World Finance

Middle England Man – a weekly reflection by no-one special.

This week whilst watching a documentary on the financial collapse in America’s banking system, I was informed that 99% of the wealth is owned by 1% of the population.

This strikes me as unfair. This is a graphic demonstration of what greed means.
There is a noticeable lack of equity in the distribution of the wealth. You could call it an “inequity”, which is remarkably close to the word “iniquity” which the OED describes as “immoral or grossly unfair behaviour”

How does such a thing happen? How did we let things go this far?
Some people it seems, (it’s the 1% I’m referring to here), have a love of money that is not only unhealthy for them, but also for everyone else! If they were addicted to alcohol or drugs, we’d be sending them straight off to a rehab clinic. Help them get straightened out. How are we going to straighten this out?

Our governments seem to be unable to “square up” to the 1% and give them an honest, straightforward talking to. We understand the problem, no, really we do! Part of the problem is the fact that having a ridiculous sum of money tucked away for anyone gives them access to influence and power. There is conflict of interest at play in this scenario.
None of us like letting go of the things we love – we form attachments to things, also to people, but let’s talk about attachment to things for a moment!
If our love for “things” outweighs our love for each other, we are off balance. We need people, we need each other, and we also need things. Things are not wrong or bad in any way, but what is bad is when the “things” have a hold over us that prevents our lives from being in balance. Imbalances happen, but balance is better. Ask any accountant.

So, the next question is:
What would be a balanced way of restoring balance to our society? I would like to suggest that the 1% are not doing their fair share to help us out. I would like to make the allegation that they are not “team players”. If they were, they wouldn’t be holding onto all that wealth for themselves. Another suggestion (a long way after the fact) is that we actually don’t need to borrow money from other countries, or from the International Monetary Fund, or the World Bank. What we actually need to do, is to relearn how to live within our means. This goes for individual members of society (you and me), and for Governments. George W Bush announced tax breaks at the beginning of his term of office in the White House, but those tax breaks were for the wealthy.
I would like to suggest that we don’t discourage success in business, but that we do discourage greed.

The wealth of the rich has an insulating effect on them so that they become “untouchable”. They also manage to dodge their own accountability to law, and to the rest of society. We’ve heard the maxim “with great power comes great responsibility”. Let’s see Government and the judicial system dispensing legislations that take steps towards a more balanced and equitable society. Let’s see the wealthy taking responsibility proportionate to their wealth to help us climb out of recession.