The Richest 1% in the World

For what it’s worth, I am not one of the richest 1%.

That is also one of the ten stupidest objections to the Occupy Wall Street Movement: http://www.leftycartoons.com/

The problem with the concept of a “middle class” is that there’s more than one definition of it. One might define “middle class” as defined here, i.e. from an economic/arithmetic point of view. But most people don’t.

Most people define “middle class” from a socio-economic point of view (“the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class”, per Wikipedia). But the term “middle class” also has such strong connotations that I’ve seen analysts define it based on what people in the middle class SHOULD be able to afford (i.e. exactly what Mr. Milanovic says the true global middle class CAN’T afford) — by which definition there is no such thing as a middle class in many African countries, for instance.

Mr. Milanovic is an economist, so it makes sense for him to analyze this from a strictly economical point of view (and the results are genuinely interesting regardless of anything else), but don’t let this change your definition of the middle class, because most people don’t use a strictly economic definition anyway.

That $34,000 is deceptively worded. It isn’t just per person in the household… it’s also after taxes. At first glance I was surprised that so few of the 1% were in the United States.