According to this site, whose veracity I will not vouch for, an annual salary of $47,500 per year will get you in the worldwide top 1%. That sounds about right to me.
edit: Beaten to the punch.
Who
holds
back
the electric
car
who makes
Steve Gutenberg
a
star
Another source on income distribution - much more dated than globalrichlist but with well documented methodology from the World Bank:
http://129.3.20.41/eps/hew/papers/0305/0305002.pdf (Yes, it’s a pdf).
In 1993, an income of $24447.1 (PPP) per individual was required to enter the top 1%. Depending on household size, that puts a large segment of the American middle class in the top 1%. The 1993 median household income was around $43,000, and the US average household size is around 2.6 (2000 figure). That suggests that about 50% of the US population in 1993 had an individual income of at least $16,500. Not enough for top 1% globally, but easily enough for top 5% globally ($13240.7).
We have met the man, and he is us.
That’s about 70,000,000 people. Not what I’d call an exclusive club. I suspect most people posting on this MB are in it.
WE DO!..WE DO! (Swings his tankard)
Seriously though, If you don’t have a child, a 50k income for a couple is a very high standard of living. To maintain all bills, and a nice standard of living costs about 30k a year in most parts of the US (big cities excepted) that leaves nearly 20K a year in pleasure money. That standard is way way above anything in the developing or third world. All you have to do to be happy is accept a good, rather than lavish standard.
As an example: AcidHouse made about 28K jointly last year. We own two nice cars, bought a motorcycle outright, took two international trips, eat well, undertook some fun but rather expensive hobby projects and is currently bankrolling a move of household. We aren’t hurting either. You don’t need loads of cash and expensive shit to be happy. You just have to be content with not having it all.
Okay, so what percentage of the planet’s population are in the billion pound sterling asset class?
These are the people with the most money, influence and potential to cause harm in their quest for for what are barely imaginable riches to the average man on the street.
…we put our pants on one leg at a time, like everyone else :D. It’s the top 0.01% that you should worry about - they’re the ones that get lackeys to sew their pants on around them.
No, really, those of us in the 99-99***.1*** percentile are still quite far from the real power of those in the 99***.9+*** percentile. We just get better seats and sometimes the first drink free 
Some people are just good at dealing with how the system functions and can succesfully achieve or maintain a position atop said system, IF they have, or can obtain, the resources to get into play. Some get it fair and square, some through irregular means, but the guys in charge have sought to keep themselves (or folks like themselves) in charge since the time of Gilgamesh. It’s not news.
Just for the record, according to World Bank figures (admittedly based on late 1990s data), to be in the top 1% of worldwide wage earners, you need to be making…
$47,500!
http://www.globalrichlist.com/how.html
Methinks your rant is entirely too broadly focused: my renting, hundred-thousand-miles on one car, other one isn’t getting any newer, has a family to support ass is in fact in the top 0.9%.
EDIT: man this thread is moving fast for me. =P
According to the same cite I just posted, that’s the top 0.001%. About a hundred thousand people, give or take.
Now, a lot of these folks are likely to be worthless, not disputing that. Just keep in mind that most people in the US and Britain are just as unimaginably wealthy from the perspective of the third world as those billionaires are to you.
Yes, but unless people go showing them what they are missing, they wouldn’t know any different. Those of us who live in the civilised world with access to tv’s, have to ignore it consciously, which takes far more effort, and has a far more demoralising effect. On some.
Hell, I’ve heard folks ranting about the Man for decades and still, nobody does anything about it. It’s almost as if the top 1% is somehow too satisfied and comfortable to hear the complaints …
My feeling is, if you have a computer, internet access and free time to complain you are already living large.
This is just to say
I have beaten down
the impoverished
that were in
the developing countries
and which
you were incoherently
ranting about
on the Dope.
Forgive me
they were so desperate
so poor
and I’m a self-centered American.
If I hear
one more person
whining about
the under-privileged,
and the needy
I’m going
to go out
and get a
Kentucky Bucket.
I
have no
idea what a
Kentucky Bucket is
so I’m going to have to
act real cool and pretend that
I knew what it was all along and
hope that you are all fooled and I look
suave in my knowledge of slang. I hope no one
looks too closely at this cheap facade or else people may
realize that I have no idea what I am talking about or that I am
not really making any sense whatsoever. I know what I’ll
do! Maybe if I adopt an absurd posting style, and
do my best to mask my ignorance in banal
insults and other troll-like mannerisms
people will look past my dull wit
and think of me as someone
with character. That way
I can compensate for
my utter lack of
ability.
and
shit.
You ever hear of Communism?
Until very recently the ruling class never even pretended that the poor could one day be rich.
Because people have seen how communism works out for everyone?
… and shit.
I don’t know what we’re YELLING about!
Nah, high school junior who has just discovered a socialist or communist pamphlet from the 1960s or earlier.
Notice how all his posts run down the page in a sort of odd attempt to look like free verse? Definitely younger.
Let’s make it clear. We are talking about net liquid worth. Pure discretionary income devoted to never having to produce beyond beneficial parasitism (good jobs and income) to its subjects.
What they need to do is get is that there ain’t no average.