[Avalon]

Found a link to this site.

http://www.globalrichlist.com

Wont help anyone whos struggling - it doesnt change the fact that pretty much everyone has to work at balancing the chequebook - but it does give a new perspective on how rich we really are.

[Moorf]

Or in our case.. how rich we were.... lol moving to NZ put a stop to that! :D

Have been slapped down to earth a couple of times recently and I'm much more aware of anything I complain about - I showed a neighbour our bathroom and moaned about the tiling and pipework and she just looked at me like I was mad and said "some people would kill for a bathroom like that".... kinda made me feel a bit silly and spoiled... something Carol said in her post about what she valued in NZ really struck home and that's the not feeling you have to have the newest, bestest model of x, y, z and having threadbare patches in carpet and knowing your neighbours aren't judging you based on that!

I find some people here who have houses I would condemn, yet they have a brand new boat and Holden in the drive and a bach on the coast. Priorities are different here in many cases - I don't find this as much in the cities where consumerism and keeping up with the joneses is common - but out here in the sticks people really don't care what you wear/drive/sit on.... you'd earn more respect for being thrifty (altho to be honest there are some very wealthy farmers round here but they're probably the MOST thrifty!).

[StevieD]

OMG. depends on where you live though doesn't it? There is rich, and rich, as well as poor. But I think you know what it is all about, we are all rich compared to somebody with less money than us. But money isn't everything is it.....

[willsken]

It does bring it home to how lucky we are. I suppose that is in terms of all things and not just money. I complain about the way my life is but I bet there are millions of people out there in the world that would give anything to live my life. :uhoh

[Avalon]

OMG. depends on where you live though doesn't it? There is rich, and rich, as well as poor. But I think you know what it is all about, we are all rich compared to somebody with less money than us. But money isn't everything is it.....
Thats a very good point! I suppose that is the flaw in comparing where you are based on Income. I had to do an excersise a while ago looking at the reasons why we spend money. One of the reason we had to consider was "Keeping up with the joneses". All I could come up with was "Who would want to keep up with them???". I guess when we look at our income (or spending) its kinda irrelevant how we do compared to others, its what we do and how it affects us that matters.

Thats probably a load of waffle, but it made sense to me! :)

[Nienke]

;) No, it's not a load of waffle, it makes sense! :yes

[NeilV]

OUCH!

Top 2%??? :o