I think I see where you are coming from. You are right to advocate being less judgmental. We can never look into the minds and lives of complete strangers; yet social media postings overflow with ill-informed and unpleasant comments to and about anyone who dares to stick their head above the parapet.
In the circumstances you describe I agree up to a point. As you say we are more alike than different. No matter how rich people are, they cannot avoid the emotions we all experience: love, hate, joy, sadness and the rest. The richest man or woman in the world still has to fight the same viruses as we do, has to eat to stay alive and also has to excrete what has been digested (along with universal flatulence!)
Yet I cannot help thinking that there is something ultimately skewed about having such extreme wealth concentrated into the hands of one person. Take Mukesh Ambani. As you say he is Asia’s richest man and is worth about $83.6 billion. That is eighty three thousand million dollars (or $83,000,000,000.00).
He is currently aged 67 (10 years younger than I am, but I am maxed out on my credit cards and have a debit bank balance but I am happy with my lot). Let’s assume he lives to be 100. He will therefore have around 33 years of life left.
That is about 12,045 days or 289,080 hours. If he starts to give away or spend his fortune now at the rate of a million dollars every 3 hours he will not have disposed of it all by the time of his death - and he will not be able to take with hm what remains. I use that analogy to illustrate what an absurdly large amount of money he possesses. No one, but no one, needs that level of wealth, and I don’t think one can soften it by pointing out the number of people who earned money from being paid to put on his sumptuous wedding celebration, or that the family are top charitable donors.
I don’t judge but nonetheless I feel uneasy. Others wiser than I am advocate a very good reason for moderating extremes of wealth. See for instance this recent paper in Nature: “Why the world cannot afford the rich” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00723-3. The two authors have developed their theme in 2 excellent books.
So that’s my non-judgmental (honestly) take on this situation. Maybe if they had given me an invitation and paid my airfare I might have thought differently - just kidding!
Thank you for your thorough comment, Richard! I have news, hot off the press—the dad Ambani is planning another big 29th birthday bash for the groom to be end of the month;) There’s that! So I think there is a cultural issue here in that in India, dads amass wealth for generations to come. It’s not necessarily for themselves. There’s always that goal of providing for “generations to come”, no matter what strata of society you belong to. So the Ambanis won’t stop working or expanding business, and why should they if only to keep themselves occupied meaningfully? Hopefully the next of kin spend responsibly and are meaningfully occupied. That I’d be concerned about. Now, an argument could be made that they donate far more wealth than they do now, towards charity. More like the Gates here. Regarding the world cannot afford more rich, what if you work hard and become very wealthy? That’s not your fault, is it? The Ambani grand dad arrived from his native Gujarat with 100 rupees, that’s a little more than a dollar. Yes, I’d love an invite to one of their bashes😊If they are reading this, I’ll be in Mumbai July and August. If I do get invited, I’ll try to wriggle some influence;)
Oh don't get me wrong. Of course there must be wealthy people, and there must be rewards for enterprise, ingenuity and hard work. The authors of that article say that in their book. It's the extremes that cause concern: that the ultra rich are by definition powerful and may not always be acting in the interests of the general population. Apparently, in countries where there is more levelling up, the inhabitants are less violent, more happy, healthier and live longer than in those countries (like the UK and USA) where wealth disproportionately concentrates itself into a small minority of very rich. Holland and the Scandinavian countries are examples of this more even distribution. Yes, I read up about Ambani's background and he has undoubtedly done Amazingly well. Anyway, if you do get invited to one of their bashes, go for it! But please promise to tell us all about it in a future posting!
I see what you mean. The very wealthy stand out in America like a sore thumb. They do in India too, but there we are sadly used to seeing extremes at every nook and corner. Right across Antilla, the 28-floor home of the Ambanis is an impoverished fishing village. Buy who are we to judge?:) I am preoccupied with my karma—day job, writing, reading at a quiz tournament this weekend, etc.:) No chances of mingling with the rich and the fabulous for a follow-up post;) but working on one on an English clockmaker, arguably way more interesting than Ambani;) Stop, that was judgmental!;))
Totally agree who we r to judge others … if we try to find the positive in this whole celebration… lot of positive outcomes as to job opportunities and economic impact of the spending . However at the same time negative impacts in terms of pressure on others and what not. It’s not for us to judge … love the reasoning for not judging .
Wonderfully written. What a refreshing thought , a much needed perspective amidst all the judgments and criticisms going around. You had brought out so many perspectives that we take for granted. Thank you! Keep writing and keep inspiring.
Very generous of you, and of course you're right: Judge not that ye be not judged. Plus, we don't know what they've done, perhaps in a past life, to earn this such delights in this life!
Thank you, C.L.! I need to read the Geeta in its entirety too:) They say it has all the wisdom of the world and more and here I am, I start, sputter, restart, sputter all the time:) Yes, daya is essential, I am learning. It’s hard but the effort counts.
What good insights you have, Anu. As for me, I'm more likely to judge how the super rich became that way rather than how they spend their money (compare Donald Trump to Bill Gates, for example). But that's another issue entirely.
Thank you, David, and that’s a great point. The Ambanis’ dad, Mr. Dhirubhai, came to Mumbai with Rs. 500 and built a $75billion business empire. Lots of sweat and tears. I personally feel best not judging in life, but it’s hard not to, I admit, with Trump;)
I think I see where you are coming from. You are right to advocate being less judgmental. We can never look into the minds and lives of complete strangers; yet social media postings overflow with ill-informed and unpleasant comments to and about anyone who dares to stick their head above the parapet.
In the circumstances you describe I agree up to a point. As you say we are more alike than different. No matter how rich people are, they cannot avoid the emotions we all experience: love, hate, joy, sadness and the rest. The richest man or woman in the world still has to fight the same viruses as we do, has to eat to stay alive and also has to excrete what has been digested (along with universal flatulence!)
Yet I cannot help thinking that there is something ultimately skewed about having such extreme wealth concentrated into the hands of one person. Take Mukesh Ambani. As you say he is Asia’s richest man and is worth about $83.6 billion. That is eighty three thousand million dollars (or $83,000,000,000.00).
He is currently aged 67 (10 years younger than I am, but I am maxed out on my credit cards and have a debit bank balance but I am happy with my lot). Let’s assume he lives to be 100. He will therefore have around 33 years of life left.
That is about 12,045 days or 289,080 hours. If he starts to give away or spend his fortune now at the rate of a million dollars every 3 hours he will not have disposed of it all by the time of his death - and he will not be able to take with hm what remains. I use that analogy to illustrate what an absurdly large amount of money he possesses. No one, but no one, needs that level of wealth, and I don’t think one can soften it by pointing out the number of people who earned money from being paid to put on his sumptuous wedding celebration, or that the family are top charitable donors.
I don’t judge but nonetheless I feel uneasy. Others wiser than I am advocate a very good reason for moderating extremes of wealth. See for instance this recent paper in Nature: “Why the world cannot afford the rich” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00723-3. The two authors have developed their theme in 2 excellent books.
So that’s my non-judgmental (honestly) take on this situation. Maybe if they had given me an invitation and paid my airfare I might have thought differently - just kidding!
Thank you for your thorough comment, Richard! I have news, hot off the press—the dad Ambani is planning another big 29th birthday bash for the groom to be end of the month;) There’s that! So I think there is a cultural issue here in that in India, dads amass wealth for generations to come. It’s not necessarily for themselves. There’s always that goal of providing for “generations to come”, no matter what strata of society you belong to. So the Ambanis won’t stop working or expanding business, and why should they if only to keep themselves occupied meaningfully? Hopefully the next of kin spend responsibly and are meaningfully occupied. That I’d be concerned about. Now, an argument could be made that they donate far more wealth than they do now, towards charity. More like the Gates here. Regarding the world cannot afford more rich, what if you work hard and become very wealthy? That’s not your fault, is it? The Ambani grand dad arrived from his native Gujarat with 100 rupees, that’s a little more than a dollar. Yes, I’d love an invite to one of their bashes😊If they are reading this, I’ll be in Mumbai July and August. If I do get invited, I’ll try to wriggle some influence;)
Oh don't get me wrong. Of course there must be wealthy people, and there must be rewards for enterprise, ingenuity and hard work. The authors of that article say that in their book. It's the extremes that cause concern: that the ultra rich are by definition powerful and may not always be acting in the interests of the general population. Apparently, in countries where there is more levelling up, the inhabitants are less violent, more happy, healthier and live longer than in those countries (like the UK and USA) where wealth disproportionately concentrates itself into a small minority of very rich. Holland and the Scandinavian countries are examples of this more even distribution. Yes, I read up about Ambani's background and he has undoubtedly done Amazingly well. Anyway, if you do get invited to one of their bashes, go for it! But please promise to tell us all about it in a future posting!
I see what you mean. The very wealthy stand out in America like a sore thumb. They do in India too, but there we are sadly used to seeing extremes at every nook and corner. Right across Antilla, the 28-floor home of the Ambanis is an impoverished fishing village. Buy who are we to judge?:) I am preoccupied with my karma—day job, writing, reading at a quiz tournament this weekend, etc.:) No chances of mingling with the rich and the fabulous for a follow-up post;) but working on one on an English clockmaker, arguably way more interesting than Ambani;) Stop, that was judgmental!;))
Totally agree who we r to judge others … if we try to find the positive in this whole celebration… lot of positive outcomes as to job opportunities and economic impact of the spending . However at the same time negative impacts in terms of pressure on others and what not. It’s not for us to judge … love the reasoning for not judging .
Thank you, Shalini! I write these as much to learn and as a reminder to myself. All we can do is try, at the end of the day:)
Wonderfully written. What a refreshing thought , a much needed perspective amidst all the judgments and criticisms going around. You had brought out so many perspectives that we take for granted. Thank you! Keep writing and keep inspiring.
Thanks, Madhu! It’s hard to be non-judgmental but worth the effort for peace of mind above all else!
Very generous of you, and of course you're right: Judge not that ye be not judged. Plus, we don't know what they've done, perhaps in a past life, to earn this such delights in this life!
Thank you, Terry, and absolutely agree with that thought!
I was going to say what Terry said, but he said it. A beautiful piece, a solid reminder, and great quotes about daya. I need to read the Gita again.
Thank you, C.L.! I need to read the Geeta in its entirety too:) They say it has all the wisdom of the world and more and here I am, I start, sputter, restart, sputter all the time:) Yes, daya is essential, I am learning. It’s hard but the effort counts.
What good insights you have, Anu. As for me, I'm more likely to judge how the super rich became that way rather than how they spend their money (compare Donald Trump to Bill Gates, for example). But that's another issue entirely.
Thank you, David, and that’s a great point. The Ambanis’ dad, Mr. Dhirubhai, came to Mumbai with Rs. 500 and built a $75billion business empire. Lots of sweat and tears. I personally feel best not judging in life, but it’s hard not to, I admit, with Trump;)
Wow, that's impressive!