April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

tanks’ that fill the media (many of which they own) with propaganda that
glorifies the wealthy and demonises the poor, the working people, the
public sector, taxation and government itself. They undermine democracy,
funding politicians and then lobbying them to block reforms of the
financial system and regulations that might impede the growth of their
wealth.
In this gilded age, where so few own so much (and can avoid paying taxes
by hiding their wealth in tax havens) and the rest suffer or are left to their
own devices to merely survive, a new vocabulary – a glossary of greed – has
developed around and for the super-rich. It speaks volumes about the new
globalised order where disparity and extreme inequality reign supreme,
just like the global over-class.
OF HNWIS AND UHNWIS
First, it’s important to know that there are official terms for the very rich.
They are known as ‘high net worth individuals’ or HNWIs. These are people
who can, at the drop of a hat, put their hands on a million US dollars in
‘liquid assets’,[10] also known as cash.
The HNWIs’ numbers have started to grow again, following the global
financial crisis of 2008, which a good number of them helped bring about
with their reckless and woolly get-rich-on-bad-debt and derivatives
schemes. In 2009, there were 95,000 HNWIs in the world (at least ones
that we know of – many crime bosses, despots and dictators would
certainly swell this number were their wealth not hidden offshore).
Between 2008 and 2009 their net worth rose 18.9 per cent – to $39
trillion.[11]
But all is relative when it comes to wealth. Just as the world’s majority –
the average person in Africa, Latin America and Asia – can still be
considered extremely poor (monetarily) next to the average person living
in Europe or North America, so are the run-of-the-mill HNWIs relatively
poor when compared with the UHNWIs. These are the ‘ultra high net worth
individuals’, people who can produce $30 million cash at any moment.[12]
UHNWIs have also seen their fortunes soar in the aftermath of the 2008
financial crisis. In 2009, their wealth rose 21.9 per cent.[13]
These days, however, given that 1,210 individuals now possess fortunes in
the billions – far in excess of the lowly cut-off point of $30 million for
UNHWIs – perhaps it’s time to come up with a new term to accommodate
the swelling ranks of billionaires. Perhaps RAUHNWIs, ‘ridiculously,
appallingly and unbelievably high net worth individuals’?
THE COST OF LIVING EXTREMELY WELL
Since 1976, Forbes has been providing a ‘CLEWI’ – Cost of Living Extremely
Well Index’ – for the monetarily well endowed. Forbes earnestly explains
that the CLEWI is ‘to the very rich what the Bureau of Labor Statistics’
Consumer Price Index [CPI] is to ordinary people’. Between 2009 and 2010,
the CLEWI showed a 1 per cent inflation rate on the HNWI basket of basics,
while the CPI for ‘ordinary people’ rose 1.1 per cent.[14]
But those things in an ordinary person’s basket – a cup of rice or grain
perhaps and a couple of tablespoons of oil for the average West African, or
a panoply of nutritious foodstuffs and other things average citizens in rich
countries consider basics – are a far cry from what is to be found in the
CLEWI baskets. Prices for some items have stayed steady: a suite at the
New York Four Seasons ($4,650), a Rolls Royce Phantom ($380,000), a
Hattaras 80 MY motor yacht ($5,281,600) and a facelift at the American
Academy of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery (still just $17,000).