A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire.[2]Many national currencies have, or have had at various times, a low unit value, in many cases due to past inflation. It is much easier and less significant to be a millionaire in those currencies, thus a millionaire (in the local currency) in Hong Kong or Taiwan, for example, may be merely averagely wealthy, or perhaps less wealthy than average. A millionaire in Zimbabwe in 2007 could have been extremely poor.[3] Because of this, the term 'millionaire' generally refers to those whose assets total at least one million units of a high-value currency, such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling.
At the end of 2011, there were around 5.1 million HNWIs in the United States,[4] while at the same time there were 11 million millionaires[5] in a total of 3.5 million millionaire households,[6] including those 5.1 million HNWIs. As of December 2023[update], there were estimated to be just over 16 million dollar millionaires in the world according to the World's Wealthiest Cities Report 2024 by Henley & Partners. The United States had the highest number of millionaires (5.5 million) of any country, whilst New York is the wealthiest city with 349,500 millionaires.[7] In countries that use the short scale number naming system, a billionaire is someone who has at least a thousand times a million dollars, euros or pounds.
The word "millionaire" was apparently coined in French in 1719 to describe speculators in the Mississippi Bubble who earned millions of livres in weeks before the bubble burst.[8][9][10] The standard French spelling is now millionnaire,[11] though the earliest reference uses a single n.[10] The word was first used (as millionnaire, double "n") in French in 1719 by Steven Fentiman, and is first recorded in English (millionaire, as a French term) in a letter of Lord Byron of 1816, then in print in Vivian Grey, a novel of 1826 by Benjamin Disraeli.[9] Earlier English writers also mention the French word, including Sir William Mildmay in 1764.[12] The OED's first print citation is Benjamin Disraeli's 1826 novel Vivian Grey,[9] The anglicisation millionary was used in 1786 by Thomas Jefferson while serving as Minister to France; he wrote: "The poorest labourer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest Millionary".[13]
While millionaires constitute only a small percentage of the population, they hold substantial control over economic resources, with the most powerful and prominent individuals usually ranking among them. The total amount of money held by millionaires can equal the amount of money held by a far higher number of poor people. The Gini coefficient, and other measures in economics, estimated for each country, are useful for determining how many of the poorest people have the equivalent total wealth of the few richest in the country. Forbes and Fortune magazines maintain lists of people based on their net worth and are generally considered authorities on the subject. Forbes listed 1,645 dollar billionaires in 2014, with an aggregate net worth of $6.4 trillion, an increase from $5.4 trillion the previous year (see US-dollar billionaires in the world).[14]
According to a report by Hurun, a market research firm based in China, the global billionaire population stood at 3,381 in 2022.[15] Sixteen percent of millionaires inherited their fortunes. Forty-seven percent of millionaires are business owners. Twenty-three percent of the world's millionaires got that way through paid work, consisting mostly of skilled professionals or managers.[16] Millionaires are, on average, 61-years-old with $3.05 million in assets.[17]
Dated ways of describing someone worth n millions are "n-fold millionaire" and "millionaire n times over". Still commonly used is multimillionaire, which refers to individuals with net assets of 2 million or more of a currency.[20] There are approximately 584,000 US$ multimillionaires who have net assets of $10M+ worldwide in 2017.[21] Roughly 1.5% of US$ millionaires are "ultra-high-net-worth individuals" (ultra-HNWIs), defined as those with a net worth or wealth of $30 million or more. There are approximately 226,000 ultra-HNWIs in the world in 2017, according to Wealth-X.[22]The rising prevalence of people possessing ever increasing quantities of wealth has given rise to additional terms to further differentiate millionaires. Individuals with net assets of 100 million or more of a currency are commonly termed centimillionaires,[23] or more rarely hectomillionaires.[24]
As of December 2022[update], New York is the wealthiest city in the world with 340,000 HNWIs according to the World's Wealthiest Cities Report 2023 by Henley & Partners.[28] The amount of wealth held by people in New York City is nearly $3 trillion.[29] Some places have a sharp, quantitative increase in seasonal wealthy residents including cities like Paris and Miami, Rocky Mountains ski towns like Aspen, and various beachfront towns of the French Riviera like Cannes.[28]
There is a wide disparity in the estimates of the number of millionaires residing in the United States. A quarterly report prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Barclays Wealth in 2007 estimated that there were 16.6 million millionaires in the US.[30] At the end of 2011, there were around 5.1 million HNWIs in the US,[4] while at the same time, there were 11 million millionaires[5] in a total of 3.5 million millionaire households,[6] including those 5.1 million HNWIs.
According to TNS Financial Services, as reported by CNN Money, 2 million households in the US alone had a net worth of at least $1 million excluding primary residences in 2005.[31] According to TNS, in mid-2006 the number of millionaire US households was 9.3 million, with an increase of half a million since 2005.[32] The study found that half of all millionaire households in the US were headed by retirees. In 2004 the United States saw a "33 percent increase over the 6.2 million households that met that criteria [sic] in 2003", fueled largely by the country's real estate boom.[33]
A report by Capgemini for Merrill Lynch on the other hand stated that in 2007 there were approximately 3,028,000 households in the United States who held at least US$1 million in financial assets, excluding collectibles, consumables, consumer durables and primary residences.[34] According to TNS Financial Services, Los Angeles County, California, had the highest number of millionaires,[35] totalling over 262,800 households in mid-2006.[32]
For decades, a small group of families have raked in a massive amount of the wealth American workers have produced, while America's middle class has been hollowed out. The consequence is an extreme concentration of wealth not seen in any other leading economy. According to Saez and Zucman, the richest top 0.1% has seen its share of American wealth triple from 7% to 20% between the late 1970s and 2019, while the bottom 90% has seen its share plummet from about 35% to 25%.
The following organizations have endorsed the legislation: AFL-CIO, AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers, American for Financial Reform, American for Tax Fairness, Center for Law and Social Policy, Climate Hawks Vote, Coalition on Human Needs, CWA, Take on Wall Street, Health Care for America Now, Indivisble, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Jobs with Justice, Liberation in a Generation, Main Street Alliance, MomsRising, National Domestic Workers Alliance, National Education Association, Network Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Oxfam America, P Street, Patriotic Millionaires, People's Action, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, United Steelworkers, Public Citizen, Sunrise Movement, SEIU, United for Respect, Unemployed Workers United, AFGE, and Voices for Progress.
"The only way to truly tackle the injustice of income inequality in this country is to address wealth hoarding. The Ultra-Millionaire Tax is a critically needed policy that would ensure that the super-rich who have benefitted from a rigged system will begin to pay their fair share in taxes," said Susan Harley, managing director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch division.
"Wall Street billionaires and multi millionaires have used their wealth and power to shape laws that result in their tax rates being much lower than the rates paid by working people. Enough is enough. Requiring the ultrarich to pay a tax on their wealth is an important step toward economic justice," said Lisa Donner, executive director, Americans for Financial Reform.
"Our economy should reward work, not wealth hoarding. But working people face higher tax rates than the wealthy who accrue billions off stocks and other unearned assets without working. The Ultra Millionaire Tax Act can help balance the scales and restore fairness to the system. By simply asking the wealthiest 100,000 households to finally pay their fair share, we could generate at least $3 trillion in revenue over 10 years. That money can transform our communities for the better when we invest it in health care, child care, schools, libraries, infrastructure and more. AFSCME strongly endorses this legislation, and we applaud Sen. Warren and Rep. Jayapal for this important legislation," said AFSCME President Lee Saunders.
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It is also worth noting that the businesses started by millionaires have a significant positive spillover effect on the middle class as they create large numbers of well-paying jobs in their base country. If one takes the likes of Microsoft, Apple, and Tesla as examples, these companies have created thousands of high-paying jobs in the USA.
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