5 ms·
A reminder: it's usually not a good idea to sum up the net worth of the poor, as many people who are net-negative (have debt) will bring down a couple thousand
by maratc 8y ago
A reminder: it's usually not a good idea to sum up the net worth of the poor, as many people who are net-negative (have debt) will bring down a couple thousand of actually poor people.
The poorest person in the world by net worth is Jérôme Kerviel [0], the Paris banker, who is worth about -5 billion euros. You can add the entire net worth of all the population of a couple of African countries to get to total net worth of 0.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jérôme_Kerviel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jérôme_Kerviel
Edit: Rebuttal for their previous report: http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2014/04/04/stop-adding-up-the-wealth-of-the-poor/ http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2014/04/04/stop-adding...
- rabidrat 8y ago> In March 2014, a French high court upheld Kerviel's prison sentence but ruled he would not have to repay €4.9bn.[36] I was hoping he was actually billions in the hole, but no, he's out of prison and working and not responsible for repaying any amount of the debt.
- hocuspocus 8y agoSure, let's put the junior trader in prison and not do anything about SocGen's management utter incompetence. FYI Kerviel's job termination was ruled abusive and the French government is now asking SocGen to pay back the 2.2bn tax break they got in 2008.
- lmilcin 8y agoIt would actually be impossible for him to do this. Nobody will let him anywhere near a job that would let him earn any sum of money that could make a difference on a 4th or 5th digit of that sum even if he worked for the rest of his life for this.
- neuronic 8y agoYou could really argue in all directions here. If he remained in prison all that he would do is to accumulate even more cost. But if not, he might become a welfare case (is he?) unless he lowers himself to do some honest work.
- lmilcin 8y agoActually, you could not argue. I'm Polish, so I may not know local law very well, but at least here the theory is that a punishment must, amongst others, allow the person to have a hope to come back to society, to remake themselves. This of course unless it is decided the person is unredeemable. So no, you can't argue in both directions. The judge has to pass a judgement that will take this into the account. Having a person be left with billions of dollars in debt that he has no hope to repay in a hundred lifetimes is not acceptable judgement, at least here.
- yoz-y 8y agoI'd blame the system that let him do something like that rather than the person, he was young and got strictly nothing from it even it if would have worked. In the mean time his bosses and their bosses are still happily in the business.
- onion2k 8y agoThe report is about the assets of the richest compared to the assets of the poorest. Debt doesn't affect that.
- Judgmentality 8y agoIsn't debt just a negative asset?
- ianai 8y agoDebt is a liability on the balance sheet. Assets-liabilities=net worth
- jonathanstrange 8y agoI don't understand the argument. Why is it not a good idea to sum up the net worth of the poor? Because you find the result displeasing?
- giancarlostoro 8y agoSeems more like the results are not as straight forward as one thinks, especially if you don't account for debt. How do you appropriately account for debt anyway? I'm guessing many here would have different approaches. Thus why it's not a good idea. I think defining up front how the numbers came to be would be a better idea.
- Juliate 8y agoExactly. Who's the richest: * person A who owns 2 cows and can make a confortable living for their family; yet, has a debt of 2 cows value to someone else; * person B who lives a frugal life, has no possessions, gets only enough food to live day by day, but owns person A's debt.
- dagw 8y agoWhy is it not a good idea to sum up the net worth of the poor Because it gives weird outcomes like a when newly graduated lawyer with a $200K salary and a massive student debt is considered much poorer than someone in sub-Saharan Africa earning $2 a day but is debt free.
- jonathanstrange 8y agoIt's an indicator, like many other indicators. If you interpret indicators correctly, there is no problem. I suppose the argument is that better indicators should be used? So I'm curious. Which ones would you suggest and how are they calculated? I'm a bit sceptical about the replies to my question so far, because where I live individual debts have to paid and massive debts will make your life miserable. So I definitely think they should be included into a meaningful indicator.
- ianai 8y agoThat is very important to include in this metric. Society has people with negative wealth. That’s a hugely important contrast to billionaires!