In the era of global networking people are connected more than ever, however everyone is still inclined to identify themselves with groups that share similarities. Quantitatively we identify groups as minorities and majorities, when compared on a basis of single characteristic. The numbers in a majority is enough of a force to keep a minority small by ignorance and inequality. Wealth is the only characteristic that does not divide us in this classical setup. According to Chrystia Freeland in her article The Rich Are Different from You and Me, in 2007 less than a third of the wealth in United States was divided between 90 percent of its population and the other two thirds went to the rest 10 percent; half of that went to the top 1 percent (27). The members of the wealthy minority don't want equality, they prefer to be isolated and interact only with peers on their level (27). They are not only forming a nation, as Freeland pointed, but are also isolating themselves on an island and swimming in wealth, while the middle class is drowning in debt. .
In The Rich Are Different from You and Me Chrystia Freeland starts her article with a phrase the rich are always with us from a movie released during the Great Depression that is paradoxical to the reality of financial situation then and now. She introduces statistics that show that big portion of the wealth moved to the richest in five year period. Freeland compares this phenomenon with the financial heyday after the Second World War, and the crisis in the twenties. Another fact the author states is that this shift in capital occurs mostly in highly industrialized countries. She points out that despite the modern globalization, the wealthiest are tightly connected between each other, no matter their nationality, and isolate from lower classes. Freeland introduces us to some data to show that in most cases the richest didnt inherit their money but earned them.
