mauler's Triennial Report on Everything2 Wealth Distribution


So three years ago, at the height of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement, I ran some numbers comparing wealth inequality on Everything2 (as measured in GP), with wealth inequality in the United States (you can find the original writeup here).

Well, since it has been three years, I decided to re-run the numbers and see how the GP wealth distribution on E2 has or hasn't changed.

As of this writing, there are 1380 E2 users in possession of at least 1 GP. Of these 1380 users, 139, or just about 10 percent, have 1 GP and 1 GP only, and 697 users--the bottom 50%--each have 13 GP or less.

Meanwhile, the richest 1% of users today--a total of just 14 Everything2 users--control an incredible 421,706 GP between them, or an average of 30,121 GP each.

With a 937,858 total GP in circulation as of this writing, this means that the richest 1% of Everything2 users control nearly 45% of all the wealth on E2. This compares to the richest 1% in the United States owning about 40% of all of the wealth.

Compared to the last time we ran these numbers three years ago, the GP system on E2 seems remarkably stable. The size of the pie has gotten slightly larger, with 162,717 more GP in circulation (a 21% increase), but there are also 221 additional users with at least 1 GP (an increase of 19%).

Whereas GP wealth inequality on E2 plunged in the previously analyzed three-year period from November 2008 to November 2011, with the wealth of the richest 1% decreasing from around 80% to around 45%, E2's wealth distribution has remained remarkably static since then; the richest 1% held 44% of all GP three years ago, they hold a slightly higher 45% today.

However, with the size of the 1% increasing from 11 to 14 noders, the average net worth of each member of the 1% actually dropped by 1300 GP, down from 31,421 GP three years ago.

Overall the average net worth of all noders with at least 1 GP increased only slightly, from 669 to 680 GP, suggesting a very low annual inflation rate of just 0.5%.

In conclusion, six years since it was first implemented, the GP system seems to have achieved something approaching a state of equilibrium. This is encouraging, because it means that the problems we had with massive XP inflation under the original XP system have been largely tamed, and users seem to be spending GP at around the same rate that they are acquiring it.