At my earnings peak over the last ten years, I hit the top 1% - and I didn't crack 6 figures.

In my business start-up mode, primarily dependent upon my wife's salary this year, I still make it into the top ten percent.

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You are in the top 0.881% richest people in the world.

There are 5,947,111,293 people poorer than you.

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I thought of this from Matthew 25....

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41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

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2000 23.62%

3000 14.92%

5,000 puts you at 14.59%

10,000 is 13.77%

15,000 is 12.95%

I knew a woman once who told me that people on welfare in Canada are "middle class" because compared to people in Senegal, they are "rich".

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You are in the top 6.97% richest people in the world. There are 5,581,433,823 people poorer than you.

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Mm hmm. And how much does it cost to live and function in our society, as opposed to in a third world country?

I knew a woman once who told me that people on welfare in Canada are "middle class" because compared to people in Senegal, they are "rich".

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While its quite true that it is more expensive to live in the "developed countries", I think that the site is a good reminder of how well we live in comparison to those in the third world.

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Originally posted by radiorahim:

While its quite true that it is more expensive to live in the "developed countries", I think that the site is a good reminder of how well we live in comparison to those in the third world.

In this country we take (relatively) clean water coming out of the tap in our homes for granted. Something as simple as this is a daily struggle in many parts of the world.

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... and compare yourself with the rest of the world.

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If you are earning less than $90 a year it¹d be unfair to ask you to donate money to Care International, if however, you actually earn more than this it may be worth re-calculating your position

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Of course this doesn't differentiate between people in any given country. There are rich people in Sudan and Bangladesh, and poor people in Canada and the US.

Here's a place listing oil consumption per capita for a number of countries and continents.

While there are anomalies, such as Singapore which uses almost twice as much per capita than the US (highly industrialized, small population), the averages by continent are telling

http://tinyurl.com/6q5an

N. America = 55.28 bbls/day per 1000 pop.

Europe = 32.76 bbls/day per 1000

S. America = 10.89 bbls/day per 1000

Asia = 5.27 bbls/day per 1000

Africa = 3.97 bbls/day per 1000

In that humans are energy consuming organisms, it seems clear to me that those who consume the greatest amount of energy are the wealthiest.

But, like others have pointed out, I also live in a country and a region where I have to pay a lot for my food, my shelter, my transportation, etc.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
Exactly, Steve N. When people start pulling this whole, "Hey, minimum wage slave! You're richer than the King of Outer Slobovia when you do the currency exchange," it doesn't make me think, "Aww, how progressive, and gee, that really made me think." I think, "This was probably made by some right-wing creep who wants to make people living below the poverty line in countries like Canada and the US feel bad for even dreaming of complaining."

The TRULY rich would just love for us working stiffs to believe this crap.

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You are in the top 13.77% richest people in the world.
There are 5,173,247,089 people poorer than you.
How do you feel about that? A bit richer we hope. Please consider donating just a small amount to help some of the poorest people in the world. Many of their lives could be improved dramatically or even saved if you donate just one hour's salary (approx $6.94)

Oh, and in case you’re interested you are the 826,752,911 richest person in the world.

Expected income in 10 years from now

You are in the top 0.288% richest people in the world.
There are 5,982,660,435 people poorer than you.
How do you feel about that? A bit richer we hope. Please consider donating just a small amount to help some of the poorest people in the world. Many of their lives could be improved dramatically or even saved if you donate just one hour's salary (approx $138.88)

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Exactly, Steve N. When people start pulling this whole, "Hey, minimum wage slave! You're richer than the King of Outer Slobovia when you do the currency exchange," it doesn't make me think, "Aww, how progressive, and gee, that really made me think." I think, "This was probably made by some right-wing creep who wants to make people living below the poverty line in countries like Canada and the US feel bad for even dreaming of complaining."
The TRULY rich would just love for us working stiffs to believe this crap.

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I think it is apparent from your argument that you have very little idea what it is like in the rest of the world. Although it is important not to lessen the idea of poorness here in Canada it is tremendously important to realize how wealthy our country is.

A better way of observing this gap is examining our "ecological footprint".

Here!!!

[ 25 November 2004: Message edited by: Le Téléspectateur ]

Comon link work!!!

[ 25 November 2004: Message edited by: Le Téléspectateur ]

[ 25 November 2004: Message edited by: Le Téléspectateur ]

[ 25 November 2004: Message edited by: Le Téléspectateur ]

And I am obscenely glad that you reminded me of the current use of dogs as pets. As expensive company and a symbol of wholesomeness. My family keeps two rescued greyhounds, which are lovely animals. But it seems that designer breeds, etc. are just that extension of wealth that arose during the Colonial period, when dogs stopped being effective tools with personalities into being completely used for accompaniment. They are a luxury that so few people in the world can really afford. Again, the oddities of the things that we take for granted.

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Originally posted by clersal:

We must compare ourselves with the rest of Canada not the world. Too many differences. How about the homeless when the temperature is -20C? How do they compare?

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Originally posted by ReeferMadness:
So, you expect to go from minimum wage to $200K in 10 years?

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Exactly.

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Originally posted by Lard tunderin' jeesus:
....yet another entrepreneurial 'self-made-man' in the making.

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Entrepreneurial, you bet. Like my Father, I love bussiness.

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Originally posted by dillinger:
... who will probably have the gall to wax nostalgic about how he pulled himself up by his bootstraps above us mere mortals and so really deserves that SUV and giant house as compensation for his brilliance.

although hopefully we will have socialism by then and have liquidated our ruling class so we won't have to listen to such twadle.

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I sense jealousy in your post. Also, you judge me by knowing very little about me. Lame.

Sorry to proove you wrong, but I am a very humble person , altough I take no shit from nobody , so I dont consider myself to be above or under anyone. It is my firm belief than all human beings are equal from conception to death no matter what.

Also, I have no interest in cars - Im 21 and I dont even have my license yet - and will drive as less as possible. I like to walk and take my time.

As for my future house, I dont know if it could be considered giant. I intend to move near the bar once my finances permit me to do it and the sector close to it is middle class with a lot of blue collars.

There may be people out there poorer than I am, but considering I'm 4k below the poverty line, and if it weren't for some very good decisions and a lot of self-control, I wouldn't be able to feed myself or keep myself sheltered, I don't think that matters.

Perhaps there are people who are poorer on an absolute scale than I am, but I can tell you right now that it's a sliding scale.

The 7k I'm living on this year would be enough to make me a god in some slightly poorer countries. I'm not there though. I'm in Canada.

Over half the population of the world couldn't pay my rent here each month ALONE(even counting for the split between three people, making it extremely cheap by canadian standards) if they dedicated their entire annual paycheques to it. This isn't talking about heat, or food, or electricity, or water, or anything else, this is just my rent.

50% of the world obviously doesn't have to pay the same sort of money to get shelter, because otherwise they'd be on the street. 50% obviously don't have to pay the same amount for food, or they'd be dead. 50 percent doesn't pay the same for water, or electricity(yeah, I know, it's a luxury, whatever), or heat(which isn't -- without it in this country, YOU DIE), or any one of those other things that I'm paying for each month. In all, I wouldn't be suprised if my bills added up to more than a quarter of people on earth could afford in a year.

If all things were equal, fifty percent of people would be dead, and at around 25% of people would be very very dead.

By the way, Conservative, you mean "envy", not jealously. Guess you haven't read enough Babs and Conrad (pre-débâcle, that is)

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Obviously, all things are not equal. I won't carry any shame in not being even more poverty-stricken than I am. Sorry.

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Ditto, I think the poverty line is a good bench mark to use because expenses and wealth are relative to the country. Yes, we could like like kings in another country but we wouldn't earn what we do in another country either, so we'd be right where we are.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
Exactly, Steve N. When people start pulling this whole, "Hey, minimum wage slave! You're richer than the King of Outer Slobovia when you do the currency exchange," it doesn't make me think, "Aww, how progressive, and gee, that really made me think." I think, "This was probably made by some right-wing creep who wants to make people living below the poverty line in countries like Canada and the US feel bad for even dreaming of complaining."

The TRULY rich would just love for us working stiffs to believe this crap.

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Then again, another rightwinger may take this further. "I'll get the poor and working class people in the rich countries all outraged, and then have them talk about 'relative' wealth by country. Then they'll come to think that the slave wages in the South aren't so bad, relatively, after all."

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It is my firm belief than all human beings are equal from conception to death no matter what.

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Well, obviously not everybody believes that; if they did, there'd be no one dying because they couldn't afford clean water. As long as the world treats certain people as less worthy of a stable, safe life, they are going to need more help "get off the ground" than people who are treated as "equals"; that whole 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' concept rarely works in places with no social security net.

I think that, as far as Canada goes, though, I think that my conversation with my dad sums it up.

me- dad, can i borrow some money for bills?
dad- no, you should be better at saving. i just bought a house and needed to replace the engine in my car.
me- please? i had to move out of my last house, so my rent went up and my budget got a lot tighter.
dad- no, i can't afford it.

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Originally posted by Amy:

I think that there is a basic misunderstanding in regards to what "being able to afford it" is. He and his wife have about 6 times as much money per year as my partner and I do, but they opt for 2 cars, a suburban house, regular holidays to exotic locations, etc. I can't afford most of the things he says are essential, and there are a lot of people who can't afford what i consider essential (eg: house heating).

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Well said Amy,

Someone told me a while back that in Canada that the formula for the poverty line included having a TV as a "necessity"! This, an electronic consumable that typically costs more than then the average yearly wage of your average Vietnamese (~200 USD).

It seems to me that there's a slight problem with the website in how it calculates rich-ness: how rich you are right now technically depends on how much money you have (a stock), not on how much your earn over a set period of time (a flow).

For example, if I had $100,000,000 and filled up a swimming pool with but had no job at the same time, I'd be fabulously rich but yet have an income of zero and be poor according to the website. Of course, that's a moot point for most of us who depend on our income to feed ourselves, our income is a rough guide to comparative wealth.

As someone mentioned above, the website is also simplistic in that it reduces wealth to a currency-only measure. Things such as access to resources in the form of family or community, education, safety from risk (such as crime, starvation, war, disease, natural disaster, unemployment - some of which may be offset by existing social programs or supports), and others should be included in a true measure of how rich one is.

I think one good thing about the website is that it does take into consideration that wealth is relative. While there are absolutes of course (there are absolute minimums of wealth that humans require to live healthy lives), wealth is also a distributional issue (a point that right-wingers always try to downplay).

While there are, undoubtedly, many problems with simple money-income measures of "standard of living", especially using market exchange rates for global comparisons, we should all be wary lest we "doth protest too much". Canada is "so expensive to live in" primarily because the normative standard of living is so high - it costs a lot to live as high on the hog as we consider normal.

Putting things in another perspective, global GNI/capita is US$5500. Were we to *poof!* have absolute equality of incomes across the planet, for everybody, that's (in principle) what it would be. That level puts one, currently, at the top 14.23%.

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Originally posted by Québec Conservative:

I sense jealousy in your post. Also, you judge me by knowing very little about me. Lame.

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You are in the top 48% in the world.