Super-rich: Celebrated or undesirable?

DW (English)

Views on wealth and millionaires vary widely across the globe. While they may be seen rather critically in parts of Europe, such as Germany and France, that's not the case in the US or India. Why?

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:03 - What is wealth?

00:05 What influences our attitude towards money

00:08 and the few really, really rich people?

00:10 - Whether you make a lot of money,

00:15 whether you don't make a lot of money, it's on you.

00:18 - The richness is part of the destiny.

00:20 It is coming from the God.

00:22 - In our language, wealth has a rather negative connotation,

00:26 which is absurd because most people want to become rich.

00:30 - Many Americans still believe in the American dream.

00:35 Anyone can be successful.

00:36 In India, success is reserved for a select few.

00:40 And in Germany, wealth often has a negative connotation.

00:44 The world's super rich live above all in the US.

00:50 Where else?

00:51 The country has 735 billionaires,

00:54 followed by China with 495.

00:57 More and more billionaires are also living in India.

01:00 There are now 169.

01:02 In comparatively small Germany,

01:04 there are still 126 and in Russia, 105.

01:08 - No matter if you're born poor or middle-class,

01:13 wherever you're born, everyone can just move up, right?

01:17 Or, you know, in the US it's called the American dream,

01:20 right?

01:22 There's the belief in meritocracy,

01:24 which means that the people at the top

01:27 are there because they deserve it, right?

01:31 That if you're rich, it's not because luck,

01:33 it's not because of external circumstances,

01:35 it's because of something internal to you.

01:38 And then there's the Protestant work ethic.

01:41 And the Protestant work ethic is this idea

01:43 that in society, the people that work the hardest

01:50 are the ones that are most rewarded.

01:53 If you take these beliefs together,

01:56 these ideologies together,

01:57 you get a glorification of the rich.

02:02 - In India, the social structure is very different.

02:05 Poverty and wealth exist side by side,

02:08 often under the same roof.

02:10 - A driver is earning, say,

02:15 not more than $100 or something,

02:19 and the guy who's sitting on the back is a Maybach.

02:22 Some Maybach driver may be below lowest level of the income,

02:26 and the guy sitting on the back

02:27 may be the topmost of the level of the income.

02:29 Wealth is considered to be the auspicious part of that,

02:32 and it's considered that a few people who are so auspicious,

02:35 and then God gives them the wealth.

02:36 This is the psychology, general psychology in India.

02:39 - In Germany, the view of the rich

02:42 is shaped by the country's history.

02:48 Of course, the war did something to the reputation of the rich,

02:52 because many of the super-rich

02:56 were involved in the business of the Nazi Party,

02:59 with their large companies, weapons production, and so on.

03:02 And that's where the taboo comes from,

03:09 because you hardly find any rich people in Germany

03:11 who really speak out in the media.

03:16 - That still influences the perception of wealth in Germany today.

03:21 Displaying wealth is frowned upon.

03:24 That said, the distribution of wealth is also relatively balanced.

03:27 - 90% of all companies in Germany are family businesses.

03:37 And if you have a family business, you can earn quite well.

03:44 But you also create jobs, you pay high taxes, and so on.

03:48 And the richer you are, the higher taxes you pay.

03:52 That is, if you pay them properly.

03:56 But if you pay them, you're doing something for everyone.

03:59 - In Germany, high earners pay 45% tax.

04:05 In India, the top tax rate is 30%.

04:07 But only one in 10 citizens pays any income tax at all.

04:12 - These people are an economy itself.

04:15 One good-earning family in India supports at least five families.

04:20 The five families survive on them.

04:22 There's a driver, there's a maid.

04:23 Then it comes to religious parts,

04:25 because India is a deeply religious country,

04:27 and the part of charity, donations, all these are ingrained into the religious life.

04:32 So they put 5%, 10% of their income to a different way of charity,

04:35 maybe religious charity.

04:37 - In the US, the top income tax rate is 37%.

04:42 But that's still far too high for many.

04:45 - You know, there's this attitude towards taxes are bad,

04:54 rather than taxes are good.

04:55 There's no real discussion of how taxes help society,

05:03 and are part of society,

05:04 and they're more about how taxes are some sort of pure evil.

05:09 - So bad that tax dongers are even celebrated by some,

05:14 like Martha Stewart, an American TV star who became a billionaire.

05:18 - Something about Martha Stewart, like, we're not that concerned about.

05:22 And maybe it really is that, like, well, you know,

05:24 so she flubbed on her taxes or something, you know.

05:27 Maybe most Americans think to themselves,

05:28 well, I would do that if I could or something, you know,

05:31 and so good for her.

05:32 - As inequality grows and perceptions of wealth change,

05:37 people around the world are beginning to look more critically

05:40 at the so-called top 1%.

05:42 - In India, now the politicians don't brag about their money.

05:48 - People do view the elite in society and the 1% specifically

05:53 as sort of cold, calculating, individualistic.

05:57 And it's just a group that is kind of in this sort of stratosphere, right,

06:02 that is very sort of divorced from the rest of society.

06:06 For me, the clientele of billionaires from all over the world

06:10 is a country in its own right, a group of their own.

06:13 - And it's growing.

06:17 According to the Wealth Report,

06:18 the super-rich are getting richer every year,

06:21 despite all the world crises.

06:23 (upbeat music)

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