Golden billion

See also Western world

Golden billion  ("“conspiracy theory”")
A term used by Soviet economists to describe the wealthy countries of the West, who they believed had achieved an unprecedented level of prosperity and standard of living.

The golden billion is a term to describe the world's most affluent and developed countries. It refers to the approximately one billion people who live in the Western industrialized nations of North America and Western Europe (sometimes Japan included); it was not widely used in the English-speaking world but widespread in the former Soviet Union.

Usually the terms "first world", "developed world" or "high-income countries" is used to describe this concept.

Official narrative

Wikipedia writes: "The golden billion theory is a conspiracy theory that a cabal of global elites are pulling strings to amass wealth for the world's richest billion people at the expense of the rest of humanity."

Plutonomy

Analysts for Citigroup have used the term Plutonomy in 2005, to describe that the world is divided into two blocs – the Plutonomy and the rest. The U.S., UK, and Canada are the key Plutonomies – economies powered by the wealthy. Continental Europe (ex-Italy) and Japan are in this bloc. In these Plutonomies the economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few, and the rest. Plutonomies have occurred before in sixteenth century Spain, in seventeenth century Holland, the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties in the United States.

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