Number of millionaires in U.S. reaches a new high

[Newsjock]

Source: Los Angeles Times

There are more millionaires in the United States than ever before. The number of households with net worth of $1 million or more, excluding their homes, is at a record 9.63 million, according to a new report.

That eclipses the old mark of 9.2 million in 2007 before the global financial crisis, according to the Spectrem Group research firm. The tally of millionaires slipped to 6.7 million in 2008 as the financial crisis struck.

The study reinforces other data showing that the wealthy are doing well compared to many other segments of society.

... The number of households with $25 million or more also is at a new high of 132,000, surpassing 125,000 in 2007, according to Spectrem.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-number-of-millionaires-in-us-reaches-a-new-high-20140313,0,6800023.story

[Skittles]

1. yes, we get it

as the middle class disappears there are more people in poverty and more millionaires

[airplaneman]

12. actually as massively more go into poverty a few more enter wealth.

[Skittles]

19. CORRECT

[840high]

20. ...^ that

[LeftofObama]

2. I'm gonna be the next one as soon as

my lottery ticket wins!

[Helen Borg]

3. All intel- or defense-related money...

Or at least, a big chunk of it.

[hack89]

10. Not even close

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States#GDP_by_industry

[brooklynite]

15. Sorry, try again

Based on this definition, my wife and I are with no connections to either.

Want to get an easy start on the road? Don't have kids. You'll save $500,000 more than a two kid family.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

4. Someday I will be a millionaire.

We'll all be millionaires! We just have to keep working hard, voting for corporate Reaganite Democrats and Republicans and waiting for that trickle. It's gonna trickle down to us any minute now.

[ctsnowman]

6. LOL

[ForgoTheConsequence]

8. I think I felt a drop.

Did you feel anything?

[robbob]

5. There you go again....

This just proves that "trickle down economics" work!

[jtuck004]

7. Ironically, number in poverty at a high as well...

This is being made to happen with tax policies, policies that encourage the wealthy to skim money from the business without investment, decreases in investment and opportunities for all manner of things by people in what used to be the "middle class" and others who mad/make less, by people who think that keeping the wealthy healthy is more important than doing anything directly for people, or preventing them from being soaked by these bastards. That needs to change.




Here.

[bulloney]

11. The top graph illustrates that the middle class is shrinking.

As for the increasing number of millionaires, how much of that comes from the principal holder of a family's wealth dying and it gets divided among his/her heirs? In the end you have more millionaires, right?

My BIL tried to make the argument that this country's so great because it has so many millionaires. Then, I pointed out that the concentration of wealth is higher than at any time since the 1920s. Maybe it's passed the concentration level of the '20s by now. He just gave me a blank stare because he didn't understand the implications of having a high concentration of wealth. I told him it means that the middle class is disappearing. Being a business owner, he should really be concerned because the millionaires making up less than 1% of the population (probably more scarce in our part of the country) won't sustain his business. He didn't want to believe it. He wanted to continue believing that he will some day be in that elite group of millionaires if the goddam gubmint would get out of the way and quit regulating and taxing him.

[jtuck004]

13. Take a look at this book

Ran across it in the NY TImes, 3-12-2014,article title "A Relentless Widening of Disparity in Wealth"
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/12/business/economy/a-relentless-rise-in-unequal-wealth.html

He shows that our inequality is policy-based, and the gap is going to continue increasing for the next several years.

Here is a cut from that article:

...
His most startling news is that the belief that inequality will eventually stabilize and subside on its own, a long-held tenet of free market capitalism, is wrong. Rather, the economic forces concentrating more and more wealth into the hands of the fortunate few are almost sure to prevail for a very long time.

It is possible to slow, or even reverse, the trend, if political leaders like President Obama, who proposed that income inequality was the “defining challenge of our time,” really push.

“Political action can make this go in the other direction,” Professor Piketty told me. But he also adds that history does not offer much hope that political action will, in fact, turn the tide: “Universal suffrage and democratic institutions have not been enough to make the system react.”
...

Anyway, his new book, out today:

Capital in the Twenty-First Century Hardcover
by Thomas Piketty (Author) , Arthur Goldhammer (Translator)

I'm likely gonna find a way to read this one.

There is little question we are screwed. To keep people even with what the min wage used to be it needs to be about $17/hr. People actually think this insufficient min wage raise crap is anything to anyone except talking heads. It's not even barely adequate. Yet the sycophants will happily lap it up.

[FailureToCommunicate]

9. That IS a surprise, given the crushing tax burdon they bear, not to mention the

debilitating vitriol they face, you know, from 'the rest of us'

[7962]

14. Well, now the gop cant say theres a war on the wealthy, because theres more of 'em!

[Paper Roses]

16. And the rest of us reach a new low. n/t

[One_Life_To_Give]

17. Probably lowballs millionairs

If we put a current Cash value on peoples pensions that number would jump. And those without traditional pension plans are among the many with assets of $1million who really are not that wealthy. Not when every accountant and engineer is being told to save 2-3 million to finance their retirement.

[seveneyes]

18. And it seems to be mainly blue states where the most millionaires are

Income disparity is becoming rampant in the blue areas also. Can't this be corrected by more intense state and local tax laws?

[YOHABLO]

21. No. The most concentrated wealth in the U.S. is in the subrurbs of D.C. ..go figure.

[Alkene]

22. So glad I could help them get rich(er).

Now if I can just get in enough hours to cover the rent...

[sendero]

23. Too bad...

.. that having a millionaire household doesn't mean what it used to mean.

Now you would have to have say a 10 million household.