WORLD - The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Poorer
It was the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley who observed in the 19th century that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And things are no different today.
Over the last couple of years, the wealthiest 1% of people worldwide have accumulated close to two-thirds of all new wealth created, the nonprofit Oxfam found.
According to a new report, $42 trillion in new wealth has been created since 2020.
Of that amount, $26 trillion, or 63%, was amassed by the top 1% of the ultra-rich. The remaining 99% of us pocketed just $16 trillion of new wealth.
Put simply, when only a small fraction of the global population has all the money, that leaves relatively little for everyone else.
Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, called for taxes to be increased for the ultra-rich. She called this a “strategic precondition to reducing inequality and resuscitating democracy.”
Will things change any time soon?
-ktla.com, 16 January 2023
Arno's Commentary
WorldBank.org reveals the following regarding wages earned from 1987 to 2020 by country (in US dollars):
Country 1987 2020
Australia 12,500 53.7
Switzerland 46.7 88.0
Ireland 10.4 63.5
Sweden 19.4 53.8
Israel 18.2 43.1
Yes, the rich did get richer, but the median income has risen drastically as well. Comparing the purchasing power of one hour of work in the US in 1923 to today:
Average hourly wage in 1923: $0.66/hour
Average hourly wage in 2022: $30.05/hour
We’ll discover some amazing cost differences when translated in minutes worked. For example, one pound of butter at $0.70 would require the worker to work 64 minutes in 1923; today, it’s only 4 minutes. A gallon of milk took one hour of work; today, it’s 8 minutes. A pound of chicken was listed at $0.39 per pound; that means the worker in 1923 had to work 36 minutes to acquire one pound of chicken. Today, it’s only one minute!
Here we like to quote the Lord Jesus Himself: “For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always” (Matthew 26:11). Yet in the end, there will be equality. Whether rich or poor, without Christ they will receive equal judgment: “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains” (Revelation 6:15).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
