What if the wealthiest in each country decided to distribute their entire wealth among the poor of their respective countries? Would that make this world a better place? That is difficult to answer. But what the Robin Hood Index easily does is it tells us how much each poor person would get if that were to happen.
According to an interesting analysis of some insights of this index by Bloomberg, each person below poverty line in India would get $59 if the $22 billion wealth of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, were to be distributed among them.
The index shows how the net worth of each country’s wealthiest person compares with the livelihood of his fellow countrymen by calculating the lump sum (in dollars) each person living in poverty would get if the assets of the richest citizen were to be liquidated and redistributed.
Microsoft owner Bill Gates’ fortunes would turn into a one-off payment of $1,736 if distributed among the neediest 15 per cent of Americans, shows the report.
In India, the $59 each below-poverty-line person would hypothetically get from Ambani would be enough for about 110 basic meals priced at Rs 35 and consisting of rice, dal, two vegetables, one pickle and three rotis.
Given the large below-poverty-line population in India, it would be the smallest payout to the poor of any other country analysed, though Ambani’s net worth is about 12 million times more than the per-capita income of his fellow Indians.
The two countries where the poor stand to gain the most are Cyprus and Sweden. If the wealth of John Fredriksen, Cyprus’richest man were to be redistributed among that country’s poor, each would get $45,987. Similarly, $33,149 of the wealth of Ingvar Kamprad, Sweden’s richest man, would reach each poor man in that country, if the wealth was to be given away.
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index and the CIA World Factbook were used as the reference points for the index.
