A 1911 Industrial Worker (IWW newspaper) publication advocating industrial unionism showing anti-capitalist propaganda. It is based on a flyer of the "Union of Russian Socialists" spread in 1900 and 1901. Source: http://bit.ly/9NZjzu
In the beginning of time, every man was equally poor, or equally rich, depending on how you look at it. Then we discovered agriculture, and the surplus of food enabled specialization of labour, which gave birth to cities and to civilization. Since then, we’ve been more or less divided into three economic groups: The poor, the reasonably well off, and the ultra-rich.
Which group do you feel that you belong in? On a superficial level, we can divide the three groups as follows:
- The poor: This group ranges from the people who suffer from starvation and drought to the people who are able to procure the minimum of food, shelter, and clothing, but don’t have much money for anything else.
- The reasonably well-off: This group has enough economic power to satisfy their needs and some of their wants, but they still live a somewhat austere life and must spend much of their lives working.
- The ultra-rich: This group has amassed the most wealth and consumes the most resources, but also enjoys the highest living standards. They generally enjoy much better working conditions than those in the previous two groups, and oftentimes are at work in control of their own business.
There is a global rich list which you can consult to see where you stand in comparison to the rest of the world. Check out your results on the list; where do you stand?
The poor, the rich, and the ultra-rich
Let’s look over our three categories again:
The poor: Many people living in pretty much every area of the world, but especially concentrated in Africa, Asia, and South America.
The reasonably well-off: The middle class of Africa, Asia, and South America.
The ultra-rich: The middle class of North America, Europe, and parts of Asia.
Yep, if you live in North America or Europe, chances are, you belong to the class of the ultra-rich! I know you don’t feel that way, but let’s take a look at the facts:
- Most of us have access to clean water, healthy food, and high quality housing and clothing. Many in poorer countries live in dilapidated buildings or wooden huts.
- Most of us can afford to drive cars and build the highways for them, whereas many people in poorer countries rely on scooters or bicycles.
- Working standards in western nations are pretty good. Even working at Walmart for minimum wage is much better than having to work in a wet field picking rice or working in a sweatshop making shoes.
This isn’t how we usually think about this. When we assess our relative social standing, we don’t look at people halfway across the world in different situations from us; instead we look at our neighbours, friends, and coworkers, and assess our standing relative to our peers. Our efforts to be “equal” or “better” than our peers is what drives some people into a cycle of “keeping up with the Joneses”. Who can afford the biggest house? The most expensive car? The nicest plasma TV?
Instead of assessing things in this way, it sometimes helps to keep a global perspective. It can be mind-opening to visit some of these countries and realize that lifestyles in other places can be quite different. For those of us living in a rich nation, we have it pretty good. There’s no need for us to feel guilty about what we have, but there are ways that we can help out; it can feel good to share what we have and help others out. Andrew Hallam has a couple of suggestions on how we can help out.
There is a movie called “Beyond Borders” which stars Angelina Jolie and, as the main backdrop to the story, covers poverty in areas ranging from Africa, to Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and Chechnya during the civil war. The film has been criticized for exploiting poverty in order to sell a movie, but I think that the criticism misses one of the main points of the movie, which is simply to spread awareness that we live in a world where poverty, hardship, and misfortune still exist, and that there isn’t always a happy ending in life.
So, were you surprised by your results on the global rich list? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
You know, I always felt lucky just to be fortunate enough to be born in this country. However, I guess I never really thought about it in the way you wrote in this post.
I already have a house bigger than I ever expected and have a family that is just wonderful. Sometimes, when I look at how blessed I have been, I get mad at myself for being in a bad mood, ever.
Thanks for the perspective today.
You are right, when we keep a bigger picture in mind, then we can feel grateful for what we have; I do the same as well, and I am no longer so bothered by things like someone having a nicer car or whatever.
I believe it’s about where you place your self-actualization. You can place it in material goods, or you can place it in more abstract things that will provide you more pleasure over the long run. I believe experiences, skills, and relationships will all provide much more benefit over the long haul, and this is where I try to invest my time in these days, instead of worrying about if someone is making more money than me 😉
Hi Kevin,
I was very surprised to see that I was among the top 3% of the richest in this world. I never expected to be ranked so high, not at this point of my life (I’m in my twenties). Yes, we do take our life in North America for granted, just the simplest necessities; we don’t even think twice about them, and in addition, we want more of the material things that are really just pointless in the grand scheme of things, such as a bigger house or a nicer car. We should really just be thankful for being brought up on this side of the world instead of a war torn or poverty-stricken nation.
Having said that, I do find it hard to always put things in perspective on a daily basis since we are continuously exposed to a materialistic lifestyle, with the media, our friends and families always talking about buying this or that, or taking a vacation here or there, or getting a promotion/salary raise, etc. We can’t help but get caught up in this life, it’s just what we are surrounded by.
Though, because we are used to this life, if we lived in a poverty-stricken country (as I’d seen in my travels to Cambodia, Senegal and Vietnam), I am not sure my life would be any different, maybe it would be on a lower level, but my wants would not differ, or maybe they would. I would have to live locally in one of those countries for awhile to see.
Hi Anne,
You are quite right; sometimes we can’t help but get carried away in competition, when people are trying to compete with us and show that they are better than us because they make more money, have a bigger house, or whatever. Even if they don’t actually brag about it, we sometimes feel like we have to compete with them, because if we don’t, we feel like we are falling further and further behind. This is normal human nature.
However, I believe a big part of it lies in where you place your self-esteem and self-worth. If they are strongly attached to your material possessions, then you are going to have a hard time getting out of the rat race. I believe that the key is in shifting your sense of self into a set of different priorities that don’t require you to spin your wheels in a cage, just to stay in place. I think you have it right when it comes to seeing the world, and there is a lot that we can learn by broadening our horizons and seeing what is out there.
Hey Kevin,
Nice post, way to keep things in perspective!!
Relative to everyone else, Canadians have it very, very good. Wealthy Canadians, are amongst the richest people in the world, financially and environmentally speaking. Our world is certainly in an age of consumerism and I’m convinced a few generations from now, that lifestyle will be our species degradation and downfall. Sounds pessimistic I know, but the reality is, there is only a finite amount of water, earth and air avaliable to seven billion people. My wife and I count ourselves lucky, fortunate and blessed we live in a great city and country with infrstructure that make pretty much “anything possible”. More than half of this world is not so fortunate and its very good of you to remind yourself and others of this. Kudos to you Kevin.
Mark
I agree; I feel that us Canadians really have a good thing going; we live in a country with one of the highest standards of living in the world, and with a lot of diversity in many aspects. It’s not perfect here, but it certainly isn’t horrible, either. Perhaps if the weather here was a little nicer… 😉
Maybe I would go seasteading once that idea picks up, but that could be many years yet.
I start my economics class every semester exactly this way. What is interesting is that students from other countries get it right away where many times the American kids are not so sure. And they live in one of the wealthiest counties on the face of the planet. I often tell them I wish we could get in a plane and travel to different countries and just visit school children to see how they live.
I also talk about time. Just a bit over a hundred years ago people weren’t able to get on airplanes. have refrigeration, drive automobiles, have the medicines we have today etc.
Having said this let me play a bit of the devil’s advocate. In my childhood I lived with my uncles who worked the mills in Conn. By today’s standards we were poor but as I reflect back it was the a “rich” childhood. And I don’t think they felt they were poor. They didn’t have SUVs or big screen TVs. In fact, they had a black and white TV with only 3 channels. But every Friday night was a rollicking good time as the whole neighborhood gathered to watch the boxing matches on the small black and white screen, drink cheap beer, and smoke cheap cigars. There is something liberating that’s hard to get at when everyone is on the same level and the “keeping up with the Joneses'” veil is lifted!
Today it is a major event just to get the neighbors on our street out for a cookout. All the kids are inside tied to their video games.
So, I wonder sometimes who is “richer”. It’s definitely about more than material things! But it is good not to have to struggle.
Yep, you bring up a good point; a lot of the wealth which we enjoy is based in community, relationships, and friendships. Material things help improve our quality of life… cars, refrigeration, and airplanes have definitely increased our standard of living, but when it gets to the point where you feel dumb cause you have a three-bedroom house and everyone else has a five-bedroom house, then you’re stuck in the rat race… especially if everything is bought on credit! It’s better to balance things out so that material goods aren’t the only means to self-actualizing your life.
Very inspiring, Kevin! It is true that happiness money brings is relative to our neighbors and friends, not globally. We don’t care if we are richer than half the people on this planet, and we also don’t even blink because Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and others earn much above our income. Strange phenomenon, I already wrote about how much money we need to be happy in life and on the other hand, how building wealth makes us happy
Humans are strange beings.
Hi Get Happy Life,
If happiness based on wealth was absolute, then nobody would have the right to be unhappy. We are all kings compared to the hunter gatherers in material ways, though perhaps not always in cultural ways (the hunter gatherers had the strength of close bonds and ties with friends and family, and leaders that were highly personally accountable).
Because we don’t see it absolute but rather relative, then we might always be unhappy to a certain extent! I think we will need to learn to manage our emotions in this modern world of ours, as it will be kind of ridiculous to be unhappy since you have a regular iPhone instead of one made out of gold! I think we need to look at how we can improve things and raise ourselves rather than pulling those around us down. There will always be things to do and things to improve, and maybe once material wealth becomes abundant enough that absolute poverty is eliminated, it might lead to a happier world where people trade based on love and friendship rather than just out of a need to satisfy material wants.
This is exactly why we should rise a little above our average level and be thankful for what we have. We should learn to become better persons instead, because that is where true happiness lies.