The "one-percenter-tv-shows-illustration" drawing above is so cool that I had to made a post just about it. The golf-playing empire builder fighting with his socialite wife while the wastrel trust fund son is dead-drunk in the pool.
Since you should all know how much I love MONEY. I also love to watch TV series about Money, at least about the lifestyle of extremely wealthy (actual and fictional) empire builders. So I can get some inspiration, motivation, and to some extent, I can better myself at the same time.
After all displays of "extreme wealth and power" are by very far the best escapism you can ever get! These series are here to make us dream and entertain us. Yes, the filthy rich have issues and problems too, just like everyone. Just like Notorious B.I.G. would sing "Mo Money Mo Problems".
Here below are the TV series listed in the article "New Wave of TV Shows Lets Viewers Watch the Rich Get Their Just Deserts" written by Daniel D'Addario.
- Billions
- Succession
- The Righteous Gemstones
- Big Little Lies
- The Loudest Voice
- What/If
- Dynasty (the original)
- Dynasty (the reboot)
- Gossip Girl
And yes, the protagonists and antagonists are mostly sociopaths. In fact, you don't build and keep a fortune and an empire by being naive and soft. Just as you can't fight them without being cunning and ruthless.
Reality Check:
UHNWI instead of one-percenter.
To be among the top 1 percent of U.S. earners, a family needs a MINIMUM income of $421,926. While the AVERAGE income of the top 1 percent nationwide is $1.32 million. The bottom 99 percent, on the other hand, earn an average of $50,107 a year.
Meanwhile the top 1% net worth per household would be $10,374,030.10 in United States. Which is far least than the "enormous wealth" depicted in the above TV shows. However, the top 0.10% household net worth is $43,090,281.00.
To give you an idea, in "The Loudest Voice" the real-life Roger Ailes net worth was $100 Million. While Bobby Axelrod (Billions) and Logan Roy (Succession) are Billionaires. So it put them all above the top 0.10 percenter.
So the Ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) are defined as having a net worth of at least US$30 million in constant 2018 dollars. It is the wealth segment above very-high-net-worth individuals (>$5 million) and high-net-worth-individuals (>$1 million). Although they constitute only 0.003% of the world’s population (less than 1 in 33,000), they hold 13% of the world's total wealth.
Now it seem that the point of my article was to categorize the financial status of our favorite TV series' rich folks. Mission accomplished!
Sources and related links:
https://variety.com/2019/tv/features/rich-on-tv-big-little-lies-dynasty-succession-1203271159/
https://mymoneywizard.com/high-net-worth-individual-definition-statistics/
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/27/how-much-you-have-to-earn-to-be-in-the-top-1percent-in-every-us-state.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/19/what-you-have-to-earn-to-be-in-the-1-percent-in-america.html
https://dqydj.com/top-one-percent-united-states/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_high-net-worth_individual
