Originally Posted by Skybird

In statistics, a mean value alone is worth nothing. The question is not so much how much wealth there is if all is added together. The question is how it is distributed. Googling this, I found many statistics basing on data from 1983, 2001 and 2004. I just link to two of them.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesam...er/wealth.html

And this one I also give, I found the data it expresses and presents so clearly, being mirrored by more "academical" sites as well (or better said: the clear graphics in this linik mirrors their data).

http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/fac...ome&wealth.htm

Let's also mention that the majority of circulating dollars are outside the US, that the US is world record holder in national deficits, and that if China would decide to get rid of it'S dollar reserves this would be a doomsday scenario for the US as a global economical and financial actor. What we have seen two weeks ago was a very, very minor warning signal.

The increasing spreading between the rich and the poor is no exclusive US phenomenon. It is happening in Europe in general and Germany in special as well. On the global scale, some weeks ago the following formula circulated through world medias: the globe's top 1% of population owns more than 50% of the golobe's wealth. Whereas roughly the lower half (50%) of global population owns only 1% of the global wealth. This trend is increasing in contrast worldwide. Hardly a sign for a well-functioning system.