As I was reading the entries for blogs I follow, I found a little image on one that read, "Affluent Persons Living Sustainably".
My initial reaction to that was, "Well, La Di Da for you." To me, affluent can be a divisive word because it indicates they are doing it for a different reason than the rest of us.
But then I thought about it. Isn't the good old USA considered a universally affluent sort of country? I mean, even our illegal immigrants tend to live better than they would in their home country despite the stress and problems they endure.
All that led to me to click on through and then I found the link for the Global Rich List. You put your income in it and then it tells you where you stand in the world economy.
I was pretty shocked to see that I was in the top 0.63% wealthiest in the world and my specific standing was:
You are the 38,061,910 richest person in the world!
It is shocking to think that might be true. Taking aside almost the entire population of the UAE, where even the trash carriers are imported and paid approximately twice the average American's salary, and all the other well to do people that litter the western world, that means that over 6 billion people have less than I do.
6 Billion.
I do okay, I admit. But after 22.5 years at one job, steady advancement and working through multiple levels of college, it doesn't seem fantastic. I worry about mortgages, changes in financial strength and paying college tuition for el kiddoes, but that number certainly puts it in perspective.
How about you? I'm deciding that I feel pretty lucky today.
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3 comments:
Ok, WHOA! That's incredible! I loved their little info bar at the right side - you could spend $30 on a boxed DVD set ~OR~ buy a first aid kit for a village in Haiti. Nothing like putting it in perspective. Wish I could make little signs with those options on them and go stick them in stores. Ha. I doubt I'd be invited back again. :) Thanks for sharing - I'm passing it on.
Great link! I'm about 20 million people below you but still in the 0.9% richest. Staggering! I like Melissa's idea of putting those options up in the stores.
Judy
Our pastor shared that link with us once during one of his sermons. It really does put things in perspective. My husband just got home from Jamaica where he saw first hand what a third world country looks like. We are so blessed.
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