It Only Takes $34K to Be Global One Percenter

Oh, this is rich. Many members of the 99% turn out to be one-percenters when incomes from all over the world are ranked. In fact, it takes an annual per-person income of $34,000—after taxes—to place an American in the global 1%, according to the book The Haves and Have-Nots by World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. The true global middle class gets by on just $1,225 a year, notes the New York Daily News. “It doesn’t seem right to define as middle class people who would be on food stamps in the US,” Milanovic tells CNN.

Half of all of the world's richest (29 million) live in the US, with most of the rest in Germany (4 million); France, Italy, and England (3 million each); and Japan and Brazil (2 million each). There's nobody in the richest 1% in Africa, China, India, Eastern Europe, or Russia in "statistically significant" numbers, Milanovic writes in his book. (More One Percenter stories.)