- 50 new millionaires
- 5 new decamillionaires (households with a net worth of $10 million or more).
And yes, the American economy is serving up millionaires like Denny’s serves up meals: 24 hours a day.
It takes the U.S. economy about three days to produce a new billionaire.
Now for the contrast. (Thank you for the suggestion, Allen Warren!)
Personal and business bankruptcies occur at a rate of roughly 69 per hour — more than one every minute.
So, every hour:
- 50 people cross the million-dollar wealth line.
- 69 bankruptcy filings occur.
At first glance, that sounds like bankruptcy is winning.
But the two numbers describe very different phenomena.
Roughly 20% of Americans will become millionaires at some point in their lives. Some will later fall below that threshold as they draw down retirement accounts, spend home equity, or simply experience a change in fortune.
Roughly 10% of Americans will file for bankruptcy at some point. And bankruptcy, too, is usually an episode in a life—not a permanent condition.
There’s another complication: bankruptcies are repeatable events. An estimated 36% to 46% of bankruptcy filings are made by repeat filers. So counting 69 bankruptcies every hour substantially overstates the number of different people who will ever file.
Crossing the million-dollar threshold, by contrast, is much closer to a one-time milestone.
The 50 millionaires per hour represent people slowly accumulating wealth until they cross a finish line that a surprisingly large share of Americans—perhaps one in five—will eventually cross.
So although more bankruptcy filings occur each hour than people becoming millionaires, the lifetime picture looks very different:
About 20% will become millionaires.
About 10% will experience bankruptcy.
The punchline?
Whether you think this is the greatest economy on Earth or the worst may depend quite a bit on which way the coin flips for you—and where it lands.
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