I read an article yesterday, or maybe the day before, about the ideas of Professor Ingrid Robeyns, a professor of philosophy and economics at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. She believes that nobody should have more than 10 million euros/pounds/whatever: “In a country with a socioeconomic profile similar to the Netherlands, where I live, we should aim to create a society in which no one has more than €10m. There shouldn’t be any decamillionaires.”
Oxfam regularly reports on the gap between the rich and the poor - or perhaps it should be between the rich and the folk who just manage to get by. “This year’s report, Inequality Inc, again articulates a trend that we have all witnessed for the past four decades and more. While most people, locally, nationally, globally, try to survive on the same or less, the rich and the very rich become phenomenally more wealthy year by year. Since 2020, the report reveals, “60% of humanity has grown poorer, [while] billionaires are now $3.3tn or 34% richer than they were at the beginning of this decade of crisis.” The wealth of the world’s five richest men has more than doubled in that period, adding an unprecedented $464bn to their fortunes.”
There you go! Why do they need so much money?
Now, I have a theory: the super-rich are simply addicted to money. There must come a point where you really know you have enough and it’s not fear of being broke that motivates them to carry on accumulating cash. They may tell themselves that it’s the challenge that they like but if that were so, then surely they could overcome the challenge and give the money away. I read recently of the CEO of some organisation who declared that he felt he actually earned too much money!! Maybe there should be a maximum wage as well as a minimum wage.
But, getting back to that addiction to money, I was talking about addiction with Granddaughter Number Two. She confesses to being addicted to sweet things and varies between making sure she has stocks of Haribo (Kids and grown-ups love so … the happy world of Haribo) and refusing to give any sweet stuff houseroom in order to avoid temptation. She’s also worried about her 18 year old brother who is dipping his toe into the world of gambling; she’s afraid he will be addicted to the thrill of it, even though his mother reckons he is being very sensible about it.
And I know someone who has decided to “do dry January” because she is afraid of becoming an alcoholic and wants to prove to herself that she can survive without a glass of wine every night.
I suppose human beings are by nature more or less addiction-prone. We like to read as many books as possible by the same author, collect all the records released by favourite artists, follow our favourite celebrities obsessively on social media.
And, as for our mobile telephones, well, the other day I had a problem with mine; several times in the course of a day it gave me a message that I had “no network available”. This was a problem because I wanted to post photos on my blog and have to do through the main computer as my iPad won’t cooperate in that way. In order for me to be able to do that, and in the interests of security, Google sends me a “verification code” in a message to my mobile. After several attempts, I realised that there was a problem with my phone … which went on for a few hours. Minor panic began to set in. Was ai going to need to replace my handset? When would I be able to do that? Did I even know where and how to go about it? If so, would I need to change my phone number? And, more importantly, in the meantime, what would I do without an always available phone? After all, I don’t leave the house without it. Indeed, there are times when ai rarely move from room to room without ensuring that my phone goes with me.
Was this the start of withdrawal symptoms?
And then it sorted itself out - maybe it was the network that was having problems - and it’s been fine since!
But things were tense for a while there!
And maybe the mega-rich have the same problem with money: if they don’t see the pile of treasure growing they get worried. And, like dragons in ancient stories, they want to sit on their hoard and fear the idea that someone might take it away. Just a thought!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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