Differences in national income equality around the world as measured by the national Gini coefficient, as reported by the Gini Coefficient World CIA Report 2009. Public domain image.
Perhaps even more striking than their misconceptions were their beliefs about the ideal wealth distribution. Survey respondents said that the ideal distribution would be one in which the top 20 percent owned between 30 and 40 percent of the total wealth, and that the bottom 40 percent should hold between 25 percent and 30 percent of the wealth — about 1,000 times more than the bottom 40 percent actually do hold.
From a must-read article at Life’s Little Mysteries: Five Facts About the Wealthiest One Percent.