Imagine you are standing with a suitcase which contains $1000 000 in untraceable notes. That’s quite a lot of change, even by today’s inflationary standards. It can buy a lot. Are you wealthy? It depends.
Now imagine that you have just stolen that money in a successful bank raid, and you are climbing into your getaway car. Firstly, there is the getaway. The Police may well come after you, and in the USA they have guns. If you are wounded, dare you risk going for treatment-or will it give away your identity? Assuming the getaway is successful, for how long will you be looking over your shoulder for the Police and Bank Investigators to take you? As for that million-how much will your co-conspirators, your girlfriend, the local Mr Big of the underworld, need to stay silent? Or will someone else inform? Or will some tiny trace of forensic evidence like firearms residues or DNA one day catch you. Even if you bury the money for your release, how much of that million pays for a year in prison?
Compare that to someone who has just legally withdrawn the equivalent of $20 in an advanced country, perhaps one of the Nordics members of the EU. Ok, they don’t have so much disposable income, as taxes are higher. But no one will steal that money, there are too many police around. If they get sick, they ride on fast, clean public transport to a public hospital where treatment is covered. The streets around are clean, paved and full of things like colleges, parks, museums. And gymnasiums and safe places to eat, because the taxes have paid for for food inspectors.
So here’s a question: who has money? And who is wealthy?
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett The Spirit Level Penguin
Learning, Science and Society 