Look at the Island’s poor, not rich

Monday 27th April 2009, 3:00PM BST.

From Michael de Petrovsky.
DO we really want to see a Jersey Rich List (JEP, 25 April) and know how much the current recession has cost them? It’s peanuts in reality, for they still have millions more than any human being can spend in a lifetime of reasonable living.

You can only eat so much food, make love to so many women or men, sail one yacht at a time, live in one penthouse flat at a time and so on.

There must be vast amounts left over for no useful purpose except to reinvest to raise one’s level on the scoreboard of avarice. That is, unless you are of the ilk of David Kirch, Bill Gates and like.

Some will have made their wealth by honest hard work, and good luck to them; others, no doubt, by less reputable means. This display of excessive wealth in the face of world, local and child poverty has an obscene flavour that, were I to classify it, I would place it firmly in the bowels of a personal ‘vomitorium’.

Would it not be better to have a Poor List? No names, just Mr and Mrs X, Y or Z living below or on the poverty line. We could pass over a few pounds to make their lives more bearable and know what we were able to spare would be going direct to help those in dire straits in these hard times.

How about those of us receiving more than £15,000 a year giving one per cent to the real poor – those trapped in the cesspit at the bottom of the ladder of financial acquisition?
Le Sellier,
Rue du Rondin,
St Mary.

1
Adrian

April 27, 2009 at 6:04 pm

A very good letter this would be more of a guide as to how people were really getting on!

Vast sums of money do no good in a bank when people are dying through want. Even Bill Gates has realised this, this is why he is giving his money away over time. He realises that you can get to the point where you do indeed have to much money! When will others realise this simple truth?

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2
joker

April 28, 2009 at 2:11 pm

This is all very noble but far from practical. For a start how do you define who’s poor and who isn’t, where is the line drawn? If thisarbitrary line were drawn who do you pass the wealth too – the hardworking single mother who earns say £12k per year or the lay about who ‘only’ receives £8k through benefits?

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3
Leah Holmes

April 28, 2009 at 8:54 pm

Adrian, it is a nice idea, but unfortunately looking at the poor misses out those that don’t get classed as poor!

In the UK I worked my bottom off but had less expendible income than many people on benefits who didn’t work at all. Once on benefits they got absolutely everything free, meaning they could buy new cars and I was just getting by.

It would be interesting to have a survey of Jersey residents looking at income, skills, education, access to financial help of any type. It wouldn’t achieve anything important financially but it might finally make some of the arrogant rich people that have been on this website realise that money does not mean they are better people, better educated or more skilled.

That’s all I would like to see in Jersey. The utter superiority of some of the rich is unbelievable, especially if you ever try to hold a conversation with some of them… I have been stunned by the stupidity of two that I’ve met so far. Obviously their money was not got by intelligence!

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4
Adrian

April 29, 2009 at 8:26 pm

I think it would be an eye opener to see what most have to live on over here. Therefore I think it is an excellent idea to find out what sort of socio-economic strata we have over here.

I agree some of the rich people I know are so up themselves its unreal but thats the joy of living in Jersey for you. I find it rather comical when I come across them. I think an excellent comedy could be filmed for a TV series about some of them and the antics they get up to it.

I do hope they don’t get too rude an awaking when they pass on to better things!

What people need to realise is that money doesn’t make anyone better than anyone else. This is a trap that the nouveaux rich can often fall into.

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5
Leah Holmes

April 30, 2009 at 4:34 pm

Adrian, I guess you didn’t witness the hilarious event of the rich person being ticketed for illegal parking. The onlookers to this event had a good giggle for a long time afterwards, and it wasn’t the parking control man they were laughing at

It is sad. Wealth does not have to cause arrogance and ignorance of the law, but it so often does. What I do notice though is that people who have genuinely ‘earned’ their millions, (no inheritance, no cheating, just sher hard graft) tend not to become arrogant, they tend to know just how good they have it.

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