Today I chatted to two uber drivers from Zim about the election. In both discussions, the corruption and looting in Zim came up. And the fact that many politicians (including those in South African and around the world) have amassed ridiculous amounts of money.
But this isn’t limited to politicians. The outgoing CEO of PPC was paid R17 million. The CEO of Checkers got a R100 million bonus last year. And then there’s the likes of Jeff Bezos, who’s $100billion fortune is bigger than the GDP of 80 different countries including Kenya and Sri Lanka.
And this raised the question for me…. When will it be enough?
Do these people really need that much money?
Don’t get me wrong, money is important. But there comes a point where you have a completely unnecessary amount. For me, I need the following:
- A place to live
- Access to transport
- Ability to afford my consumables of choice (food, drinks etc)
- Some clothes
- A holiday once a year
- Enough to support whatever family I might have
And after that… there’s only so much I can buy. I cannot fathom how one would feel it necessary to amass billions of rands in wealth.
The inequality in our world is getting larger. And maybe it’s time that the rich start becoming a little more enlightened.
Image was taken in Capri in 2015. The boat pictured there is in the top 10 most expensive yachts in the world. It’s called the “Rising Sun” and is worth around $200 million
Blog: 270/365
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Totally agreed Rowan ! The top 1% are benefiting from the work of the rest and there is no balance in this.
When we think of money as a token of equivalence to better facilitate barter or trade (as I’m sure most of us do), it’s easy to wonder how much is enough. But when we think about another aspect of money – what money represents – we are faced with the concept of money as power. This aspect of money shapes power hierarchies in every level of society, from the middle-class woman tipping a waitress, to seating arrangements at Davos. In the case of the super-wealthy, the question is perhaps no longer how much money is enough, but how much power is enough.
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