Money

With Denmark having one of the most egalitarian societies in the world, travelling anywhere else will remind one of how large the gap between rich and poor can be. Africa certainly has its fair share of poor people, but being a child, and with most of my impressions coming from an international school and a clustering of expatriate families, I never took much notice of it. But in Asia, the income gap shows everywhere.

The most striking observation is not how poor people are, but how rich. Walking through the bustling markets of Mong Kok, small stalls selling 15-dollar T-shirts are flanked by luxurious stores selling jewellery and $500.000 hand bags. Real estate prices surrounding Victoria Peak are among the highest in the world, with prices reaching $100.000 per square foot. Michelin-star restaurants are situated next to $50 all-you-can-eat venues, and cars of top brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Bentley or Jaguar are everywhere, even though traffic is a nightmare and the MTR costs about 8 bucks.

In Denmark, this would not be possible. Wealthy people tend to cluster together (in Denmark it is in Northern Sealand outside Copenhagen, colloquially known as the whiskey belt), since money is not something you show off. If you have it, great - but it does not make you a better person than the rest of us, and it does not get you any perks. This is very different from the American view of money, who see money as the result of hard work and risk-taking in line with the American dream. While many Europeans have inherited money and with it a life style and an (anachonistic) place in society, Americans have often started with nothing, and are wealthy because somebody in their family has worked for it. This encourages freedom and opportunities, and explains many American GLOBE'rs dislike of a too large state.

In China, until recently, wealth used to belong to the Government and with it the officials in power. However, with the economic reforms, private profiteering has resulted in the increased wealth of society as a whole, and actually reduced social inequality. But the gradual change toward free markets takes time, and so far the system has resulted in many monopolies / oligopolies, national champions and favoured areas of development. Hence there is a growing number of Chinese who are wealthy beyond their wildest imagination. An example could be a family-owned mining firm, who gets the sole patent to mine bauxite in Inner Mongolia. The company has no competition, sells the bauxite to a state-owned enterprise, and collects sky-high profits.

Cheng Du gave a quick insight into the lives of these people's children. The marketing term for such consumers between 14 and 25 years of age is "little emperor". They have no siblings, have better-than-average schooling in English, and so much money they do not know how to spend it. It is often more about something being exclusive than it being an economically sound investment. For companies appealing to multiple segments of the market, it is a hard balance to strike, but nightclubs, for example, would have no entrance fee and beers for $40, but also Moet champagne and $29.000 bottles of wine. Other times, clubs are members-only, with membership alone costing $30.000.

In Hong Kong, this outrageous consumption is also visible, enhanced by the type of people who make up the trading capital of East Asia. Investment bankers, working +100 hour weeks and earning disposable monthly incomes of way over $80.000, are not too concerned about money. In the every-day encounter with such wealth, one can easily lose any kind of rational consumption pattern, as it becomes tempting to try and bridge the obvious social gap and the status that comes with it. It also explains why, for so many local students I have met, money is a goal in itself. Many Danes would be disgusted with this mindset, but unlike in Denmark, money actually does buy you more than just things.