Distribution of wealth

I just came upon some truly fascinating economic data in the Luxembourg Wealth Study.
These are data on the net worth (assets less liabilities) of households in several countries, including the U.S. in U.S. dollars:

US Canada Finland
Median $43,500 $43,800 $59,400
Mean $227,800 $98,400 $85,800


The huge disparity between the median and the mean in the case of the U.S. is a demonstration of the gross inequalities in wealth in our country between the "haves" and the "have nots". In the U.S., the typical household has a net worth of $43,500 (with half the households larger and half smaller), but the average net worth of U.S. households is more than five time greater. This means that the average net worth of the "haves" (upper half of the distribution) is probably about $433,850, whereas the average net worth of the "have nots" (lower half of the distribution) is probably about $21,750.*

That's a disparity of almost twenty-fold between the average of the lower half and the average of the upper half.

By contrast, in Finland the lower half average about $29,700 and the upper half average about $141,800, a disparity of less than five-fold. And, Canada is far closer to Finland.

We probably all knew that Finland was a more egalitarian society than America, but the size of the difference is startling. But, even more startling is the fact that the typical (median) household in both Finland and Canada have a higher (significantly higher in the case of Finland) net worth than the typical household in the U.S.

In the U.S. the rich guys are REALLY RICH, but the average Joe gets screwed. In Finland, the average Joe is a good deal better off than here and is not that much poorer than the rich guy there. On that measure alone, which kind of society would you prefer?

*Note: I'm assuming the lower end of the wealth distribution is roughly linear between $0 and the median.