> All wealth groups saw gains over the past year, with the net worth of the bottom half of Americans increasing 6% over the past 12 months, according to the Fed data. Yet the growth has been fastest for those at the very top. The top 1% have seen their wealth increase by $4 trillion over the past year, an increase of 7%
I think the excessive use of absolute numbers in this article does the author and readers a disservice. It's like describing a chess game and saying "after five moves and fifty million possible games,..."
Yes, it's worth noting that the wealth at the top increased faster than the wealth at the bottom (7% > 6%). And it compounds so that alone can increase the wealth gap.
> excessive use of absolute numbers in this article
Especially as a "new record" threshold in nominal dollars.
"January 1st: Record for highest Gregorian calendar year smashed, with upstart 2026 snatching the title from former champ 2025! Our panel of experts analyzes what this completely unexpected shakeup means for Time, and how it may impact you and your family."
This headline formulation is statistical malpractice that news companies do to get clicks. It's defines a "record" that will get regularly broken by default even when nothing interesting changes.
What we should be tracking and concerned-about is the proportional distribution of the total wealth among groups, which the article touches upon here:
> The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth in the second quarter, compared with 28% in 2000.
> The top 10% held 67% of total household wealth in the quarter while the bottom 90% held 33%.
That's only because you're using broad strokes. If you look at the top 0.1% and the top 0.01% and the top 0.001% you'll see that as you go to the extreme end the share of the total household wealth does tend upwards. Please see my other post for some numbers.
I wonder what the numbers look like without stocks. On that front, the cognitive dissonance is kind of interesting. On one hand, people say that Elon Musk has 700 billion dollars and we should tax it to pay for free healthcare. On the other hand, people say that Tesla isn’t worth that much, and Elon didn’t create much value.
Like, both of those things can’t be true. If it’s fake money, why do we care that some people have a ton of it? If Tesla is only worth as much as GM, Musk’s share of it is only worth $11 billion, not $200 billion+. Even if you confiscate that it’ll run the federal government for less than a day.
For things like food and building materials for shelter, the world does produce enough for everyone with the willingness to give, only political dysfunction prevents the needy from receiving.
These sorts of quotes from Gandhi and other INC leaders would be more meaningful had the INC not embraced the economic system that kept a majority of Indians in destitute poverty for decades post independence. Meanwhile they castigated the system whose even partial adoption has managed to lift more indians from desperation.
"The wealth of the top 1% reaches a record $52 trillion ... The total wealth of the top 10% ... reached a record $113 trillion", so subtracting, the other 9% has $61 trillion.
"The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth in the second quarter ... The top 10% held 67% of total household wealth in the quarter...", so subtracting again, the other 9% has has 38% of total household wealth.
When the SV techbros in the top 10% say "eat the rich", they're volunteering themselves to be on the menu too. Don't let 'em say otherwise.
Perhaps but that $300k/yr tech bro is still making 6 times the median US individual income. It's actually ~$400k/yr for an ordinary L5 SWE at Google or SDE III at Amazon, or 8x the median US individual income. Surely they will be willing to contribute their fair share out of solidarity and, if not, the proletariat can knock on their door to remind them.
W2 employees do already contribute far more of their income vs the ownership class that has an array of loans, loopholes, and tax-advantaged accounts (all cap gains, for example) at their disposal.
Is that really saying much? Anyone have the shape of the distribution? I'm thinking many people have negative or close to zero net worth. If you have a dollar to your name, you might be richer than the bottom 48% of humanity combined.
It’s almost flat lining. I’m pleasantly surprised.
Despite the recent faster growth at the top, the total shares of wealth held by the upper echelon has remained fairly stable for decades. The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth in the second quarter, compared with 28% in 2000. The top 10% held 67% of total household wealth in the quarter while the bottom 90% held 33%.
I think this is just because wealth distribution is a powerlaw with extreme concentration at the far end. For example in this graph you can see a trend, the closer to the top, the steeper the line.
Well of course. Their wealth is a product of multiplication while mine is a sum of addition.
Can we reach the end state where they just have 100% and society collapses? It's just painful and frankly inhumane, to let this last part drag out for so long.
> All wealth groups saw gains over the past year, with the net worth of the bottom half of Americans increasing 6% over the past 12 months, according to the Fed data. Yet the growth has been fastest for those at the very top. The top 1% have seen their wealth increase by $4 trillion over the past year, an increase of 7%
I think the excessive use of absolute numbers in this article does the author and readers a disservice. It's like describing a chess game and saying "after five moves and fifty million possible games,..."
Yes, it's worth noting that the wealth at the top increased faster than the wealth at the bottom (7% > 6%). And it compounds so that alone can increase the wealth gap.
> excessive use of absolute numbers in this article
Especially as a "new record" threshold in nominal dollars.
"January 1st: Record for highest Gregorian calendar year smashed, with upstart 2026 snatching the title from former champ 2025! Our panel of experts analyzes what this completely unexpected shakeup means for Time, and how it may impact you and your family."
This headline formulation is statistical malpractice that news companies do to get clicks. It's defines a "record" that will get regularly broken by default even when nothing interesting changes.
What we should be tracking and concerned-about is the proportional distribution of the total wealth among groups, which the article touches upon here:
> The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth in the second quarter, compared with 28% in 2000.
> The top 10% held 67% of total household wealth in the quarter while the bottom 90% held 33%.
That's only because you're using broad strokes. If you look at the top 0.1% and the top 0.01% and the top 0.001% you'll see that as you go to the extreme end the share of the total household wealth does tend upwards. Please see my other post for some numbers.
I wonder if there could be a way to measure things like prosperity or civilization level.
like % of people with:
- a washing machine
- access to clean water
- more than one car or house
- measures of access to health care, mental health care, etc
I think there might be increases or declines most people don't realize
Isn't this HDI?
I wonder what the numbers look like without stocks. On that front, the cognitive dissonance is kind of interesting. On one hand, people say that Elon Musk has 700 billion dollars and we should tax it to pay for free healthcare. On the other hand, people say that Tesla isn’t worth that much, and Elon didn’t create much value.
Like, both of those things can’t be true. If it’s fake money, why do we care that some people have a ton of it? If Tesla is only worth as much as GM, Musk’s share of it is only worth $11 billion, not $200 billion+. Even if you confiscate that it’ll run the federal government for less than a day.
This world has enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed - Mahatma Gandhi
For things like food and building materials for shelter, the world does produce enough for everyone with the willingness to give, only political dysfunction prevents the needy from receiving.
These sorts of quotes from Gandhi and other INC leaders would be more meaningful had the INC not embraced the economic system that kept a majority of Indians in destitute poverty for decades post independence. Meanwhile they castigated the system whose even partial adoption has managed to lift more indians from desperation.
"The wealth of the top 1% reaches a record $52 trillion ... The total wealth of the top 10% ... reached a record $113 trillion", so subtracting, the other 9% has $61 trillion.
"The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth in the second quarter ... The top 10% held 67% of total household wealth in the quarter...", so subtracting again, the other 9% has has 38% of total household wealth.
When the SV techbros in the top 10% say "eat the rich", they're volunteering themselves to be on the menu too. Don't let 'em say otherwise.
A $300k/yr "tech bro" lives a life much closer to someone making $50k than someone making $50m
Perhaps but that $300k/yr tech bro is still making 6 times the median US individual income. It's actually ~$400k/yr for an ordinary L5 SWE at Google or SDE III at Amazon, or 8x the median US individual income. Surely they will be willing to contribute their fair share out of solidarity and, if not, the proletariat can knock on their door to remind them.
W2 employees do already contribute far more of their income vs the ownership class that has an array of loans, loopholes, and tax-advantaged accounts (all cap gains, for example) at their disposal.
That's approximately ~15.3M USD per person in the top 1% assuming 340 million americans
correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it just 1% of Americans, not globally?
You're 100% right, thanks! Updated my comment.
EDIT: Sorry, thought that was $15 million per American.
top 1%. So 52e12 / (0.01 * 340e6). I'm betting the mean and median are quite different.
Related:
Just 0.001% hold 3 times the wealth of poorest half of humanity, report finds
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46229346
This is the more important statistic!
Is that really saying much? Anyone have the shape of the distribution? I'm thinking many people have negative or close to zero net worth. If you have a dollar to your name, you might be richer than the bottom 48% of humanity combined.
It still has ways to go before it reaches Bastille levels
It’s almost flat lining. I’m pleasantly surprised.
Despite the recent faster growth at the top, the total shares of wealth held by the upper echelon has remained fairly stable for decades. The top 1% held 29% of total household wealth in the second quarter, compared with 28% in 2000. The top 10% held 67% of total household wealth in the quarter while the bottom 90% held 33%.
I think this is just because wealth distribution is a powerlaw with extreme concentration at the far end. For example in this graph you can see a trend, the closer to the top, the steeper the line.
https://imgur.com/a/6omRYu3
As an extreme case, let's look at the top 3 billionaires in 2000 and 2025 respectively.
2000 Gates, Ellison, Allen $135 billion vs. $42.0 trillion ≈0.32 %
2025 Musk, Ellison, Zuckerberg $957 billion vs. $172.9 trillion ≈0.55 %
I didn’t know that, I would’ve guessed we’re pretty close already. What would that level be?
The dollar is devaluing and the rich keep hard assets.
It seems there is a rule of thumb: the top 10% holds half of the assets.
It also seems to apply to spending too: "Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2%"Well of course. Their wealth is a product of multiplication while mine is a sum of addition.
Can we reach the end state where they just have 100% and society collapses? It's just painful and frankly inhumane, to let this last part drag out for so long.