Philip Adams is interviewing Brooke Hamilton in repeat as I type. Listen here. They are discussing the theft of wealth by those running the neo-liberal agenda. Both broadcasters keep referring to “the one percent”.
One percent of the world’s population is 70 million people. There are many more millionaires than that in the world, so the 70 million wealthiest people in the world represent a serious pile of gold bars but they are not the ones calling the shots.
The one per lakh, on the other hand, is the 70,000 people who control wealth beyond what you or I can imagine. A lakh is the Vedic name for our 100,000.
In the number system used across South Asia, the next order of magnitude that gets a name is the Crore. The Crore is ten of our million, or 100 lakh, it is written, 1,00,00,000. The Vedic system uses commas ever two orders of magnitude after the first three.
The one per crore, then, is the 700 people who actually control the wealth. The Rothschilds, the British Royal Family and so on. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have probably made it into this particular elite, the oil sheiks and major arms dealers will be in there as well.
The Cage, therefor has decided to talk about the one per crore and the one per lakh when appropriate and use the one percent when we specifically want to refer to the very wealthy 70 million who are stinking rich, but who are really just ordinary people with a lot of money.