Imagine watching a march-past of the whole Australian population. It lasts a hundred minutes. The people file past your vantage point in order of their wealth, starting with the poorest and ending with the richest. Each household is represented by one individual whose height is proportional to the total wealth of that household in the year 2002 – one centimetre for every thousand dollars.

For the first few minutes there is absolutely nothing to be seen. The people marching past are, in effect, burrowing under the ground. These are the 4 per cent of Australian households whose debts are bigger than their assets. They have negative net wealth. Some are households headed by young adults with few assets but with liabilities such as HECS debt or outstanding credit card balances. Others are businesspeople who have got into difficulties or have rearranged their financial affairs to take advantage of bankruptcy laws or favourable tax arrangements.

After four minutes some tiny figures start to appear. After ten minutes they are still only 4 centimetres high. As the parade continues the average height slowly and steadily increases. However, at the thirty-minute mark the marchers' height is still only just over 80 centimetres. It is starting to look like an endless parade of dwarfs.

At the fifty-minute mark, exactly half way through the parade, the height of the marchers has risen to nearly 2.2 metres. These households represent middle Australia.