The Scale of the Problem
Numbers this large resist human intuition. We think of "a billion dollars" the way we think of "a light year" — as a unit that technically makes sense but doesn't feel real. So let's make it real.
Share of global wealth held by the wealthiest 10% of the world's population.
Source: World Inequality Database, 2021 [1]
Share of global wealth held by the poorest 10% — they are net negative, carrying more debt than assets.
Source: World Inequality Database, 2021 [1]
Years it would take to earn a billion dollars at $100/hour, working 10 hours a day, every single day.
Calculated from standard hourly earnings
Growth in CEO compensation since 1978. Worker pay over the same period: 5.7%.
Source: Economic Policy Institute [2]
A Thought Experiment
It's 80,000 BC. You are immortal. The world is frozen in an ice age. You decide to save $10,000 every single day — never spending a cent.
82,021 years later, it's 2021. You still don't have as much money as Elon Musk. [3]
Or consider this: if you earned a great salary — $100 an hour, 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, every week of the year — you would make $240,000 per year. At that rate, it would take you 4,167 years to accumulate a billion dollars. No one earns a billion dollars. They extract it.
Billionaire Wealth Growth vs. the Minimum Wage
Between 2009 and 2021, the fortunes of America's top billionaires grew astronomically. The federal minimum wage didn't move at all. [4]
Top 1% Now Own More Than the Entire Middle Class
The top 1% own more wealth than the bottom 60% combined, while the bottom 35% own essentially nothing. This is not a side effect of the economy — it is the intended result of four decades of policy choices. [5]
"11 people holding 7% of your national GDP is an objective failure of economic policy."— @pbgomez_ on the combined wealth of America's top billionaires