Reality & Statistics

There has been a great debate in almost every newspaper, magazine, and TV-show lately about the economic inequality on the planet. 1% of the population has allegedly an accumulated wealth, which is much higher than the one of the remaining 99% of the population. In addition, the same or similar surveys have shown that the top 1% has increased its income significantly on a year-on-year basis during the last five years, hence since the beginning of the global economic downturn. The picture in Greece almost identical. Approximately 500 families have a total asset base in the region of 70 billion USD, while the top 12 have increased their asset base in the last year alone from 15 billion USD to 17 billion USD. Now, leaving the trend aside -and all these financial indicators- there are certain questions that come to mind spontaneously, the first one being, what is the real purpose of sharing that information with a wider audience? Isn't it a bit like stating the obvious about the mechanics of nature itself? Assume that we erase all statistics and with it mankind as it looks today and we start all over from scratch. How many years do you think it will take mankind to replicate the same result of that statistic? Isn't equality in our very nature as human beings? Isn't it fact that we perform at different capacities by default? Isn't this reflection of our different output capacities not normal when our commonly agreed and accepted value system is based on output that is measurable in money? Why do we attempt to portray someone's higher capacity to produce money as an act of immorality and unethical? Would not every one of us like to have the brain power to perform at the same capacity as the top 1%? In other words, is this negative presentation of high-earners in reality envy in disguise that has no other outlet to express itself other than by blackening the ones who can? When I read these kind of articles I do two things as a reflective reaction: 1) I ask myself whether this type of information is worth absorbing, and 2) whether I am happy with my output capacity, and if not, what can I do to improve my performance. Occupying myself with thoughts of a different world that I am not part of, leaves me totally unimpressed, as it does not add or deduct the slightest thing from my reality.