A reader of the September 15 Trading Thoughts column listing the concentrated wealth of 25 families that own just under one per cent of the planet’s wealth was upset.
What was the point? asked the reader.
The point was in the last paragraphs: “Together these 25 families own just under one per cent of global wealth. The average family wealth on the planet amounts to $3,000 US.
"And we wonder why people rebel against the filthy rich.’’
No society can have continued harmony and peace unless citizens can have hope they can improve their lives and their families by getting ahead, by building some wealth.
People need hope they can not only survive but advance and thrive.
Wealthy families have always been with us. Building of wealth needs to be encouraged.
In Medieval times wealth was concentrated in the local lord or duke who protected and expanded his wealth with knights and armies recruited from his subjects, the serfs who toiled in a subsistence economy.
That social/economic model was changed when the merchant class grew wealthy and used its newfound clout to persuade kings to modernize.
The power of the merchant class sparked the British Empire from settlement of North America to the British East India Company to the African colonies and Cecil Rhodes.
There was some hope for average citizens to get ahead, to build a future and nest egg of their own.
Even the Soviet Union with a Communist ideology had a “wealthy class” — the elite in the bureaucracy and politicians who ran the country, until people rebelled and overthrew Communism to try and get hope for their families.
During the last 50 years immense wealth building has created a steady flow of multi-millionaires and billionaires with consequent influence.
As they suck up greater and greater proportions of income and wealth they leave the masses behind, creating a perception, real or not, of wealthy who run the country for their own ends, uncaring about others.
The young people in the United States who have been protesting Donald Trump for four years, the people protesting for Black Lives Matter, want to see hope for the future restored.
They live in a world threatened by climate change, global politics and lost job opportunities, not to mention regular police brutality and a system that automatically discriminates against them.
Some of the wealthy would have us believe these people are all criminals who want to destroy our way of life.
The column was not, as the reader asserts, a Communist conspiracy. Rather it was a warning that without restoring hope for all, our wealthy society could experience continual turmoil and class struggle.
The reader also commented that without the wealthy there would be no hospitals, no stadiums, no libraries.
Wealthy people do donate millions to these developments but they receive benefits in tax credits and the goodwill publicity from their charity.
As for stadiums, they are virtually all built by local taxpayers to subsidize sports teams owned by the wealthy. The wealthy top off the public contributions and have the stadiums named for them.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
