Economy is creating millionaires at an astonishing pace. But what's it doing for everyone else?

By Christopher Ingraham
Washington Post

The U.S. economy is minting new millionaires at an astonishing rate, according to a paper by New York University economist Edward N. Wolff.

The number of households with a net worth of $1 million (measured in constant 1995 dollars, or about $1.6 million today) grew from 2.4 million households in 1983 to 9.1 million households in 2016, a growth rate of 279 percent.

For comparison, the total number of households grew by just 50 percent over that period, meaning that the population of millionaires grew at more than 5 times the rate of the general population. In 1983 fewer than 3 percent of households had a net worth greater than $1 million in 1995 dollars. By 2016, over 7 percent of households were worth that much.

Net worth is a measure of a household's assets, such as home value, stocks and retirement accounts, minus debts. From 2013 to 2016 alone, the economy added over 2 million households with a net worth of $1 million or more in constant 1995 dollars. That works out to roughly 1,845 new millionaire households each day during that period.

Rates of growth in the upper echelons of the wealth spectrum have been even more rapid. From 1983 to 2016, the number of households worth $5 million grew by 649 percent. The number of households worth $10 million or more grew by 856 percent over the same period.



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more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-economy-millioniares-20171208-story.html




Pretty grim reading, if you're not one of the lucky few.