Minda answers the question no one asked….
Yesterday I did a post You Are Richer Than You Think where I linked to the Global Rich List. It is a widget that calculates your income vs. the world at large.
Minda’s Inky World posted a very heated response to my post including foul language and almost maniacal tone. Might be her thing or the theme of the blog - I don’t know.
Did anybody else NOT get the point??
Anyway, here’s my response…
Minda, I can see you feel strongly about this subject. But I am afraid you are looking at it through a very narrow and self-centered perspective. Fact is the standard of living for people with computers is astronomically higher than the world’s poor. You might say myopia is a natural response to the difference. We simply don’t want to see the global poverty level for what it is.
You really need to take into account how small the group that we call Netizens is compared to the world at large. If you make more than .20 cents USD per day in China you are ABOVE the poverty line! .20 cents a day = $73.00 per year. By world bank standards there are approximately 210 million Chinese people living at that level.
Weigh that against the entire population of the United States (Population ~300 million) and you’ve got a monstrous number of people living in the “cave, making weapons out of sticks, killing wild animals, drinking from creeks, and making clothes out of animal skins” scenario you describe. Which I might add is a somewhat contemptuous attitude to take about their dire situation.
Your example of $1,487 in the US defeats your own argument. Sure, $1,487 might not buy much here, but in the recesses of China it would make you wealthy.
Put another way, that pitiful $1,487 in many rural Chinese villages would double the income of 10 people.
Truth is, you are richer than you think.
Technorati Tags: poverty, Money
{ 13 comments }
Your right. I did come off rather insane sounding. Sorry. I’ll make another post that will TRY to better explain what I was talking about.
However…the response was toward http://www.globalrichlist.com/ Not toward you. Sorry if you thought that. I didn’t word it correctly. So don’t be mad at me, I wasn’t making a statement against you.
Boy do I look like an ass. LOL. Really it wasn’t toward you and I’ve taken your statements into consideration. (although I did try to ignore the personal jabs. Not very nice…but I can see why you would feel that way.)
I would really like to debate this issue further sometime. It interests me.
Anyways please take a look at my post and see if you can better understand what I am trying to say.
Thank you
Oh…and I understand that the site is actually try to reach out to people and persuade them to donate to charity. Its a very good approach.
Malinda,
I didn’t mean to come across as rude or mean. Instead I was trying to meet you where you were.
I’m not mad at all. But if I sense someone is making up an excuse for not being the best they can be – I pounce. Sorry if I got it wrong this time or sound harsh.
I’ve had a chance to look at your site more thoroughly and can better understand. I love the handwriting touch. Wish I had thought of it.
Very eye catching and probably speaks directly to your target audience.
There is a potential flaw in your arguement (not that I think the most of the US is weathly compared to the third world), that is wealth is not a measurement of income but of purchasing power. Many items cost less in other countries than they do here.
Oops, should be “not that I do not think that most of the US is weathly compared to the third world”, I really should proofread
.
put yourself making $1,487 us somewhere in the us. how are you going to manage to move to china to attain the wealthy status? i would imagine that the amount of money you have can only be compared to others in the location you can afford to get to
moving to china when making that much money in the us would probably not increase your pay either
i guess someone could order all their stuff on the internet from a small shop in rural china
Bryson, I’ve read your comment 7 times I still don’t get what you are trying to say.
Move to China if you are making $1,487 here? First, let’s do the math on that figure. Burger King pays $8 an hour. If you are working part time – just 16 hours a week for a year with 2 weeks off for vacation you would make 16 x 8 = $6656.00 a year.
I have no idea where the $1,487 figure comes from…. Anyone? At a “minimum wage” job to make $1487, you’d only be working 4 weeks a year. Who does this?
Even if you were a migrant worker being paid an illegal sum of $3.00 an hour you’d walk with $2,400 per year part time with 2 weeks off for vacation. So, until we establish where this $1,487 comes from, let’s deal with the real world ok?
I stand by the notion that everyone reading this blog has advantage so far and above the average world citizen, we should be ashamed we don’t make more of what we do have.
hmm maybe i was a tad vague
whatever the salary is really doest matter you make valid math points, but your money really can only travel as far as you can
i can’t spend my 8$ an hour from Burger king in foreign part of the world where my money will go further
“but your money really can only travel as far as you can
i can’t spend my 8$ an hour from Burger king in foreign part of the world where my money will go further”
I still don’t understand. This is more vague than the first point.
I think Brad has very valid points here and I also think that Malinda and Bryson are reading entirely too much into this web link showing your wealth compared to others in the world. To read it as any more than that is to inflect with your own preconceptions.
Before I weigh in, let me first state that I do know that I am fortunate to live where I do, have the job opportunities that I have, and come from the family I was born into. I personally consider charitable giving (time and money) to be important and it is a significant part of my life. If you wait until you have enough money to give some away, you will never have enough – it’s the difference between having a mindset of abundance and a mindset of poverty (and I think Brad was trying to use the Global Rich List website to inspire a mindset of abundance!)
All that said, the problem with these types of calculators is that they compare the dollar value income of different areas of the world without regard for the cost of living associated with those incomes and then they often use the disparity in income to emotionally manipulate people to feel guilty and make a donation. (I think the negative reactions that people are having stems from these types of manipulations.)
The Global Rich List website seems to be offering the comparison for the purpose of generating buzz for the design services of the site’s creators, but I’m sure many people are using the data to back up philosophical or political positions.
You don’t even need to compare your income to people in a 3rd world country to understand the significance of considering the cost of living into the equation. I live in Manhattan with my wife and daughter in a 517 square foot studio apartment. Most of my family lives in Michigan and our tiny home is worth more than their 4 bedroom houses with basements, a yard, and a garage (New York parking spaces add another $300-$600/month to your expenses.)
Compared to them, on paper, it would seem I’m ‘wealthy.’ But, in my neighborhood, an apartment that is half the size of one of their homes would cost $650,000. I can’t even begin to pay for something like that, so I have to move further away or into a less desirable neighborhood (buildings in worse condition, fewer/no park spaces, higher crime, fewer amenities like grocery stores, etc.) My wife refers to our home equity as ‘Monopoly Money.’ It’s all just numbers on paper as long as we live in New York because the purchasing power is so much lower.
The only way to ‘realize’ this wealth is to leave our home and relocate (which would limit my work opportunities and likely force me to scale my rates down to match the local economy.) In that case, we could cash out our home equity and the purchasing power of those dollars would increase if we moved to a place with a lower cost of living (southern California is out of the question.)
If I don’t put my family through the upheaval of relocating, we have to pinch pennies to live where we are.
That is one of the major differences that the Rich List site highlights – I have the ability to relocate (even if the reality of doing so is very undesirable.) People at the bottom don’t have the option. That’s as true for the US working poor as it is for people in 3rd world economies.
If someone tries to make me feel guilty for living a life of excess and wasting my ‘vast fortune,’ I’ll come out swinging and defend my integrity. But, I realize that I have some options in life that are better (or at least more versatile) than those given to others.
I try to live with a mindset of abundance which allows me to share my resources with others based on belief that I have more than enough. It’s a struggle to remember that when I sit in the windowless 5′x10′ room because it is the only other room in the apartment (besides the bathroom) that has a door and isn’t next to the crib of our sleeping baby – but at least we own our home!
My 2 cents,
Andrew Seltz
The Go-To Guy!
http://www.AndrewSeltz.com
P.S. Access to a clean reliable water source, a relatively stable government and banking system, and food are big bonuses too! I can’t remember the last time I had to bring a gun with me when I went out looking for groceries.
hi brad,
i really appreciate your newsletter and all the encouragement and knowledge you give. i have a comment on this post:
i get your point that we should be grateful for the standard of living we have in this country. but, i had a couple problems with the way it was presented. the first i see has already been discussed (you can’t compare buying power and standard of living like that). the second is that it doesn’t seem nice or useful to point out how much better off we are than everyone else in the world. its kind of like watching jerry springer so we can congratulate ourselves on how “together” we are!
Jessie, this post has brought up a whole lot of controversy I wasn’t expecting. I will take the blame for the misundrstanding.
The reason to acknowledge your wealth is not to high five people or look down on others…
The main reason is to give thanks for what we do have. Most people never see what they do have in these terms. Therefore they are never happy, thankful or satisfied.
How can you be truly benevolent if you aren’t grateful? Why sacrifice family and soul for wealth when you are already wealthy?
How can you live a life of abundance if you don’t recognize your abundance?
That is why I pointed it out… Does that Help clarify?
P.S. Thank you forbeing a subscriber and the compliment … It means a lot to me
I agree with you Brad, it true that you’re richer than you think, but only if you realise it.
I have blog series called Be grateful http://askax.net/2007/07/03/be-grateful-thankful-part-1/ , I make this because I want make everyone realize how lucky we are. If everyone have the same kind of story would you share it with me and I’ll put it on my series and of course with you as the source.