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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