Yippee I'm rich

Damn.

Quite a reality check.

6 billion people are poorer than I am.

Wow I am 0.6% and that does not include my husband's salary.

Interesting though is the fact that if I were to decrease my salary by half, I will only go down to 0.3% of the people poorer than me. However, if I were to then cut that in half again, I will then fall another 10%.

I looked through the Care International website to see their financial information - specifically what percentage of donations go toward the help of those in need and could not find this information. Wonder how could of a charity they are and how much gets to the people that need it versus the charity itself.

Alone I am in the 4.62% group.
With hubby we are in the .707% group.

Puts it into perspective. I'll think about that the next time I whine about money.

One additional thing to consider is where you live. For example living in San Francisco and making $50k - you are having a tough time. While living in Montana - you are rich!

Of course it is really difficult to even compare with the seriously poor.

Well, i think the big thing is that making only 35K a year in the US puts you pretty high into the worlds richest people when there are some people so poor in other countries of the world.

I'm in the top 1% of the world. That really makes me think. I should be more grateful.

I recently saw a dateline report about US companies taking advantage of low wages in other countries - in this report it was Bangladesh. Very interesting considering the topic and puts things in perspective. It is a great article.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8243331/

Not to diminish what the report states, but what I was trying to get across is that minimum wage in the US would make some one rich person elsewhere like Bangladesh so it is difficult to compare according to simple dollars (even translated to local currencies).

Quote from a Bangladesh worker/datleine…" If she was paid 25 cents an hour instead of 17, a 50 percent raise, she says she could lead what she considers a decent life. I could buy a few good vegetables, fish. I could buy more food products for my daughter." Not that this would be a great life by most of our standards, but this amount would buy squat in the US.

The big question here is would you be willing to pay .25 or .50 more for a pair of pants? You would think for most it would be simple sure. However, I would want the confidence that the money was going to the workers and not to the Walmarts or the suppliers.

And thats the problem in one Lincat, I watched a documentary a while ago on this subject one item was the cost of Trainers, (they were a leading brand adidas perhaps) the manufacturer got a pound sterling per pair and in British shops they retail at £139.99

If that isnt the unacceptable face of capitalism I dont know what is.

How is it possible to make sure the money gets to those that need it the most? To me the price say here in the US or in the UK is so much the problem - if we are willing to pay a huge amount of money for say your trainers, then that is our choice. But obviously some one is making lots of money off this at the expense of others.

To me, I feel it is more the responsbility of the government where these people live. Don, could you see some one in the UK making these shoes for mear pennies? How come some one in Bangladesh is willing to? If these companies cannot get some one to make these so cheaply then what could they do? They would have to pay them more.

Free trade is the culprit. We used to produce most of our things... now we can ship factories over seas for a fraction of the cost and at the same time we become dependent on another countries exports for our own goods. We lose jobs, our dollar falls, they have slave labor with no environmental concerns. That is what free trade gets you.