ABOUT WEALTH

‘There’s something happening here, what it is aint exactly clear’ – with apologies to Buffalo Springfield.

Today is a bit exciting. Raoul, my better half, has said ‘Let’s renovate old stinky.’  Old stinky is the upstairs bathroom which we have had locked up for 4 years – there are 3 bathrooms in our house. Now, there’s a part of me which immediately thinks ‘Hallelujah, I am the luckiest girl alive and I know exactly what I can achieve despite a tight budget’.  Sadly, however, there’s another part of me, a little bit of me who lives in my Amygdala, a little bit of me who talks too loudly and speaks in riddles; and that little bit of me knows I haven’t got enough money to do this reno and  never will have.

So, am I wealthy or not?  I googled an old favourite www.globalrichlist.com and confirmed again, (yes, I go there often) that I am the 20,200,810^th richest person in the world – not bad when you consider that the baby who will become our 7 billionth person on Earth will be born this year.  So, yes, I. Am. Rich.  And that got me thinking about how to evaluate wealth ... and that got me thinking about a school essay assignment from 1971 where I had to ‘ Read the following and discuss the meaning.’  The meaning was lost on me at the time (I would have been thinking about a boy) but I kind of get it now. See if you do too.

“The Gross National Product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes, and ambulance to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and jails for the people who break them. GNP includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads. And if GNP includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. GNP measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

Robert F. Kennedy

March 18, 1968