How rich is rich?

     When I was looking through my research and other blogs I felt as if I had left out one of the bigger and more controversial topics of the international wealth divide and that would be, how rich is rich? Now I know that that sounds like a tounge twiter and a question that people could argue about for days on end, but to be blunt it is not that difficult to figure out.

     The answer to all of your questions is rich is however wealthy you feel it is. In more depth this means that being rich isn't defined by an exact number (although being poor is) but by what amount or level of wealth makes you feel comfortable to stop working. That is what is defined commonly as being rich. In the article I read it says that retirement savings is the basis for defining richness, but the author warns not to confuse income with wealth. He states that someone making $1 million a year but spending 3/4 is not rich. The quote that best sums this up is "Income relates to lifestyle," he said. "Wealth relates to balance sheets.".

http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/09/news/economy/wealth/index.htm

    I found this article in the money section of CNN.com so being from a national news agency it can be assumed that the information and ideas in the article are legitament and reliable. As for relevance this article was not from too long ago and even so I feel that no matter what the date an article on this topic could carry over for years to come. 

    Now I want everyone to ask themselves this, what do you feel the monetary value of being rich is? or is there even a value?

Attitudes towards the rich

   People all around the world complain about the wealth divide in the world and they preach for economic equality except in former ussr countries. Here in post-soviet countries the idea of equality means going back to the bad times. They have seen what it did to their economies and how it essentially doesnt work and they are speaking out to their governments.

• Total financial equality is socialism
• post-soviet countries were crushed by this idea
• killed several markets
• there needs to be a minimum divide at least in the market place.

I found this article on the Global issues in context database and the title is Attitudes to income equality: the 'socialist legacy' revisited.

Would you choose equality or not?

Is the gap getting bigger?

   Over the years the ability of our governemt to keep a tab on the wealth divide has been relatively decent we havent seen many times where the middle class and the upper class are extremely far apart until now. With world problems such as the economic crisis and the financial strain of the war in Iraq the governmetn has lost its grip in regulating the wealth gap and we are starting to see the effects.

• between 1979 and 2006 the upper class saw a tax increase of 256%
• middle class saw 21% rise
• lower class saw 11% rise
• deeper changes also played a part such as cheap chinses goods, outsourcing and other countries increasing education.

I got this article from the global issues in context database and the title is The broken contract: inequality and American decline.

Should the government be responsible for controlling the wealth gap.

Why can't everyone be rich?

Why I am researching this is because I want to find out the reasoning why there isn't as much financial equality as there should be in the world. Also it seems like a lot of people hope for total financial equality but it seems impossible to achieve.


What I already know is that it is very hard to get financial equality because there are always certain jobs that people will not want to do. I also know that with the way our current economies/taxes/monetary systems are set up it further prevents all financial classes to be equal.