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Originally Posted by kato13
How would nationalized industries effect the numbers in the second chart? That could make a large difference.
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I don't think it would effect it at all because its an accumulative list of what people have in their checking and savings accounts, equity entitlements, stocks and bonds and in a the biscuit tin under the bed. It does exclude private real estate and land ownership who's average value varies a great deal in different countries. But If you also add the value of government land holdings and infrastructure as well as private industry to that (nationalised or not) the accumulative wealth of a nation would obviously increase. I haven't researched the figures and a lot of American real estate and industrial ownership is also outside of the US (in places like China a US company might have a 49% stake in the ownership of a factory), but the value of total government and private wealth of the US could top the 200 trillion dollar mark.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kato13
The fact that Saudi Arabia is not in the second list is stunning unless large swaths of assets are ignored.
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Again its private not government owned wealth. The Saudi Royal Family and its many minor siblings own a large swathe of Saudi Arabia including its petrochemical wealth and that is probably taken out of the equation and not classed as private. However the average Saudi is not that wealthy, only about 45% as rich as an American. In the Islamic world paying or receiving interest on investment, loans etc is also frowned upon or not allowed. There are other examples of ambiguous ownership of large wealth. The British Royal Family are quite wealthy in their own right, but they would be worth at least 20 US$ billion more if their fortune included the Crown Estate which is run by the British government but still legally owned by the British monarch.