IF you make at least $34,000 a year you are among the richest 1% of the world

[Aelon]

Did you make $34,000 last year? If so, congratulations! You're now part of the richest 1% in the world.

Economist Branko Milanovic puts it all in perspective:

The true global middle class, falls far short of owning a home, having a car in a driveway, saving for retirement and sending their kids to college. In fact, people at the world's true middle -- as defined by median income -- live on just $1,225 a year. (And, yes, Milanovic's numbers are adjusted to account for different costs of living across the globe.)

In the grand scheme of things, even the poorest 5% of Americans are better off financially than two thirds of the entire world.

http://www.neatorama.com/2012/01/15/the-richest-1-in-the-world/

[Hallett 82]

I need to earn at least $34,000 just to pay for my electricity and put a little bit away for weekly food . .TRUE!

Adelaide has worlds most expensive electricity

[Simon17]

Of course the whole study is mostly absurd because in some places you physically can't live on $34,000 per year while in other places you could live like a king for a half decade with one year's salary. It all depends on your salary relative to your cost of living.

[retroHelen]

It just shows the poverty of the rest of the world when as commented above $34 000 is barely a living wage for some areas. We gross around that figure, but taxes, Mortgage/Utility payments and necessary insurances and shop rent/overheads and petrol at £6 a gallon reduce it down to barely a living wage for the UK.We can't afford a pension plan and of those that have, many have lost theirs to fluctuating stock-markets rendering it worthless.

[Pallen]

    If we made that kind of money we would feel so rich. We would not know what to do with it all. Perhaps get a car that cost more than $300?  More than two suit jackets?  Put real poly roofing on our porch besides a tarp?

 

   But yet others do not have a car. Some may only have one suit jacket, or none. Others have no porch.

 

   We all live in different economies, sometimes even within the same country.  It really is amazing how out of balance this whole system is. Soon this all will change.