Bernie Sanders a billionaire? That would be a shock.

But Bernie Sanders a millionaire? Sure. And in today’s America, he’s got a lot of company.

Sanders, who acknowledged his seven-digit status last week, is one of an estimated 17.3 million millionaires living in the U.S., by one measure at least.

He’s also a self-described democratic socialist who has placed income distribution and inequality at the center of his two presidential runs. He has said the country is owned and controlled by a small number of billionaires whose greed has torn the fabric of society and because of them, the U.S. is becoming an oligarchy.

That kind of populist rhetoric can make the 77-year-old senator’s perch in the top 5 percent of wealth in America feel a bit, well, awkward.

In any event, that the U.S. is home to more millionaires than ever makes sense. A big wave of baby boomers, many with 401(k)s and perhaps even pension plans, has been moving into retirement after enjoying a decade-long bull market. Before last December’s market rout, Fidelity Investments reported having 187,400 401(k) accounts with balances of $1 million or more, a record high.

That, though, represents only about 1 percent of all Fidelity accounts. Most Americans are far from achieving what Sanders has. Only about 55 percent have 401(k) retirement-savings plans. And four in 10 adults faced with a $400 emergency expense would have to borrow, sell something or not be able to cover it, according to a 2018 report by the Federal Reserve.

Sanders’s rise from a lower-middle-income family, with parents who didn’t go to college, used to be a classic American not-quite-rags to riches story. Statistics show it is becoming harder to write.

A report by The Pell Institute and PennAhead found that 24-year-olds who grew up in households with at least $116,500 in annual income represented more than half of the college degrees earned in 2014; households with incomes below $35,000 produced just 10 percent of the graduates.

Until a few years ago, Sanders’ net worth was likely below the $1 million mark. Financial-disclosure forms for politicians allow for wide ranges in asset values, making it hard to get a good grasp on how wealthy he is. But in 2015, Sanders clocked in at No. 77 of the 100 senators in terms of net worth, within the range of $271,033 to $1,153,999, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The group estimated Sanders’ net worth at $712,516.

And he does have debt: His two mortgages are at minimum $350,000 and could be as much as $750,000.

He lamented his relative poverty in a 2016 debate, saying, “Unfortunately, I remain one of the poorer members of the United States Senate.”

This could still be true. An analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics found that more than 70 percent of Senators were millionaires in 2015, the most recent year for the center’s analysis. The median net worth of Republicans in the chamber was $3.3 million, up 13 percent from the previous year, while the median net worth of Democrats was just under $3 million, up 9.6 percent.

Sanders, who isn’t affiliated with either party, has the publishing industry to thank for much of his windfall. He’s penned four books, the latest “Where We Go From Here” in 2018. He earned more than $1 million in 2016, when he got $868,000 in royalties on top of his $174,000 Senate salary. His 2017 financial-disclosure report listed royalties of about $880,000.

Not counted in Sanders’ wealth tally are three homes: two in Vermont and a row house on Capitol Hill in Washington. In 2016, he caught some flak for buying a vacation home — a four-bedroom place on Lake Champlain that cost $575,000. His wife, Jane, said at the time the couple had sold a Maine lake home her family had owned since 1900 and used those proceeds to buy the vacation property.

Sanders has said he will release 10 years of his tax returns by Monday, this year’s deadline for filing.

Now, not everyone’s definition of what qualifies someone as a millionaire is the same. One report’s millionaire may be another’s merely — the horror! — mass affluent.

Some researchers, such as Credit Suisse with its 17.3 million, include housing in the total and subtract debt. Others, including Spectrem Group, don’t include the value of a home. Spectrem figures there were 10.2 million U.S. households in 2018 with a net worth of between $1 million and $5 million, a 2.5 percent rise from 2017. When households with more than $5 million are added in, the tally rises to 11.8 million households with a net worth of at least $1 million.

Sanders had advice for Americans who want to join him in the upper ranks . “I wrote a best-selling book,” he told the New York Times. “If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”

伯尼·桑德斯是亿万富翁？这可能会让人大吃一惊。

但他是百万富翁吗？毫无疑问。而且在今时今日的美国，像桑德斯这样的人还有很多。

上周桑德斯承认了自己的七位数身家，成为美国1730万名百万富翁之一，至少按某项指标来说是这样。

他还自称为民主社会主义者。此前两次参选总统，桑德斯都把收入分配和贫富差距作为核心纲领。他说拥有和掌控美国的是少数亿万富翁，他们的贪婪已经撕裂了社会结构，而且正是因为他们，美国正在变成一个寡头统治的国家。

这种民粹主义言论可能让这位77岁的参议员在美国最富有的5%人群中的位置感觉有些尴尬。

无论如何，美国的百万富翁数量达到前所未有的水平是合理情况。人数众多的婴儿潮一代在享受了长达10年的牛市后开始退休，而且其中的许多人都有401(k)养老金计划，甚至是退休金计划。富达投资称，去年12月美股大跌前，该公司余额达到和超过100万美元的401(k)账户共有18.74万个。

不过，这个数字只占富达投资全部账户的1%左右。大多数的美国人都远远达不到桑德斯的水平。只有约55%的人有401(k)退休储蓄计划。美联储在2018年的报告中指出，面对400美元的紧急支出，40%的美国成年人都需要借钱或变卖物品，否则就无力承担。

桑德斯来自于中低收入家庭，父母都没有上过大学。这曾经是一个从不那么贫穷走向富有的故事。而统计数据显示，“写就”这种故事的难度正在加大。

佩尔研究所和高等教育研究机构PennAhead的报告称，2014年，在24岁的本科毕业生中，有一半以上都来自于年收入至少达到11.65万美元的家庭；家庭年收入不足3.5万美元的毕业生只占10%。

就在几年前，桑德斯的净值还有可能低于100万美元。政坛人士的财产报表对资产价值的界定范围很宽，因而很难准确判断他的富裕程度。但无党派研究机构响应性政治中心在2015年指出，桑德斯的个人资产介于271033美元至1153999美元之间，在100名参议员中排名第77。该机构估算的具体净值为712516美元。

另外桑德斯还有负债。他的两笔抵押贷款至少为35万美元，而且有可能达到75万美元。

2016年参加辩论时桑德斯曾经“哭诉”自己比较穷，他说：“可惜，我仍然是参议院中较贫穷的成员之一。”

情况可能依然如此。响应性政治中心发现，2015年，也就是该中心分析的最近一个年份，70%以上的参议员都是百万富翁。共和党参议员的个人净值中位数是330万美元，同比上升13%；民主党参议员的个人净值中位数则略低于300万美元，增长了9.6%。

中立人士桑德斯的很大一笔意外之财要感谢出版业。他写了四本书，最新的一本是2018年出版的《Where We Go From Here》。2016年桑德斯的收入超过100万美元，除了17.4万美元的参议员工资，还有86.8万美元来自于版权费。2017年，他申报的版权费收入约为88万美元。

未列入桑德斯财产的有三处住宅，其中两幢位于佛蒙特州，另一所联排别墅在华盛顿国会山。2016年，桑德斯因为购买度假屋而受到了一些批评，这幢位于尚普兰湖畔的别墅有四间卧室，价格为57.5万美元。当时，桑德斯的妻子简说他们卖掉了简一家在1900年就拥有的缅因州湖畔住宅，然后用所得资金买了那幢别墅。

桑德斯已经表示，他会在周一，也就是今年申报的最终期限前公布过去10年的纳税申报单。

如今，大家对百万富翁应该具备哪些资格看法不一。这篇报道中的百万富翁在另一篇报道中也许只是富裕人士，这真可怕。

一些研究机构估算美国富翁人数时将房产包括在内，但扣除了债务，比如称美国有1730万百万富翁的瑞士信贷。Spectrem Group等公司计算这个数字时则未纳入房产。Spectrem Group表示，2018年净值介于100万美元至500万美元的美国家庭共有1020万个，比2017年增加2.5%。如果加上净值超过500万美元的家庭，净值至少达到100万美元的美国家庭数量将升至1180万个。

对于想和他一样进入较高阶层的美国同胞，桑德斯有一条建议。他对《纽约时报》说：“我写了一本最畅销的书。如果你能写一本这样的书，那你也会成为百万富翁。”（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林