More Millionaires In The World

The world seems to be getting both more jealous and resentful toward  millionaires as the numbers of them increase each year. Face it. Being a millionaire is not such a big deal anymore.  It's too common now. Perhaps today's millionaire is yesterday's upper middle class. The billionaire class is now the class to which the non billionaires aspire.  And this phenomenon of the very year growing in number while the very poor also grows in inverse is accounted for by the changing economy, the technological explosion, by governments shifting to less regulated capitalism (especially in former communist nations, newly morphed into capitalist dictatorships). I think it a normal evolution and not a bad thing, for having more millionaires does not imply that their creation was at the expense of the non millionaire classes. Wealth usually comes from production, not from the hands of the poor.

According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group's Global Wealth report the world added 2.6 million millionaire households last year, showing that the rich are getting richer and far more numerous. It defines millionaire household wealth as "invisible assets"—cash, deposits and securities. That doesn't include assets like real estate, business ownership, collectibles and luxury goods. The total number of millionaire households in the world rose 19% last year, to 16.3 million households. And no, China doesn't have the most millionaires. The United States added the most millionaire households and has the highest total, with a gain of 1.1 million households last year. That brings the total to 7.135 million, which is almost 45% of the world total. China's millionaire population grew to 2.4 million last year from 1.5 million in 2012. But Japan's millionaire population fell by 300,000 to 1.2 million last year, an indication of the decline an d fall of the Japanese economy the past few years.

Qatar, which is awash in oil, had the highest density of millionaire. I may move to Qatar because 175 out of every 1,000 households in Qatar are millionaires. Switzerland ranked second in millionaire density  at 127 per 1,000 households, followed by Singapore with 100 for every 1,000 households. But both of those countries are so dull I would prefer to live and be poor elsewhere. The U.S. also had the most of something called the most centi-millionaires (those worth $100 million or more), with 4,754 households. But Hong Kong had the highest density of centi-millionaires, with 16.8 per 1,000 households.

We always hear how the world's population is becoming poorer, but the report says that global financial wealth in the world rose 14.6% last year, to $152 trillion—nearly double the rate of growth in 2012. Problem is, much of that growth is in the hands of the small class of wealthy,  not with the common man and women. Yet, capitalism, which has spread to countries once a in combat with it, tends to distribute wealth unequally. The nature of capitalism is a survival of the fittest concept, leaving quite a few "losers" mired in poverty,  Stocks were the biggest driver of global wealth last year, the report said, with the total wealth held increasing by 28%. As we know, the lower economic classes rarely can afford to or want to buy stocks.

With the rise in the millionaire class some politicians, as President Obama does, will try to exploit the increase by demonizing "the wealthy" in order to win votes in elections. In the U.S. President Obama won election twice and has divided the population between haves and have nots, largely by demonizing the wealthy, blaming them for the nation's problems, and promising to take away some of their wealth and redistribute it among "the poor".  But most voters are sophisticated enough to see the phoniness of that philosophy, and will ultimately reject the rob from the rich to give to the poor theory. Thus, the prospect for even more millionaires in the future is good. If you become, you better beware, one we may be after your money soon..