An article in the Financial Times reports that:
Asia
has overtaken North America for the first time as the region with the
most super-wealthy individuals as the number of people with $1m or more
in easily investable assets hit 3.4m last year. The finding, in an annual survey by Royal Bank of Canada and
consulting firm Capgemini, highlights how the shift in economic power to
a region dominated by high-growth economies is spurring a new class of
entrepreneurs who derive much of their wealth from owning businesses. (see link)
It seems that many wealthy Asians own businesses while North American millionaires increasingly derive their wealth from the financial sector. The wealthy in America still have slightly more wealth in terms of dollars bur Asians are rapidly overtaking this amount. So.... will this shift in wealth affect governments of the world? How?
The fact that Asia has overtaken North America with the most-super wealthy individuals does not surprise me all that much. As mentioned, it seems as if people in the United States specifically attempt to gain their great wealth through financial sources such as investment funds, real estate, etc. However, I feel along the way the many people in North America have lost their drive to be entrepreneurial and create something new. With this lack of drive, Asia has been able to take over in a rapidly changing global landscape.
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ReplyDeleteIt definitely comes as no surprise to me that most of the wealthy North American's get their money from the financial sector, and I believe a possible explanation for that is the overwhelming amount of big businesses these days. With all of these super-corporations in North America (specifically in the United States) like Walmart, Sams Club, Costco, and McDonalds, it is can be hard for smaller entrepreneurs to start up their own business and become a member of this $1 million club. I think it is also important to consider the sheer amount of people in Asia compared to North America, because it is not even close. Therefore, the fact that Asia has more "super-wealthy" individuals doesn't seem as impressive when you consider that there is some 4 billion people there, compared to North America's 528,000,000. It would be much more interesting to see the percentage of "super-wealthy" individuals by population of each continent, as opposed to the overall number.
ReplyDeleteSomething that Okun said in Equality and efficiency really struck home and this article reminded me of it. He said that America was quickly not become a society of capitalists instead we were becoming a society of consumers bent on buying average comforts instead of saving, reinvesting, and generally re-purposing gains to be more useful in the future. It was interesting that this was also written decades ago. I would be interested to hear what Okun wouls say on the topic now.
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