Make as much as you need.

Obvious gaps in income and wealth distribution has been at the crux of social unrest for thousands of years. The classic battle between the Haves and Have-nots has plagued societies for as long as societies have been around. Many of us have heard the numbers, but few of us do anything about them. Why? Well, there are several reasons, but among them is the fact that the ones who find themselves empowered to make a difference are usually the Haves, and they choose not to give up their excess. In a global community that equates money with security, it makes sense that even the secure Haves wouldn’t want to give up potential security. Additionally, I think it’s easier to ignore the reality of the numbers when we pick and choose who to compare ourselves against. For example, it has been popular to compare ourselves to greedy, top 1% income receivers and feel justified in our assessment that we are not part of the problem. We should probably look at a couple numbers…

The following numbers are from Branko Milanovic of the World Bank in 2002.

• An American who earns an average income among the bottom 10% in the USA is better off than 2/3 of people worldwide.
• "The top 10 percent of the US population has an aggregate income equal to income of the poorest 43 percent of people in the world, or differently put, total income of the richest 25 million Americans is equal to total income of almost 2 billion people."
• The rate of the income of poor people (with less than 3,470 US$/year) is 78 %. The rate of the income of rich people (with more than 8,000 US$/year) is 11 %.
• With regard to wealth inequality (researchers defined wealth as the value of physical and financial assets minus debts. - "only $2161 was needed in order to belong to the top half of the world wealth distribution, but to be a member of the top 10 per cent required at least $61,000 and membership of the top 1 per cent required more than $500,000 per adult." (Davies, The World Distribution of Household Wealth, 2006)

How can this be? How can a minimum wage job in the USA generate an income that is among the top 10% earners in the world? Well, obviously the USA and other rich countries have a lot of wealth. We live in the land of the Haves. Even though we may compare ourselves to the Jones-es and feel as though we don’t have enough, we are still earning money that many on this planet can only dream about. We don’t have trouble with starving citizens but rather obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other ramifications of a sedentary lifestyle with massive amounts of cheap “food” available. We have so much that we are actually hurting ourselves by the excess.

More is not better. Bigger is not better. Better is better. We live in a land that has lots of cheap food and gadgets that are to be consumed over and over again. With the continual purchasing and consuming of these items, we are providing continued income for the Haves of the Have societies. With this mindset that more is better, we are also forgetting the purpose of money…security. We need money to help provide some of the security we need for basic needs and enjoyments in life. Money is not an end in itself. More stuff is not an end in itself. Security, freedom, enjoyment of life’s experiences…these are the things I think we all really want.

Instead of making as much money as you can, why not make as much money as you need? If we focus on what we need, not who we can make more than, then perhaps we can focus on real solutions to the obstacles that face societies. With all this excess that we have available it would only make sense to institute societal programs like universal health care. Like these countries…

 (July 2009).

  Nations with some type of universal health care system.

  Nations attempting to obtain universal health care.

  Health care coverage provided by the United States war funding.

  Nations with no universal health care.

We have a lot. There are plenty of resources out there to sustain human life. We’ve been doing this for thousands of years now. We have so much these days that we have to stop to ask ourselves what are we making all of this money for? Why do we need bigger houses, trucks, TVs, etc.? Why do we need more stuff?

We need more peace. We need more equality. We need more sustainable societies that find effective ways to provide for everyone’s basic needs as well as opportunities for individual freedoms. We need only so much money to satisfy these goals.