The calculator you linked to is incorrect. There are many more rich people than it indicates.

The IRS Statistics of Income for 2008 says that there were about 4,400,000 returns filed for 2008 showing adjusted gross income in excess of 200,000 (out of 142.5 million returns total). The calculator you linked to reports that a person earning $200,000 per year is the 786,570 richest person in the world. So they are off by a factor of 6, and that is just in the USA. When you take the whole world into account, they are off by at least an order of magnitude.

Not surprising that they would be tempted to "fudge" the numbers. They want people to feel rich and blessed and guilty so they give money. They seem to be devoting the donations to worthy causes. I guess the ends justify the means.

Still, if I tell my wife "there are only about 60 million people in the world richer than us, out of 6 billion", we are right where she and I were yesterday. Consciously aware that we are in the top 1%. But not feeling very appreciative. More conscious of how far we have fallen shorts of our hopes and expectations than of how much farther down we could fall.


When you can see it coming, duck!