What's wrong with this picture? In the height of the worst economic crisis in the United States since the Great Depression, the number of millionaires is up.
According to research from the Spectrem Group, the number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more – and that doesn't include their primary residence – grew 16% to 7.8 million in 2009. Now that's a turnaround from 2008 when there was a 27% decline but it comes at a time when in one in five men in the US is now looking for work and one in four American children is on food stamps.
And while the population of millionaires continues to expand, nearly half the American workforce has next to no money for retirement. CNN reports that the percentage of American workers with less than $10,000 in their retirement funds has grown to 43%.
All this confirms the continuing bifurcation in the United States. The recession has widened the gap between rich and poor, something I have looked at here, and that makes it potentially unstable politically.
Still, the 24/7 Wall Street blog says being a millionaire is nothing these days so it needs to be taken into context.
"Someone once observed that being a millionaire is overrated. A million dollars is not enough for most middle class people to retire on. Most millionaires are not corporate executives. They are gas station owners and proprietors of other small businesses. They are the people who used to have a few employees, and now have a few less. Their own net worth has plummeted, but the people who were their workers have no net worth at all. The recession was bad for the rich and poor alike. But, at least there are still 7.8 million millionaires who can probably send their children to college and retire before they are 75. Tens of millions of other people cannot say the same."
So the recession is tough for everyone. But it's worse when you're at the bottom of the food chain.
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