Two percent control 50% of world's wealth

The Financial Times has a headline that will probably get the lefties up into Arianna Huffington arm-waving helicopter mode.

Two percent of the world's population sounds like a tiny fraction, but factored into the world's six billion people, it turns out to be 120 million people. And whole continents like Latin America and Africa have a tiny fraction of two percent controlling the total wealth of the area.

Know-nothing tabloids like The Independent and The Guardian and the BBC will tut-tut and shake their heads in dismay, but of course, the old lies, damned lies, and statistics rule is out there weaving its illusionary delusions. The BBC adopts its characteristic numbnut perspective:

The analysis shows, as have many other less comprehensive studies, striking divergences in wealth between countries. Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and some countries in the Asia Pacific region, such as Japan and Australia. In richer nations, landowners can afford not to farm their properties. These countries account for 90% of household wealth.

Duh.... Are these BBC types the ones Gwyneth Paltrow believes are conversational show-stoppers? It's called division of labor.

Centuries of capitalism in Europe and North America have produced most of the world's wealth. That's history, not some sort of unfair distribution system. Working hard and building assets and wise investments and thinking ahead and studying hard produce long-term results. Also, property is worth more when it is developed or can produce crops or tourism, something lacking in the sweltering hellholes of the Dark Continent and much of the Arab countries' trackless desert wastes.