The average American might make 60k; the average person makes more like 2. The billionaire also doesn’t have an income of a billion a year, he has an accumulated net worth of a billion. Median wealth is measured in thousands of dollars. And the numbers on the left half of that distribution are very low indeed.

But anyway, whether it’s a billion times more or merely a million times more, the difference is still staggeringly huge.

If you have a dollar, how many more do you need to make a billion? About a billion.

If you have a million dollars, how many more do you need to make a billion? About a billion.