Do the Rich Deserve Their Wealth?

Being ‘uber-rich’ is a matter of much debate today and it has many people asking the question, do the rich deserve their wealth? However, before you jump to conclusions about other people’s net worth, take a look at these three concepts.

Concept 1: Wealth is subject to perspective

Let’s put ‘rich’ in perspective.

According to the Global Rich List If you earn over $32,400 a year than you are in the top 1% of global income earners! So before pointing fingers at the top ‘1%’ in rich countries, think about the other 90%-99% of the world that is worse off than you.

Concept 2: The Law of Compensation

Your compensation depends on the value you bring to the marketplace.

As Bob Berg says in his book The Go-Giver: “Your income is dependent upon how many people you serve and how well you serve them.” As an example, a server may serve 10-50 people per day. A restaurant owner is responsible for serving all the customers, the employees, and the employees’ families by providing jobs.

Taking it up another level, a franchise owner is responsible for all of the restaurant owners, staff, and customers under them. Even bigger, a company like Uber Eats or Bite Squad may serve hundreds of thousands or even millions of people every week. Thus, the more people you serve and the better you serve them, the higher your income will tend to be.

Concept 3: The ‘Money Pie’ Myth

Another person’s wealth doesn’t mean less for you.

A lot of people think that the wealth, resources, and opportunities we have are limited. Like slices of a pie. If someone gets a bigger slice or if more people get slices before you get your cut, that means less for you. This simply isn’t true! Wealth is created.

For example, the invention of the internet opened the door of opportunity for millions of people to create jobs and businesses that would have been impossible 100 years ago. There is an infinite number of creative ideas waiting to be discovered, businesses to start, or innovations to existing business models that could be done. That is how wealth is created.

Forbes featured a good analogy for this is in an article entitled “When It Comes to Wealth Creation, There Is No Pie.“

“Suppose Robinson Crusoe is tired of trying to scoop up fish with his hands and figures out how to turn a tree branch into a spear, increasing his daily catch tenfold. Can Friday, who never thought to make a spear, properly complain that Crusoe has received an “unfair distribution” of fish?”

Yaron Brook and Don Watkins | Forbes

Other thoughts

Questions to ask before judging another person’s wealth:

• Was it acquired honestly?

  • “Wealth [not earned but] won in haste or unjustly or from the production of things for vain or detrimental use [such riches] will dwindle away, but he who gathers little by little will increase [his riches].” Proverbs 13:11 AMPC

• Did they work for it?

  • “He becomes poor who works with a slack and idle hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.” Proverbs 10:4 AMPC

• Did they inherit it?

  • “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous.” Proverbs 13:22 ESV

• Did God bless them with it?

  • “But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.” Deuteronomy 8:18 KJV

  • “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” Proverbs 10:22 ESV

• Are they good stewards of it?

  • “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God…” Ecclesiastes 2:26 ESV

  • “He who by charging excessive interest and who by unjust efforts to get gain increases his material possession gathers it for him [to spend] who is kind and generous to the poor. [Job 27:16, 17; Prov. 13:22; Eccl. 2:26.]” Proverbs 28:8 AMPC

So, do the rich deserve their wealth or not?

Please let us know what you think in the comments below!

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