Last week I read this in the i paper: ‘Oxfam claims the rich are getting richer, leaving hundreds of millions of people ‘trapped in poverty’ as global ‘inequality spirals out of control’.
‘The number of billionaires in the world has more than doubled … since the financial crisis hit hard in 2009 …’
‘The report is supproted by Bank of England Chief Economist Andrew Haldane and Nobel Prize-winning economist Jospeh Stiglitz. It notes that since 2009 one million women have died in childcare due to lack of basic health care and that 57 million children are currently missing out on an education …
… the richest 85 people in the world have the same wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population.’
(Thursday 30 October 2014 by Jamie Merrill)
I don’t begrudge people being wealthy. And I’m not sure how it’s connected with the massive poverty in so much of the world, although it may be and sometimes is connected when the wealthy are making their money off the backs of the poor. But what makes me so angry is the inequality of it, the immorality of some having far too much while the majority don’t have enough.
I then turned the page, where I read this:
‘The Nobel Peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is donating her £31,000 from winning the World’s Children’s Prize to rebuild UN-run schools damaged during the recent fighting in Gaza’.
Malala is the girl shot by the Taliban who objected to her educational activism.
(Same issue, article by Sam Masters).
See a connection, anyone? 
(image from biography.com)
Godschool's Blog 
In my experience the richest people are also the most paranoid about security. Poor people help each other out.
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What amuses me,in a sense,is the way some rich people go out wearing designer watches and diamonds and complain if mugged; now with the shops full of goodies it’s harder to be poor..
If there are big disparities there will always be more crime than there might be..some folk enjoy crime but many are driven to steal baby food etc
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The assumptions are that all kinds of inequality won’t go away. It raises the question, are there acceptable levels of inequality?
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An excellent question.
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Malala is an inspiration. Enormous wealth and desperate poverty are two sides of the same coin. If a few are amassing great wealth then they are depriving the majority of enough to live on. We all share the same planet and the limited resources there are. Everyone, even the rich, would be happier living in a more caring, sharing society.
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You would think so, wouldn’t you? I’ve noticed myself that the (few) wealthy people I know seem to be pretty paranoid about security, and are surrounded by electronic gates and high walls. It’s a sad way to live.
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I don’t begrudge them their millions as long as they make a proportional contribution to society.
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Exactly.
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What a treasure that girl is….I heard her speech and was in awe!
Yes….I agree, I don’t object to people having money but sharing it is important, there are so many good causes and the pleasure of improving someone’s life surely must make it all worthwhile.Once you have x amount of money why hoard more?xxx
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She puts so many of our teenagers to shame …
I totally agree with you about hoarding money! :crazy:
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Good for her. It does seem very unfair that some many people are still living in poverty in this day and age.
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It’s good that some of the world’s billionaires, like the Gates, are donating huge sums of money to charitable causes. Trouble is, money-making has become (or maybe always has been) divorced from ethical principles.
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:yes: What a contrast…..sadly…O, so sadly….the ‘Greed Disease’ seems to be approaching epidemic proportions…..:roll: 😦
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:no: one day there’ll be justice …
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