Monday, May 16, 2011

More U.S. millionaires is good news, right?

Superficially, a projected rise in the number of U.S. (and global) millionaire households seems like good news. It's upward mobility and the American Dream, right?

Wrong.

Deloitte estimates that the wealth of U.S. millionaire households will rise 223 percent by 2020 to $87 trillion. Meanwhile, more than half of U.S. workers currently earn $25,000 per year or less; unemployment is at 9 percent; and annual GDP growth is between 2 and 3 percent. And let's not forget how we lost $19.4 trillion (in 2010 dollars) in U.S. household wealth from June 2007 to March 2009; since then and partially thanks to the stimulus, we have regained $6.6 trillion of that.

The real upshot? More of our shrinking pie of wealth will be owned by fewer people.


Deloitte Center for Financial Services
May 2011

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