Tony At 10: WEALTH IN THE WORLD; BLOG #200; SEP 11, 2015

THE MESSAGE:

Tremendous amounts of wealth have been accumulated worldwide during the past five years. Much of this wealth is concentrated in the top 1 percent of the global population; and a large share of that wealth is concentrated in the top 1 percent of the 1 percent.

The very wealthy have a disproportionate influence and impact on government policy, investment and the economy.

A recent Global Wealth 2015 report from Boston Consulting Group found that, on current trends, by next year, 1% of the world’s population will own more wealth than the other 99%.

Oxfam added that on current trends the richest 1% would own more than 50% of the world’s wealth by 2016. Oxfam made headlines at Davos last year with a study showing that the 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people combined.

Strong economic and equity market performance helped create 920,000 new millionaires globally in 2014, as High Net Worth Individuals grew to 14.6 million with a total wealth of $56.4 trillion US. But where are the employment opportunities?

IN MY OPINION:

Where are we and what are we left with? Obviously something needs to done about the poor people of the world. Is redistribution of the world's wealth a starting point? Most likely the answer is no!

North America, with $51 trillion in private wealth, remained the world’s wealthiest region in 2014. Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) overtook Europe to become the world’s second-wealthiest region with $47 trillion. With a projected $57 trillion in 2016, Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) is expected to surpass North America, projected at $56 trillion, as the wealthiest region in the world.

A POPULAR NOTION?

Let us assume that we can confiscate the entire wealth of the world's richest 15 million people, a tidy sum of 56 trillion US dollars.

CONSIDER THE PROBLEMS WITH THIS ENDEAVOUR:

Now we have another 15 million poor people.

Will the governments of China, the USA and the European Community be able to agree to this action?

Is 56 trillion dollars a sufficient sum to ease the predicament of over 3 billion poor people? (56,000,000,000,000 divided by 3,500,000,000 which works out to approximately $16,000 per person).

How will the redistribution take place? The preferences and ideas of economic elites have far more independent impact upon policy change than do the preferences of average citizens.

Whom do we trust with the redistribution of this wealth? Who has the expertise and compassion?

How much would be skimmed off by corruption, nepotism, patronage and greed?

Who is left to plan, create, invest in order to generate enough growth to provide the poor with next year's subsidy?

Will this subsidy generate any economic growth for the world as a whole? Who will provide the subsidy for the following year?

THE QUESTION:

WHERE DO WE START?

THE ANSWER:

In our own backyard by taking full responsibility for helping those less fortunate. Many times, charitable foundations are not the answer. They must be carefully examined and researched. Perhaps it would help public perception if the very rich and super rich paid a much larger percentage of their income annually than the lower earning groups. But as I have tried to show this would not be a significant amount of money required to solve the problem. I believe the answer BEGINS WITH 'EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND EDUCATION FOR ALL!' Strong, well equipped inner-city schools with well paid, well qualified and excellent, caring teachers. A strong economy to provide many well paid and satisfying jobs for all who deserve them.

THE QUOTE:

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."

-J.K. GALBRAITH