Perspective on Wealth

If you're a follower of Christ and you talk too much about money, people will write you off while mumbling something about "a social gospel" - as if there were such a thing as a non-social gospel - or they will call you a neo-communist. Running that risk again... here we go...

Unlike the Global Rich List, which compares worldwide incomes and lets one know that an annual income of $25,000 places one in the top 10% of worldwide income (check it out), there is a new report from the United Nations that shows that the richest 2% of the world's population own an astounding 50% of the world's wealth. Here are some figures from the study that analyzes household wealth (assets minus debt) as opposed to income:

• The top 2% own 50% of global household wealth
• The bottom 50% own just 1% of global wealth
• Assets of $2,200 place one in the top half of global wealth owners
• The top 10% of the global wealthy own assets worth at least $61,000
• 25% of the top 10% ($61,000 - remember?) live in the USA. 20% of top 10% live in Japan. The rest of the top ten percent - 8% in Germany, 6% in the UK, and 4% each in Spain and France. That's 67% of the top 10% living in 6 countries.

Wow. Did you get that? The richest 2% own 50% of the world's wealth and the bottom 50% own just 1% of the world's wealth. Puts some things in perspective... Does the gospel have anything to say about this situation? Or not? And what is the answer? Massive global redistribution of wealth can't be the solution. I guess it depends on whether you're a neo-communist or not.

Comments

[Phil]

I could use some wisdom from the crowd here. I started an entry for my blog a while back but since I've never finished it (and only like 3 people read my blog), I'll taint Stevens blog with my thoughts...

It seems to me that conversations along the lines of "they only make $1 a day" are misleading. I don't at all mean that folks who make $1 a day have all the food, clothing, and shelter they need, but I believe statistics like this deliberately exploit our western view of normative income to make the point. I'm no economics wizard, but when taking into account widely varying cost and standards of living, the issue is far more complex. Given different societal norms and values, it seems implicitly comparing the entire world to our American standard of living - 2400 sq ft house on 1/3 acre lot, 2 cars, 4 cell phones, a gazillion TVs, 3 game systems and a partridge in a pear tree - is simplistic and imposes our standards on them (which is a topic for an entirely separate rant).

For example, it is well publicized that an engineer in China makes 20-25% of what I make as an engineer in the US. However, I know first hand that my Lenovo colleagues in Beijing are doing just fine on that salary. Normalizing for cultural differences and the realities of the lifestyle in a city literally 100x the population in home of Durham, NC, they are doing quite well, thank you, because their cost of living is much less. The cost of labor in Beijing is so low, in fact, that many of these folks can afford to hire folks to assist them with things that are out of the question to do here (live-in nanny, cook, etc). Now obviously there is substantial poverty in Beijing... and I hear even more poverty in rural China, but my point is that these engineers are doing quite well while making what would likely be a poverty-level income in the US.

What's my point? Well, I'm not sure. I don't disagree that wealth is concentrated in the west in general and the US specifically. But its not that simple. But more importantly, I'm not sure what to do about it. It seems my efforts at living my values (as flawed as those efforts are) hardly make a drop in the ocean either way.

[steven]

Well said, Phil. Income is a grossly misused statistic - especially when comparing China or Africa and Durham. Wealth, I think, is a little different, but still suffers from the same problems - the acres of land farmed by a family in Tanzania aren't worth a fraction of your backyard in Durham when measured as "wealth," yet that land is many times more valuable in terms of what it represents to the well-being of an extended family.

I also agree that it is difficult to know what to do about it - as you said. And exactly what sort of outcome are we looking forward to? And more importantly, but rarely asked, is what sort of outcome are the Africans and Chinese hoping to see from our efforts at living our values? There is so much more to say... I think I'll have to start writing.

All of that said, I think that a raw statistic on income or wealth with all of its inherent flaws is still useful for shaking some of us from our slumber and realizing that the world is much bigger than we realize and that our perspectives and values could use some readjustment.