American salary: You're richer than you think.

[singular_me]

I winder what this study will say by the end of 2010... LOL

===========================
How Rich Are You?
by Jeanine Skowronski
Tuesday, May 11, 2010

You're richer than you think.

More from MainStreet.com:

At least according to Poke, a London-based creative company that specializes in interactive media. Their Web site, The Global Rich List generates a wealth ranking for its users based on their annual income.

For example, if you make $52,000 a year (the median American household income for 2009), you are the 58,252,719 richest person in the world (or in the top 0.97 percentile of all moneymakers).

Someone who makes half of that ($26,000 a year) is still in the top 10%, ranked 569,942,529 on the Global Rich List.

These calculations are based on figures from the World Bank Development Research Group. To calculate an individual's position on the list, Poke assumes that the world's total population is 6 billion and the average worldwide annual income is $5,000.

The site uses your wealth ranking to invite you to share your wealth with others. It told me, for example, I could buy 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras for just $8 (as opposed to 12 organic oranges for the same price) or a $30 first aid kit for a village in Haiti (instead of an ER DVD box set). However silly these suggestions may be (who spends $30 to watch ER?), charitable giving is clearly the point.

According to the site, Poke "wanted to do something which would help people understand, in real terms, where they stand globally. They want us to realize that, in fact, most of us who are able to view this web page are in the privileged minority."

So in case you're missing the subtext here … the site doesn't exist just so you can tell all of your friends just how rich you are.

http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgetingk/article/109517/how-rich-are-you?mod=bb-budgeting

[rurounikitsune]

Why can't I buy 25 fruit trees for $8 for myself? :\ If everything in Honduras is that cheap maybe they don't need to be making that much money.

[Plastic]

Why can't I buy 25 fruit trees for $8 for myself? :\ If everything in Honduras is that cheap maybe they don't need to be making that much money.


Last month I purchased 33 cherry and 10 pear trees, the cheapest I could find.... 25.00 a pop, at least they are all between 5 and 8 feet tall. Lately I have been gathering raspberry bushes from the roadside and transplanting them into my orchard area, next week I am going wild elderberry bush hunting for further transplanting and food security. Tons of available food production out there for free if you have a shovel and while people still consider these currently abundant plants to be pest species, my goal is to get a thousand raspberry bushes surrounding my mini orchard. Need to get some more thornless blackberry bushes as well but they are 10.00 a pop right now, those buggers can put out between 4 - 6 quarts of berries per plant each and every year.

[Ash_Williams]

Why can't I buy 25 fruit trees for $8 for myself?

You can... you just have to buy them in seed form.

[Ponce]

If you earn $50.000 in the US and spend $52,000 then you are in the red for $2,000..........but, if you are in Honduras and earn $15,000 per year and save $1.00 you are way ahead of the Americano.

Is not what you earn and have to show for it but what earn and have to back you up.........people have to learn how to think on their own and not like this article tells you how to think.

[Twisted Titan]

They want us to realize that, in fact, most of us who are able to view this web page are in the privileged minority."

.......................

Wait till the welfare checks and unemployment benies run out

See how "privilaged" we are then.


T

[Ponce]

Very true Mr. Titan but only if you accept it as a learning tool and not as one full of propaganda........to me the WWW is like a loaded gun that you have to be carefull as to how you use it.

Ponce<-------shoot himself on the foot long ago.

[dysgenic]

On a related note, Oceania announced that the monthly ration of chocolate is scheduled to increase next month.

[sirgonzo420]

On a related note, Oceania announced that the monthly ration of chocalate is scheduled to increase next month.




Sunny days ahead, brother!

[dysgenic]

Well I'm calmer than you are.
(ya, I know it doesn't have much mileage left but it worked too well)

dys





On a related note, Oceania announced that the monthly ration of chocalate is scheduled to increase next month.




Sunny days ahead, brother!

[Neuro]

Income isn't a good way of measuring wealth! Wealth is measured in posessions, that only you are in control of and don't need to pay fees and taxes to use and enjoy, and no-one including government has the right to take away from you... Now how rich are you?

[dysgenic]

Yup- money is only worth what you can buy with it. So simple, yet so few people are willing to accept it. I would also add that by other measures of wealth, Americans are extremely poor- amount of leisure time, job security, stable family life, etc..

[Ponce]

Mr, Neruo.........no debs and all that I have is mine with no taxes to pay but for my home.....................I am veryyyyyyyyyy rich.

Is not what you earn but what you retain of what you earn........

[dysgenic]

And it's also what you have to do to earn it and how long you have to do it.



Mr, Neruo.........no debs and all that I have is mine with no taxes to pay but for my home.....................I am veryyyyyyyyyy rich.

Is not what you earn but what you retain of what you earn........

[sirgonzo420]

Well I'm calmer than you are.
(ya, I know it doesn't have much mileage left but it worked too well)

dys




You know, Dude, I myself dabbled in pacifism once. Not in 'Nam of course.

[dysgenic]

Everything's a fudgkin' travesty with you, man! And what was all that sheet about Vietnam? What the FUdge has anything got to do with Vietnam? What the fudge are you talking about?





Well I'm calmer than you are.
(ya, I know it doesn't have much mileage left but it worked too well)

dys




You know, Dude, I myself dabbled in pacifism once. Not in 'Nam of course.

[sirgonzo420]

Everything's a fudgkin' travesty with you, man! And what was all that sheet about Vietnam? What the FUdge has anything got to do with Vietnam? What the fudge are you talking about?


Dude! Dude, I'm sorry!

[dysgenic]

Shut the fudge up, Sir Gonzo! V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!





Everything's a fudgkin' travesty with you, man! And what was all that sheet about Vietnam? What the FUdge has anything got to do with Vietnam? What the fudge are you talking about?


Dude! Dude, I'm sorry!

[sirgonzo420]

Shut the fudge up, Sir Gonzo! V.I. Lenin. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov!





Everything's a fudgkin' travesty with you, man! And what was all that sheet about Vietnam? What the FUdge has anything got to do with Vietnam? What the fudge are you talking about?


Dude! Dude, I'm sorry!





Oh, please dear! I've got news for you: the Supreme Court has roundly rejected prior restraint!

[ximmy]

Eight-year-olds, Dude

[Gaillo]

Over the LINE!!!!! ;D ;D

[Ponce]

Kiss and make up..........or to the WAR ROOM.

"Gentlemen, this is the war room, there will be not fighting here".

[Saul Mine]

Ok, so I am among the 13.1% richest people in the world, and the first thing they suggest is that I should feel guilty and share with people who are not so wealthy. How exactly do they make such a comparison? I live in a world where I get arrested if I don't rent a dwelling, and can't eat without money to pay for the privilege. The rest of the world lives with no rent and they eat things that grow around their dwelling. So what if they only have $360 income in a year? Their life has nothing to do with $.

[k-os]

Good point, Saul Mine.

[ximmy]

Ok, so I am among the 13.1% richest people in the world, and the first thing they suggest is that I should feel guilty and share with people who are not so wealthy. How exactly do they make such a comparison? I live in a world where I get arrested if I don't rent a dwelling, and can't eat without money to pay for the privilege. The rest of the world lives with no rent and they eat things that grow around their dwelling. So what if they only have $360 income in a year? Their life has nothing to do with $.


they are not taxed to death either...

Total tax percentage paid by the above average US citizen, 2005 - 54.4%

A partial list of the various ways in which citizens of the US are taxed:
•Accounts Receivable Tax
•Building Permit Tax
•Capital Gains Tax
•CDL license Tax
•Cigarette Tax
•Corporate Income Tax
•Court Fines (indirect taxes)
•Deficit spending
•Dog License Tax
•Federal Income Tax
•Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
•Fishing License Tax
•Food License Tax
•Fuel permit tax
•Gasoline Tax
•Hunting License Tax
•Inflation
•Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
•Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
•IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
•Liquor Tax
•Local Income Tax
•Luxury Taxes
•Marriage License Tax
•Medicare Tax
•Property Tax
•Real Estate Tax
•Septic Permit Tax
•Service Charge Taxes
•Social Security Tax
•Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
•Sales Taxes
•Recreational Vehicle Tax
•Road Toll Booth Taxes
•School Tax
•State Income Tax
•State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
•Telephone federal excise tax
•Telephone federal universal service fee tax
•Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
•Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
•Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
•Telephone state and local tax
•Telephone usage charge tax
•Toll Bridge Taxes
•Toll Tunnel Taxes
•Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
•Trailer Registration Tax
•Utility Taxes
•Vehicle License Registration Tax
•Vehicle Sales Tax
•Watercraft Registration Tax
•Well Permit Tax
•Workers Compensation Tax

[Ponce]

OK, OK........you got me for the gas tax and the telephone tax...........uffffffff picki picki picki.

[FreeEnergy]

Poke, a London-based creative company

poking fun at you. ran by tavistock, or brain-dead morons. more like first.


It is not how much you earn that counts. It is HOW MUCH YOU KEEP. You can be earning million bucks, and as long as you owe 2 mil you are in a sh*thole.

Average omerigan is POOR. He owes so much to BANKSTERS, both private and federal, that he's rotting in DEBT. It doesn't matter how much he "earns" in imaginary disney monkey fantasy land, after paying TAXES, MORTGAGE, MORE TAXES, gas, car payments, food, insurance and other expenses that average american is FORCED to pay you get nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero.

And your life sucks too: Happy Planet Index (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Planet_Index) shows you at 150 out of 178 countries. I can attest that after travelling to over 30 countries, this is not far from truth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Planet_Index

Well, as long as you take prescription medications, you are going to be just fiiine.