The world is owned by the few

I was reading Jamie McIntyre's "What I didn't learn in school but wish I had" book and he made the claim that most of the worlds wealth is held by a few families. I knew that there were some very rich people out there but I never went so far as to think that a few families would between them control most of the world's wealth.

Thoughts anyone?
 
Hi qaz,

Did he actually say what most of the wealth was, and how many a few families were?

Seems a pretty ludicrous statement, considering that there are presently around 600 billionaires in the world and more than 8 million millionaires (http://www.ml.com/index.asp?id=7695_7696_8149_46028_48149_48228 ). So right there, youve got more than 8 million families sharing much less than half the worlds wealth.

Guess it all depends on what he defines as a few :)

On a different note, you might want to hold onto that book - it might be worth something in a few years, as Jamie McIntyre has been restrained by ASIC from printing and distributing any more copies :D

Another wealth creation spruiker caught out

Jamie.
 
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Qaz,

Actually all the wealth is held by one family, the Human family.

So will Jamie's book become a collector's item :)

Cheers,

Aceyducey
 
Jamie said:
On a different note, you might want to hold onto that book - it might be worth something in a few years, as Jamie McIntyre has been restrained by ASIC from printing and distributing any more copies :D

Another wealth creation spruiker caught out

Jamie.

I see the Asic mentioned printing, publishing and distributing the book 'What I Didn't Learn At School But Wish I Had' (in the form as reprinted in March 2004).

The latest version of this book in Ebook format is reprinted in 2005.
 
Re - Chapter 3

Sorry, Qaz - had to temporarily remove that post. Some good stuff there, but we wouldn't want to breach any Copyright Laws - so, hold on.... Once we've conferred, and affirmed that we're not likely to be in trouble, it will be back.

In the meantime, all posters be aware that a "teaser" quote, followed by a link to the original is generally acceptable under Copyright laws - but vast reproduction of someone else's work may not be. As such, we have temporarily removed Qaz's post while we ensure that the post is OK. If it is OK, it will be back.

Regards,
 
qaz said:
I was reading Jamie McIntyre's "What I didn't learn in school but wish I had" book and he made the claim that most of the worlds wealth is held by a few families. I knew that there were some very rich people out there but I never went so far as to think that a few families would between them control most of the world's wealth.

Thoughts anyone?

I did read that 25% of Australians own 75% of the dollars in Australia and that seems about right.
 
Les said:
Sorry, Qaz - had to temporarily remove that post. Some good stuff there, but we wouldn't want to breach any Copyright Laws - so, hold on.... Once we've conferred, and affirmed that we're not likely to be in trouble, it will be back.

In the meantime, all posters be aware that a "teaser" quote, followed by a link to the original is generally acceptable under Copyright laws - but vast reproduction of someone else's work may not be. As such, we have temporarily removed Qaz's post while we ensure that the post is OK. If it is OK, it will be back.

Regards,
The usual research allowance is 10% of the paper/book (with correct attribution). I would have thought it was OK. On the other hand it was (IMHO) such unmitigated rubbish as to not be worth it, and certainly did not demonstrate the point. With equal parts of fact, speculation and outright fantasy, even then it did not demonstrate the holding of wealth by a few families.

Certainly, the vast bulk of resources are held by the top 10%. And that's in realtively well distributed countries like Australia. Countries like India have far more skewed distributions, but they still have more $USmillionaires than Australia has people.

The general objective of most in this forum, for whatever reason, is to be in that high net worth category.
 
Darn.

I just got a copy of the book (paper version) from the local school fete. For $1.

I didn't realise I could have had it for free.
 
Don't really see the point of this. So wealth distribution isn't even. We know that. There are plenty of billionaires that never get onto any lists, especially if it's after the first generation and the wealth gets split between various trusts and family members. Those Fortune 400 lists are mainly estimates, anyway (since many assets are held privately, and includes things like art collections). A significant number of people (I forget the number but it's something like a billion people) live below the official IMF (or UN, one of those) poverty line of USD $1 a day (that's one dollar a day). Damn right the world isn't fair and a minority own most of the wealth.

Wouldn't call it a few families, though, but even if that were the case who cares? I want to be rich but I'd be happy to be the 10,000th richest person in the world, of even the 100,000th richest. That's why I find the stories and backgrounds of moderately rich people more interesting than Bill Gates'. I can probably start a small business and invest in property and accumulate over time: I don't think I can start a software company that dominates the industry.

In a more general context, most people do not know, and aren't motivated to learn, how to accumulate wealth. That's not a bad thing for us, because we DO know the way to accumulate wealth, and that puts us on the wealthy end of the uneven distribution. I'm not enough of a hypocrite to say I deplore unfairness in the world when I'm benefitting from it.

I have skimmed McIntyre's book. My opinion: pretty much all hype. Makes you feel all excited, which isn't a bad thing, but I didn't get anything out of it. It's like most of those motivation seminars: gets you all fired up, but it doesn't give you direction. Far better to decide on a direction and then build yourself up slowly. Driving a Toyota slowly to your destination is far more useful than having a jet-fuel filled Ferrari gunned in a random direction.
Alex
 
This is interesting. I've only just finished listening to an interview of G Edward Griffin, author of The Creature From Jekyll Island by Jim Puplava.

The cteature referred to is the US's Federal Reserve Act which was written by a caball of bankers on Jekyll Is. If you have an interest in banking/finance you can hear it on www.netcastdaily.com/fsnewshour.htm

I haven't read Jamie McIntyre's book but I suspect that he refers to families controlling vast sums of money. There aren't many but the Rothchilds would be typical. Gates and Buffett are mere upstarts.

I have just read the chapter Gaz refered to, the banking bit is essentially correct. Don't know about the 9% locally owned tho.
 
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