The Rich Get Richer and the Poor, Poorer – But Why?
A Brief Digression into Heterodox Economics
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The Parable of Talents, found in Matthew 25:24-30, is perhaps the earliest written statement of this famous aphorism:
For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him, that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Because of this verse, the entire phenomenon of “the rich getting rich and the poor getting poor” is often called the Matthew Effect.
However, the aphorism was first stated in its modern formulation by the great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. In his 1821 book A Defence of Poetry, Shelly criticized the “utilitarians” of his day by remarking that under their administration “the rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer.” Today the aphorism is commonly expressed in present indicative tense, expressing a seemingly unchanging pattern observed over time: “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”
Whatever its source and tense, no one disputes the truth of the Mathew Effect. Indeed, its factuality is in evidenced everywhere! The Guardian reports:
The world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes to $869bn (£681.5bn) since 2020, while the world’s poorest 60% – almost 5 billion people – have lost money.
The details come in a report by Oxfam as the world’s richest people gather from Monday in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum meeting of political leaders, corporate executives and the super-rich.
The yawning gap between rich and poor is likely to increase, the report says, and will lead to the world crowning its first trillionaire within a decade. At the same time, it warns, if current trends continue, world poverty will not be eradicated for another 229 years.
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