If Everybody Was Wealthy, Then Who Really Is?

This has played around with me for several years. Maybe since birth. Is there any reason for people to believe that an entire planet filled with wealthy folks would actually be better than a mix of weqlthy, abject poverty, getting by, doing okay, living nicely, living slightly high on the hog....?

This was brought up again this evening when watching a documentary about the "Great" Depression and the period of time just prior. John Jacob Raskob, who was involved with politics and DuPont, General Motors and building of The Empire State Building, had said that "Everyone ought to be rich". He wrote that for The Ladies Home Journal in August 1929, shortly before the stock market crash.



All thoughts and feelings, along with ideas and reasoning is welcomed.

It's an interesting question... personally, if I've got food in the cupboard, a roof over my head (particularly on a building sitting on top of a foundation rather than on four wheels), and at least some entertainment, then I don't tend to even look at my bank balance unless I want to buy something. I know exactly what it's like to be "homeless", and have lived on four wheels before, and it isn't fun.

It also really depends on how far you want to dive into "modern consumerism". I personally don't care if my phone, desktop PC, etc isn't the "very latest tech", as long as it does what I need/want it to do, then I don't feel the need to "get the latest" just to "keep up with the joneses". My self-esteem isn't and doesn't ride on what everybody else has or thinks, and personally, it's just silly "to have the latest for the sake of having the latest". I honestly can't understand what the point in that is, beyond someone else and not me making yet more money from me. So you could say I look at the utility something has to offer, rather than whatever psychological gain there might be from it. I don't personally value mere possessions beyond their utility.

All of that said, I think a "universal basic income" will become a reality at some point for most, if not, all western countries at some point in the future.