•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Washington. Australians are more likely than Americans or Britons to say becoming a millionaire is attainable, according to a new AP-CNBC poll.

Three in 10 in Australia say there’s a good chance that they’ll be that wealthy in the next decade, compared to 21 percent of Americans and just 8 percent of Britons.

Australians are least apt to say earning a million is difficult in their country and most likely to say one should save at least that much to be comfortable in retirement.

Reflecting the psychic toll of the global economic doldrums, solid majorities of Americans — 61 percent — and Britons — 63 percent — say it’s extremely or very difficult for their countrymen to become millionaires today.

“It’s an unrealistic thing for anybody to assume,” said Jason Hall, 35, a heavy equipment operator in Loganville, Wisconsin.

Across the pond, 19-year-old Natasha Hill, an apprentice at a London hair salon, said many of her friends looking for work amid high unemployment have essentially given up.

“There’s no determination, nothing to aim for,” Hill said. “Everyone is in robot mode — they just settle.”

On the flip side of the planet, just 35 percent of Australians feel the same way, the results found.

“Oh, yes, yes, yes you can” become a millionaire, said Australian student Hannah Peters, 21. “Anybody can become a millionaire. There are so many opportunities here. You just have to know how to go about it.”

The Australians have reason to be so darned sunny.

Unemployment in Australia stands at 5.3 percent, nearly half the United States’ 9.1 percent. Just under 8 percent of Britons are out of work.

And a natural resources boom in Western Australia is helping grow the country’s economy about 3 percent this year, according to forecasts by the International Monetary Fund. The equivalent figure for the United Kingdom is 1.7 percent and for the US economy, 2.8 percent, though many private economists expect it to be lower.

Polling last month by the Associated Press and CNBC found that Australians are the most optimistic of the bunch, with 29 percent of respondents there saying they feel good about their prospects of eventually becoming a millionaire in the next decade, compared with 21 percent in the United States and just 8 percent in Britain.

In reality, the United States leads the world in millionaires, more than 5.2 million of them in 2010, or nearly one in every 20 households, according to the Boston Consulting Group’s latest annual global wealth report. Great Britain had 570,000 millionaires, or about one in every 45 households. Australia had 133,000 or about one in every 60 households, but that’s an increase of 35,000 over the previous year.

Asked to imagine being millionaires, residents of all three countries had similar priorities for spending it: The bulk of them said they would save it, invest it, buy real estate, pay down debt and share with family, the survey said.

Respondents across the board listed “saving or investing” as their first priority. The last priority? Americans and Australians listed “giving away to charity.”

Associated Press