Interesting, but misleading. Wealth = Assets - Liabilities
While it explains where the wealth is, it doesn't explain how people got pigeon holed into their place on the line of 100, which was simplified from the 311 million Americans.
I pop of my mothers vagina. 1 day old. I have no wealth. I am not on the scale.
Between then and the time I graduate high school, I don't have a job. Hopefully mom and dad can take care of me. Buy me clothes; put food in my mouth. I still have no wealth. Maybe I can sell my clothes for nickels on the dollar. Maybe my uncle gives me a savings bond. Maybe the tooth fairy leave me a fin under the pillow. Maybe I get a paper route, or work in fast food. But I am a teenager... I don't save much. I spend what I make. I still have no wealth.
College. Now the fun starts. Need to pay tuition, room, board, books, food, iPhone, beer, more beer, condoms, clothes, gas, jack-ass Spring Break trips. Five or six years later, I am on the hook for at least $150,000. I have no wealth, since I owe on the loans I took out to live through college and pay for it.
The roaring 20's... Get a job, if I am lucky. Need to pay rent. Need to buy a car. Need to pay off those student loans. I am, at the start of my working career, say $175,000 in the hole. I still can't get into the black. The rent is too damn high. Car needs new tires. Phone dropped in the toilet. Gas costs $100 / week. Went out drinking and dropped $100. Shit. Life is tough.
Looks like I will never have wealth until I make enough, after all living expenses have been paid, to pay off the debt I started this game with. That will take 15-20 years. What am I now? 40? Shit. Got married. Gotta pay for that wedding. KIDS! Wahoo!!! Wait a minute? What my parents were able to do for me I need to do for my kids? Damn. Still can't save enough to have positive wealth.
Great!!! Kids have graduated high school. They are on their own now. Maybe my mortgage payments are finally at an end. Now I can start accumulating wealth!! Oh, let me take some vacations. I deserve it. I've had a hard life.
Crap. I am 62. Ready for retirement. Where did all the time go. WHERE DID ALL THE MONEY GO? Shit. I need to hope Social Security stays solvent, or I am out on the street.
Why couldn't I save?
So, I would ask, of the 311 million people in that chart, how many have no wealth simply because they are:
1. Under 18.
2. In college.
3. Saddled with student loan debt.
4. Saddled with mortgage debt.
5. Have a family to provide for.
It's the cost of living that keeps people down, not the fact that rich people are getting richer... They simply have enough money to pay the cost of living, and until you spend less than you make, wealth will never be accumulated.
So how many people get a free ride through college?
So how many people get a good paying job right out of college?
So how many people get a good deal on housing in a location where a good job exists?
So how many people inherit there wealth?
And then ask, how many people never get out of debt?
And I think that explains the curve / skew.