So there's rich, and then there's super rich. I recently read an article in the WSJ about the top 400 taxpayers based on income. Pretty incredible statistics. Those top 400, or what they call the "Fortunate 400", pulled in $85.6 billion in income in 2005. That's over $200 million each ... in one year! Here's a quick graphic to drive that home:
Very impressive. There's all the obvious jaw-dropping statistics to go with that. For instance, to make the cut to be in the 400 you had to pull in at least $100 million. With an average of $200 million, that means there's people pulling in well over that number. Obviously, quite crazy numbers, and generally speaking not necessarily anything to be concerned about. I'm all for capitalism. But one of the more disheartening statistics was that adjusting for inflation, the minimum income to make the cutoff into the Fortunate 400 has nearly tripled since 1992. That's probably not a good sign as I imagine that has not been the case for the lower or middle class. But, there is still hope. The only possible silver lining on this is the following (here's an excerpt from the article):
Very impressive. There's all the obvious jaw-dropping statistics to go with that. For instance, to make the cut to be in the 400 you had to pull in at least $100 million. With an average of $200 million, that means there's people pulling in well over that number. Obviously, quite crazy numbers, and generally speaking not necessarily anything to be concerned about. I'm all for capitalism. But one of the more disheartening statistics was that adjusting for inflation, the minimum income to make the cutoff into the Fortunate 400 has nearly tripled since 1992. That's probably not a good sign as I imagine that has not been the case for the lower or middle class. But, there is still hope. The only possible silver lining on this is the following (here's an excerpt from the article):
The IRS analysis updates a report issued five years ago that drew widespread attention. In that report, which focused on the years 1992-2000, the IRS noted that the members of the club of 400 varied widely from year to year. During those years, a total of 3,600 returns were identified. Of those who appeared in that group, less than 25% appeared more than once, and less than 13% appeared more than twice, the IRS said. Thus, the data shown in that study represented "a changing group of taxpayers over time, rather than a fixed group of taxpayers," the agency said.At least there's churn in that group. That's certainly a good sign that there is at least some income mobility amongst the super rich. Kind of reinforces a previous post I had several months back about income mobility.
Comments