The Wall Street Journal reports that the income-inequality gap has widened as “The richest Americans’ share of national income has hit a postwar record, surpassing the highs reached in the 1990s bull market, and underlining the divergence of economic fortunes blamed for fueling anxiety among American workers.”
Opportunities:
The article continues: “Scholars attribute rising inequality to several factors, including technological change that favors those with more skills, and globalization and advances in communications that enlarge the rewards available to “superstar” performers whether in business, sports or entertainment.”
Despite the fact that the business leaders of the music industry have blown them, the internet and global opportunities are massive for musicians. But this is true for all entertainers, not just for superstars. You have direct access to exponentially more people today than ever before, and those economics will continue to grow. Add to that the fact that the costs related to recording, manufacturing, packaging and shipping music are all but gone and you can see that you don’t need the mega-star fan base to have a legitimate music career.
80/20 Wealth
In the Old Testament of the Bible the Israelites were instructed to observe The Year of Jubilee. There were several components, but central to the plan was a pattern of wealth redistribution. Every 50 years, all the money in the nation was to be equally divided between all the people. In other words, all citizens were granted a “do over” every 50 years.
Why? Because someone was aware of an aspect of humanity that an economist named Pareto would unlock thousands of years later. Namely, that 20 percent of the population controls 80 percent of the wealth.
Why? Because only about 20 percent of the people care to gain wealth, or ever figure out a way to get it. Another 20 percent absolutely don’t care and the middle 60 just go through life taking it as it comes.
My point? While the WSJ article is news, it’s nothing new. Money will never be equally distributed without a mandate from the government (please no, please…).
Money Matters
You’ve had one of two reactions to this post. Either you’re excited to learn about money, or your blood is boiling because “the rich get richer!” In either case you’ve proved my reasoning for highlighting this story: money matters.
Excited?
Making, keeping, investing and using money is not some great mystery. All you need to do is seek and apply knowledge and you can gain great wealth. It takes hard work, but it can be done.
But at the risk of sounding trite, money cannot buy you happiness. Wealth will not make you or those around you happy. It will not solve your problems and it will not make you lovable. What it will do is reduce stress a bit (if you let it) and allow you to help people – see giving below.
Blood Boiling?
If you’re upset about the injustice of this story, I have two questions: First, do you believe money is infinite? It is. See, money is nothing but a promise and as nations of the world continue to experience increased standards of living (which they are on the whole ), more people will participate in those promises. Second, what are you going to do about it? If your answer is take from the rich, wrong. How ’bout you figure out how to earn a great deal and give bunches of it away – which leads to…
Giving
In fact, how ’bout all of you do that? Beyond the typical reason of getting more stuff, the only reason for earning money is to help others and it’s also the only way to truly affect peoples lives.
I want you to succeed and earn more money than you can imagine so that you can give freely and change people’s lives. Despite the coverage of the media, it’s the world’s rich people that are creating the most economic and social change in the world. It has always been this way and it is this way today. The wealth of the past gave us today’s libraries, hospitals, colleges, fire departments, and a host of other social institutions. The wealth of today is at work helping others and solving problems as well.
Danger
One word of caution though: too few people controlling too much wealth is a very big problem. Simply put, there isn’t enough collective intelligence, compassion and self-lessness to prevent bad decisions. And because they’re in control of so much wealth, the bad decisions can have grave consequences.
In my admittedly limited view, I think this is yet another reason to encourage you to succeed. We need more people controlling this wealth.
And giving it away.
