20 years to become a millionaire in the US - The UK's Economist magazine has attempted to identify the country where it is easiest to make a fortune. It calculated the average annual salary of households in 20 different countries before working out the amount of time needed to accumulate $1 million. The US was at the top of the league table with Americans standing the best chance of becoming a millionaire after 20 years of hard graft than elsewhere. At the bottom of the table are the Romanians and Mexicans who would need several lives each to reach the same wealth benchmark (around 300 years in each country). In Europe, the Norwegians are in second place and the Swiss in third, their respective nationals able to hope of becoming millionaires in less than 25 years of work. The French and Germans follow hot on their heels in seventh and eighth places, with around 40 years needed before their nationals can get rich. The United Kingdom follows next, in ninth place and where between 45-50 years of work would be required. Italy is in 10th place, with 50 years and Spain in 11th place with 60 years. The magazine has not based its calculation on very reliable parameters, however: it took the average gross annual salary of the main family breadwinner in an average household, then calculated how many times this revenue would need to be added up to arrive at the sum of $1 million but did not take into account factors such as the cost of living, household expenditure or even what taxes are deducted from these gross salaries. Despite all this, this classification does manage to clarify wage differentials between certain countries in the more or less “developed” world. (IL/transl.fl)