If stature would be distributed as badly as wealth, 50% of human beings would measure 1.4 inches

Height is distributed according to a bell curve: On one end, Xi Shun, a Chinese shepherd 55 years old, who is the tallest man of the world measuring 2.36 meters. On the other end, the shortest man of the world, probably the Dominican actor Nelson de la Rosa, with 54 centimeters of stature. Between those two extremes, all we are ranked according to a bell curve.

Often one tends to think, intuitively, that wealth might be distributed in a similar fashion: Very rich people and very poor people at opposite ends, and in the middle the rest of us, forming a bell-shaped distribution. But let us see if it is true: What would happen in a world in which the height would be distributed just as wealth is in planet Earth?
According to the data of the World for Institute Development Economics of the United Nations University, UNU-WIDER, the poorest half of the adult population of the world is only owner of 1% of the global wealth. On the other side of the curve, 2% of the population has 50% of the wealth.

If we try to visualize the distribution of wealth among the poorest 50%, how much would measure a poor person in an imaginary world in which the stature is distributed in the same way in which the Earth´s wealth is distributed? Imagining that the average stature of the human being is of 170cm (67 inches or 5.58 feet), 50% of the population of the planet would measure 3.4 centimeters (that is 1.4 inches)!

It is no wonder that from the western countries, with that size, the height of a string of turf in a golf or football ground, we barely notice them and step on them as if they were our turf. Three thousand three hundred million people with a size of few inches: The strings of grass of the golf course of the very powerful ones.

But then, again, what about the size of the very powerful ones? The 2% that owns 50% of the global wealth? Those 2% of the inhabitants monopolize 50% of the stature available. Therefore, each one among that 2% of the human beings would measure, on average, more than 45 meters of height (147 feet!). That is just like a12 store building... While the rest of us would measure about 86 centimeters on average, just like a two years old boy.
If this were a science film fiction it is not difficult to imagine that those powerful giants would have enslaved their tiny relatives...
Think about it. Fascinating world, uh?

To be continued...

PS: Spanish version here.