The True Cost to the Wealthy of an ever-widening Gap between Rich and Poor

It is extremely unlikely anyone has ever found real and meaningful, inner-happiness and satisfaction endlessly pursuing wealth to cater for self-indulgent desires and pleasures. All they likely find is fleeting happiness followed by dissatisfaction and even more endless desires. Furthermore, many such people quickly find themselves becoming victims of the mental enslavement of being possessed by their possessions. The more expensive their possessions the more worries tend to circulate in their minds about protecting and keeping those possessions.

The price for this behaviour is a heavy one, not just for those responsible for it, but for the whole of society. Endless wealth accumulation without regard to consequence often takes the world's resources from the hands of the masses. The result is material poverty for the many and spiritual poverty for those responsible.

Material poverty is an ugly affair from which no-one - not even the wealthy - can truly escape. It would be wise if those in high-powered positions in banks and building societies and stakeholders with controlling interests would consider the bigger picture. For all actions there are consequences. As we've said previously, poverty often helps cause family and relationship breakdowns, domestic violence, substance abuse, physical and mental health problems and suicide to name but a few. It also helps to fuel crime. People can continue wealth creation at any cost, but one day when someone puts a gun or knife to them and demands their valuables in exchange for sparing their life; they may want to consider that their assailant may never have started on the path of violence and crime had they not been damaged by poverty as a child. Or perhaps their assailant one day reached their limit on what they could endure from life in poverty and decided to seek relief through taking drugs, which in turn provided them with chemical means of feeling happy and carefree by temporarily helping them to escape reality and their troubles. Soon they became addicted, and their life descended into thoughtless criminality, as all morality and good character was squeezed out of them by their ever-increasing desperation to find their next fix.

It can easily be seen in countries where the gap between rich and poor has become so extreme, that wealthy people tend to invest a lot of their money on securing their property and themselves. As the divide increases and poverty spreads, their properties start to resemble prisons, and their security staff start to resemble their jailers. The gap can only stretch so far, before poverty stricken people decide that it is worth risking their lives to end the suffering they and their loved ones are in and this invariably leads to bloodshed and violence; both for wealthy people and their assailants.

Is this the sort of society bankers would want to live in? Perhaps not. Perhaps many have taken their eyes off the long-term price in order to focus on short-term gain. After all, we are all only human and none of us are perfect. The important thing now is that bankers and their bank's or building society's stakeholders urgently reassess their own priorities in life and their bank's or building society's role in society. This way it is hoped banks and building societies can start to play a truly positive role in driving society's well being rather than contributing to its destruction and breakdown. Through heartfelt, meaningful and constructive action the banks and building societies can start to earn back society's trust and respect. Those who contribute to this can return from work each day with ever-brighter and long-lasting smiles that comes from the satisfaction of building merit of character and setting an example later generations can aspire to uphold.