Daily Archives: 13 November 2018

A Bit of Perspective

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The 1%-ers, the Evil Rich.  How much does it take, really, to become of member of the world-wide crowd of really rich folks, or how much would have to be given up to leave that group?  Jade Scipioni, of FOXBusiness, offered some information from Credit Suisse Research Institute’s 2018 Global Wealth Report last week.

  • the global top 1% requires a net worth of US$871,320
  • the global top 10% requires a net worth of US$93,170
  • the global top 50% requires a net worth of US$4,210

On the other hand, the Federal Poverty Guideline income for a family of four for the US in 2018 is US$25,100, and the median household income in the US is US$62,175 as of last June (income is just one component of net worth, which also includes the value of possessions).  The median net worth in the US is in the neighborhood of US$84,500 for a middle-aged, 50-ish person.  (An aside: that middle-age for an American compares to a life expectancy—total lifetime—of an Angolan of 52 years, 51 years for a Chadian, 50 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 53 years in Mali….)

There does seem to be something to this capitalism business.  A free market is both a first and an absolutely necessary step in seeing to our least.

None of this means we shouldn’t care about our own poor, rich though they are in the world.  They live in our neck of the woods, not the world at large.  The responsibility for seeing to the least among us is ours, first—they are our neighbors—and our government’s only last.  It’s useful to keep in mind, though, that we’re not as bad or as bad off as we’re often made out to be.

The full report can be read here.

A False Dichotomy

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In an address near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to mark the end of WWI, French President Emmanuel Macron made a pitch for globalism.  In the course of that, Macron let slip his true feelings.

Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of it.  By saying our interests first—who cares about the others—we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great and what is essential: its moral values.

This is a typically false dichotomy offered by a man of the Left. The situation also could be, as a man of the US has said repeatedly, “Our interests first, but not at all alone.”

Moreover, patriotism is the love of nation and the desire to preserve that which unifies the people of a geographic area into a nation—including especially that people’s moral values.  The best way to preserve those values is to protect a nation’s borders, to get immigrants—freely allowed in, so long as their entry is legal—to assimilate, to embrace the values of the nation they’re joining, rather than hold themselves apart.

There’s nothing in there that says “who cares about the others.”  There’s nothing in there that says one nation of patriotic people who believe in their own nation won’t work with or help the peoples of other nations.

Macron knows all this.