Wednesday, November 6, 2013

THAT GAP BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR


'As long as monetary value and political power are based on capitalistic economics that require exploitation to create the fiction known as profit, there will always be a disparity or gap, between the exploited and the exploiting.'  ~Johnathon Lipscomb

I came across this statement in one of my several online sojourns in search of information and 'new knowledge', precisely in a discussion on ted.com and the first thing that crossed my mind was our dear own Nigeria, its pseudo-capitalistic economy and the disparity between the rich(exploiting) and the poor(exploited). Only 1% of the population could be classified as rich or say 1.5% for the purpose of argument and this minute percentage is made of up solely the political elite and maybe the Dangote's, Adenuga's or Otedola's and some other masters of industries. A friend of mine would argue that there is nothing like the middle class population in Nigeria because of a gap that is so wide and obvious. He would say 'In Nigeria, you are either rich or poor, there is nothing like you belong to the middle class.' According to a 2012 World Bank report, Nigeria's poverty rate was put at 62.6% in a population estimated at 160million. When you take a look at government and private institutions and even some individual businesses, there seems to be a very big gap between the highest paid individuals and the lowest paid employee. Most government institutions, firms and even private businesses operates using the (9,1) Management Grid Theory in which there is maximum concern for production, output, targets etc and minimum concern for employee welfare and this is usually evident in the peanuts most employees take home as salary. I am not saying that there shouldn't be a gap in the first place but there should be equalisation of income levels as seen in China and several other industrialised nations that are trying everything possible to reduce this disparity between the rich and poor.

Some people have argued that a proper democratic system of government would atleast reduce this problem but we have had several democratic governments come and go and yet the gap still lingers. What these governments do is seize power disguised as a democratic election, amass wealth that would last up to their 5th generation and also for their family members, relatives and even in-laws. They employ the same Management Theory as stated above and then leave office or instill their protege for continuity and the cycle continues, the rich gets richer and the poor remain poorer. Democracy is not a solution to this problem especially in a country where money can buy political power, as it does in Nigeria. This gap could be attributed to the continuous rise in crime and other social vices in the society as most apprehended culprits would always attribute their involvement to poverty or the need to feed. (Well, these ones are different from those who point accusing fingers on the Devil).

The solution to this wealth gap lies in the proper distribution of all resources in the society and this can be done through formulation and implementation of workable policies. When this is done, the disproportionately richer people would feel happier and even safer, the disproportionately poorer people on the other hand would stop complaining or even contemplating crime because they have enough of their own and the country on its own would record little or no social vices and undesirable features of life as every single one of its population is happy.

Life indeed feels better when people are happy.

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Twitter: @victorikeji

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