As a public service, courtesy of WSJ's Weath Report, LABO brings you globalrichlist.com, a site where you can plug in your annual income and see where you rank in the world. Hint: You're almost certain to look good. The site is a not-so-subtle reminder of how well off we are in a global context - and how those few bucks that Americans blow on a glass of wine or a new pair of jeans might go for a better purpose. It's just a thought. For example:
•$8 could buy you 15 organic apples OR 25 fruit trees for farmers in Honduras to grow and sell fruit at their local market.
•$30 could buy you an ER DVD Boxset OR a First Aid kit for a village in Haiti.
•$73 could buy you a new mobile phone OR a new mobile health clinic to care for AIDS orphans in Uganda.
You get the idea. Of course, ranking Americans next to the rest of the world doesn't make for much of a match. So here's the breakout of income groups in the U.S., based on a study done by Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Picketty.
Median — $25,076
Top 10% — $87,334
Top 5% — $120,212
Top 1% — $277,983
Top 0.5% — $397,949
Top 0.1% — $1,134,849
Top 0.01% — $5,349,795