In a previous blog we itemized the wealth of the top 5 wealthiest Americans: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Paul Allen, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison and noted that they had a combined wealth of $138.5 billion. We also noted that this would be an enviable GDP for a lot of countries. In fact most countries would envy this amount for their GDP. Thanks to Wikipedia we have a list of the countries of the world by GDP. Wikipedia List of World's Countries by GDP According to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF's) list, there are 35 countries with a greater GDP than the combined wealth of these 5 gentlemen and 143 countries with a lower GDP. That is to say 143 countries in the world have a lower GDP than the combined wealth of 5 Americans!
According to the World Bank's list, 34 countries have a higher GDP than the combined wealth of these 5 individuals and 148 countries have lower GDPs than the combined wealth of the 5 wealthiest Americans. In both lists Argentina at a GDP of $152 billion is the country which is the closest to their combined wealth. Argentina's rank is 35 in the IMF list and 34 in the World Bank's list. Following Argentina is Malaysia at $118 billion in both lists.
Therefore, 80% of the world's countries, according to the IMF, and 81%, according to the World Bank, have lower GDPs than the combined wealth of these 5 gentlemen. Not only that but there is a difference between wealth and GDP. GDP represents the total amount of goods and services produced by a country in a year in financial terms. This means that it represents the work, the blood, sweat and tears that goes into producing and providing it. It is subject to crop failures, natural disasters etc. It can't be taken for granted year after year.
Wealth, on the other hand, represents an amount of money that just sits there collecting interest, rent or dividends, the gift that goes on giving year after year after year. At 3% interest, which would be the amount earned if the money were simply placed in a savings account, $138.5 billion would earn over $4 billion a year! So just adding that amount to the pile every year would represent a rate of growth that most countries would envy. Look out folks, they'll soon be overtaking Argentina!
One might pose the question: "Is an economic system which lets a few individuals accumulate enormous wealth a good economic system?" Some would argue yes since these individuals have created a lot of value for the world economy. Some would argue no since, while their contributions have been significant, the amount of wealth which they possess is way out of proportion to not only their contributions but also to any amount of money they could possibly spend to provide themselves and their families with even the highest standard of living. I think that in a different economy such as Preferensism these men would be encouraged to make their contributions and amply rewarded without the enormous windfall profits that accrue to them in capitalism.
For more on Preferensism see my website Social Choice and Beyond
