The 1%-ers, By Country

If you listen to the socialists, progressives, and Democrats in the U.S., the rich own way too much of the nation’s wealth. Capitalism gets the blame, but does such capitalism really matter? I will try to limit statistics, as they tend to be boring, though necessary to make a point.

It won’t surprise too many people that the Top 1% in the U.S. own 35% of the wealth. [defined as assets minus debts]. What may be surprising is this: as a percentage of a nation’s wealth, at least twenty-four (24) other countries outpace the U.S. in percentage of wealth held by the Top 1%. Not all countries were calculated.

Those countries include: South Africa (55%), Columbia (46%), Mexico (45%), Brazil (44%), Turkey (42%), and others such as Uruguay, Congo, Syria, and Zambia. In fact, the world average is 36% - just a fraction over the United State’s percentage. Even Venezuela’s and Iran’s Top 1% hold more than 32% of their nation’s wealth.

The lowest percentages belong to countries such as Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, and Croatia. For those living in the U.S., ponder this – “How often do you ever read a ‘Made in …” label listing any of those countries? Personally, I’m not sure I ever have. Everything is made in China (30%), Vietnam (25%), or the aforementioned Mexico.

Just how much wealth does it take to make the Top 1% in the United States? The Top 1% tag generally is associated with billionaires and mega-millionaires. However, in the U.S., it only took $5.8 million of wealth to make the list. Democratic-socialist Sweden wasn’t very far behind at $4.8 million. If you work for any mid-to-large company in the U.S., your head honcho, who’s providing you with a job, has a good chance of being on that list. Taking his/her wealth away is a good way to say you don’t appreciate that person providing you the opportunity to make a living.

No discussion of the Top 1% is complete without mentioning the bottom 50%. Allegedly, in the U.S., the bottom 50% have a per capita wealth of just $9,000 as of early 2024. I find this extremely hard to believe. The average price of a used car is almost 3x that much, so just owning a vehicle should put virtually everyone over that amount. In Canada and France, the average wealth of the bottom half is around $30K, Italy and China around $15k, and Mexico is at a mere $3k. [Note: all bottom 50% stats were adjusted by the source for purchasing power in each nation].

Maybe we need to redefine expectations of wealth. Three-fourths of U.S. households have a clothes dryer, meaning at least half of the bottom half have one – which matches Europe’s entire population. Less than 10% of U.S. households lack some type of air-conditioning, even if it’s just a window unit. In Spain (latitude the same as Pennsylvania down through North Carolina), that figure is around 30%. American whiners fail to realize we aren’t as bad off as politicos would have us believe.

Sources used: ourworldindata.org and visualcapitalist.com