1% of income earners.
But, why look at just America? Let's be "world citizens" for a moment.
To be in the top 1% of the world, you need:
1) an income of $32,400
2) a net worth of $770,000
That's the top 1%. Nearly everyone living in the US is quite well off (materially) by world standards and certainly by historical standards.
Do we feel better now? Honestly, I don't. To think that the majority of the world still lives in abject poverty is not much to smile about. The median net worth for adults worldwide is $3,582. That's how much it takes to be doing better than most people. In Africa, it is $438.
The good news is that wealth and living standards in some of the world's poorest places are improving.
Note, these figures were from a few years ago.
Rich is anybody who can afford stuff I can't