Original version

BBC World Service Online

In the Balance

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Money

The biggest financial stories and why they matter to us all.

In The Balance

In the Balance: Sharing the Wealth

Yachts moored at Port Hercules in Monaco

08/12/2012

Sharing the Wealth

BBC World Service - In the Balance, Sharing the Wealth

Do the global super-rich elite bring any benefit to the rest of society?

Justin Rowlatt and guests discuss whether the global super-rich elite benefits the rest of society.  Plus, when is enough enough?  Do you really want to be a billionaire?

It seems the world has got a whole lot greedier.  Back In 1956 Frank Sinatra asked Who Wants to be a Millionaire?  This year Travis McCoy and Bruno Mars sang about how they wanna be a billionaire.  That's a thousandfold increase in aspiration during a period retail prices have risen by a factor of just eight.  We stop eating when we're full so why don't we stop wanting more money?  Justin Rowlatt and his guests, Chrystia Freeland, Charles Abugre and Jamie Whyte discuss whether the very rich benefit the rest of us, and if they do, whether they ever do it voluntarily.   And Colm O'Regan muses on whether he really does want to be a billionaire. 


(Image: Yachts moored at Port Hercules in Monaco. Credit: VALERY HACHE/AFP/GettyImages)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

In the Balance

Sharing the Wealth

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service