some more stats

More of the super rich live in New York than any other U.S. city. There are 7,719 people worth at least $30 million. 20.1% of all New York City residents live below the poverty level.

Altogether, there are 57,860 ultra high net worth individuals in the U.S., according to a study by Wealth-X, a Singapore-based research firm. Wealth-X defined ultra high net worth individuals as those with at least $30 million in assets, including art, real estate and other property.

With 4,350 super-rich residents, Los Angeles ranked a distant second. San Francisco (4,230), Chicago (2,550) and Washington (2,300) rounded out the top five, while Seattle ranked 10th with 885 ultra high net worth individuals -- including one resident who happens to be Bill Gates.

http://www.39online.com/newsfix/kiah-where-the-super-rich-live-20111018,0,6132812.story

Meantime, Canada’s rich are getting richer. The gap between the income of the top 0.01 percent of Canadians and the median Canadian income has more than tripled since the 1970s, according to research by Michael Veall, a professor of economics at McMaster University, and Statistics Canada figures. The average income of the richest 0.01 percent of Canadian taxpayers is now 142 times the median Canadian income.

In 2009, the top one percent of tax filers earned 10.9 percent of all the income in Canada ( in the U.S. the top one percent of earners received 18.29 percent of total income excluding capital gains in 2007)

In adjusted dollars, the median market income of Canadian earners as reported by Statistics Canada has decreased over the years, from $31,778 in 1976 to $31,044 in 2008. But the average income of the richest 0.01 percent of Canadians grown significantly - from $1.3 million in 1976 to $4.4 million in 2008.

Canadian corporate profits more than tripled between 1988 and 2007. The recession caused a fall in profits since 2007, so that in 2009, Canadian corporations made after-tax profits of $169 billion.

In South Korea the number of irregular workers—workers without contracts—has risen sharply since 1998. Today, more than half of the workforce, or 17 million people, are considered irregular, earning an average of just 1.35 million won a month ($1,145), or 57 percent of the regular average wage. Irregular workers are also subjected to workplace discrimination and firing at the whim of employers. The result has been a rapid expansion of cheap labour. International Labour Organisation statistics show that workers earning two-thirds less than median wage comprise 25.6 percent of the workforce.

The so-called “poor class”—defined by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as households earning less than 50 percent of the median income—increased to 3.52 million or over 20 percent of the total in 2009. The 2011 list of the 40 richest individuals in South Korea saw a record of 21 US dollar billionaires, up from 11 in 2010 and 5 in 2009. Last year, they added more than $20 billion to their collective wealth, now worth $65.6 billion. Samsung’s Lee Kun-hee is No.1, with net wealth of $9.3 billion, ahead of Hyundai Motor’s Chung Mong-koo, whose fortune jumped 80 percent to $7.4 billion last year. That was not the most dramatic rise. Nexon online gaming owner Kim Jung-ju leapt 260 percent to $2.06 billion, while Mirae Asset Management Group’s Park Hyeon-joo tripled his worth to $1.5 billion.

Elsewhere, In an August report, the Chinese government said almost 40 percent of its workers are now “irregular.” That means they get lower pay, fewer pension benefits and less job security. Up to 50% of the earnings of Chinese industrial workers comes from overtime. Rank-and-file Chinese are not responding meekly to servitude, creating an undercurrent of discontent and leading to an estimated 180,000 strikes, demonstrations, and riots involving over 1,000 people, or, 493 each day, taking place around the country last year.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-18/wall-street-s-1-meets-2-billion-seeking-answers-william-pesek.html

Huang Yiping of Barclays Capital said about the country’s export-led, investment-driven growth “China’s economic success over the last 30 years has been built on cheap capital, cheap labour, cheap energy and cheap land but this has now produced huge imbalances and inefficiencies that are causing more and more problems.”

By 2009 the richest 10 per cent of Chinese controlled some 45 per cent of the country’s wealth, the poorest, just 1.4 per cent.Professor Victor Shih of North Western University estimates that the top 1 per cent of households own some 30-50 per cent of bank deposits. A 2010 survey found that 91% of Chinese citizens worth more than £10m -- or 2,932 out of 3,220 people -- were the children of senior officials.

Liang Wengen, founder of construction machinery group Sany and China’s richest businessman from the private sector, will stand as a candidate for the Communist Party Central Committee. http://www.worldcrunch.com/mr-liang-goes-beijing-chinas-richest-man-enters-politics/3916