Wealth
What is wealth? If you think about wealth in terms of lifestyle and in terms of general quality of living, then just about everyone in the developed world could be considered wealthy. When we think about how people have lived in the past, and even how kings and queens lived a few hundreds years ago, we’ve got to consider ourselves very wealthy. The quality of food, the quality of housing, the number of creature comforts that we have is such that we could be considered to have great lifestyles and to have a lot of wealth.
When we consider quality of life West compared to the developing we again have to think of ourselves as very wealthy, and very fortunate. Indeed, most in the West are in the top percentile of the world’s population in terms of wealth. When we think of wealth, we therefore tend to consider ourselves in relation to our peers in our population and those that are wealthy in our eyes. So for instance, in the UK, we consider ourselves in relation to the football club earners that are spending millions of pounds on buying players and clubs, and the people who have made millions and billions in oil, in computers, in software, and in technology.
So today, we consider wealth in relation to normative criteria in relation to the population that we consider ourselves part of. As the world becomes a smaller place, a larger proportion of people can therefore be considered wealthy. For instance, I recently took a trip to Nigeria where there is a large amount of the population living in poverty, I was considered wealthy; whereas in the United Kingdom, I’m considered of average means.
So again, the concept of wealth is transitional as you enter a new population, and consider yourself part of that population. This may only happen for a temporary period. If the norms in terms of standard of living, income, and wealth in the new population are at a different level to your norm, your status may and you may become considered wealthy.
So wealth is relative to the population to which you’re being considered. No doubt when we look at Western society, the wealthiest people are very wealthy. The Times in the UK, and many newspapers, publish rich lists regularly. I do not consider the word “rich” to be appropriate for the people that are featured. They are financially able to have and do what they. When we look at the richest people in the world, the wealthiest people in the world, they have vast amounts of money. Officially, the richest in the world are the Walton family who own Wal-Mart, where their wealth is estimated at 52.3 billion pounds. Then come Karl and Theo Albrecht of Germany whose money was made in supermarkets, with 27.9 billion pounds. Then Bill Gates, the software giant from America, with an estimated fortune in 2009 of 27.7 billion pounds. These are ludicrous amounts of money. These people aren’t wealthy; they’re mega wealthy.
In this section of the website, we’re going to be investigating wealth. We’re going to look at wealth creation, wealth management, how wealthy people think. This is going to be a study of wealth and the no-limit reality of wealthy people; no financial limits and no limits to lifestyle.