Income vs wealth

During the last Presidential campaign Candidate Obama made the news when he spoke to Joe the Plumber and said he was going to spread the wealth around. This has widely been interpreted as spreading income around. I have calculated that if all of the income from the 1 percent was taken from them and given to the 99% it would provide each family with $15,000. This would be a nice gift but not a life changing event. However, if we take Obama at his word and redistribute the wealth that is a different story. The wealth of the country is estimated at 60 trillion and the 1% own half of that so if we take their half which is 30 trillion and give that to the 99% each family would get an extra $200,000.
Now that is a substantial amount but my guess is that even that big chunk of dough would be used up in a short time and the 99% would be back in the same boat they are in now. I say this because studies have shown that lottery winners of less than one million experience only a short term change in their life styles.
The point of all this is that redistribution sounds like a great plan for the 99% but the truth is that there are not enough rich people to make a difference.
To illustrate the point on a larger basis if all the money in the world was redistributed each US family instead of having a net worth of $160,000 would have a net worth of $16,000.
If there is any lesson in all this, it is that if you want to increase your net worth, don’t wait for redistribution but get out there and go to work. You might be surprised at how much you can accomplish. Of course the first thing you need is a job.