Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2004 08:15:47 +1300 To: davd@ihug.co.nz From: David MacClemenT http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LessIsMore/message/14184 is: Subject: Fw. re: Global rich list At 09:48 2004-02-05 -0600, Diane F. wrote to the LessIsMore list: >Also from the Sojourners newsletter: > >Wealth perspective > http://www.globalrichlist.com > >The Global Rich List shows you where you rank on the world's economic ladder with sobering specificity. (Example: You are in the top 7.22% richest people in the world. There are 5,566,727,941 people poorer than you.) Surprise - it also recommends a donation to a worthy charity. > >Of course, I am shamelessly wealthy. > >Diane Fitzsimmons >Norman, Okla., USA > [David M.: ] · In my LIM post "David living on _so_ little": 07:35 2004-02-03 +1300 {at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LessIsMore/message/14049 after signing-in}, I referred to my "diversity, in small groups" D-E post on 01 Oct 1999 {at: http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/deep-ecology/jun99/msg00644.html its there now} which mentions that (up until November 2001) my income has been: - NZ$3,200 (or US$1,920) per _year_. Annd I lived on less than 60% of that, using the rest to support one of my children at university one year, after I'd saved enough. · Since my 65th birthday in November 2001 I have been receiving: - NZ$9,914 per year (US$5,948 _per_yearr_, at US0.60 per NZ$1.00), as my universal NZ Superannuation. {Five days ago I sent this to my sister in NZ [copy below]: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - · The [NZ Pension people] require the authorities in any other country which supplies an Old-Age-Pension to pay you what you are owed _there_ first, then NZ Super tops it up to the $190 per week we get here in New Zealand (if married, but only one of us is old enough to qualify). · I get $288 a fortnight from the NZ government + $200 a month from Canada (amounting to $144 + $46 = $190 per week, or $7,514 + $2,400 = $9,914/ year) because I worked for Carleton University for something over two years (first in Ottawa then in Nigeria). All in NZ$, after tax. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -} · So for the 11 years up till 27 months ago, http://www.globalrichlist.com says about my US$1,920 per year income: You are in the top 17.56% richest people in the world. There are 4,945,909,090 people poorer than you. · And from 27 months ago for the rest of my life, www.globalrichlist.com says about my current US$5,948 per year income: You are in the top 14.13% richest people in the world. There are 5,151,875,808 people poorer than you. · Since the 1990s I have been saying (e.g. in the front-page article on me: http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/macfamil.html ): - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - a fifth of the world's people are squandering the planet's wealth. David believes the world's population could live on US$2,000 each, a year. In 1988 the MacClements spent five months in India to show their children what it was like to live in real poverty and appreciate their New Zealand lifestyle. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - · I am fully aware that I live well, provided I share housing with at least one other. And that most people didn't live as well as me even when I was living at the absolute minimum, NZ$1,250+$390=NZ$1,640 (incl. my per-year share of the price of this house: $390). I'm now living at NZ$1,890 or US$1,130 per year. · I save the difference between that US$1,130 I spend and the US$5,948 I get as NZ-Super/Universal-Pension from the NZ government. (US$4,818; that is, I can save more than 80% of my net pension payments, by living very frugally.) In fact I use some of it to pay the total cost of the family's bread and milk; with carrots, cabbage and peanuts (& Marmite for B vitamins), all one needs to stay healthy (as I've been proving since late 1992). David. (David MacClement) Civis Mundi davd @ ihug.co.nz http://www.geocities.com/davd.geo/ ZL1ASX **************************************** {Letter to Kathy re NZ Super requiring Canadian income to be specified.} · Kathy, you'll be eligible for NZ Superannuation on your birthday (first week in September, isn't it?), so I suggest you phone Work and Income NZ and ask what date is best for you to turn up for your interview, (and what documents they want you to bring, like your birth certificate since it's age-based). · It's not a big hassle, _provided_ your case is normal, simple. · So you may choose to keep it simple by telling them your paid employment has all been in New Zealand. · The reason is that they require the authorities in any other country which supplies an Old-Age-Pension to pay you what you are owed _there_ first, then NZ Super tops it up to the $190 per week we get here (if married but only one is old enough to qualify, the other is too young). · I get $288 a fortnight from the NZ government + $200 a month from Canada (amounting to $144 + $46 = $190 per week, or $7,514 + $2,400 = $9,914/ year) because I worked for Carleton University for something over two years (first in Ottawa then in Nigeria). All in NZ$, after tax. The NZ money is deposited straight into my nominated account, but the Canada Pension Plan {CPP} (and eventually Old Age Security {OAS} Pension I believe) money, comes monthly as a cheque I have to send on to my bank account. · If you decide to tell Work and Income NZ that you are eligible for pension money from Canada, the International Section of Work and Income NZ (in Wellington) passes-on to you a questionnaire from Human Resources Develop- ment Canada (Income Security Programs), which asks you to prove (with things like passport stamps or airline ticket stubs) when you entered and left Canada while you were old enough to earn money. · I found this all a great hassle; a year after I was first asked for this stuff I eventually found I could make a statutory declaration, for the date in the 1950s when I left, that I had no written evidence for. · I believe I still may have to deal with some Canadian government department about the OAS pension; I'm currently getting just the CPP money. · Fortunately Work and Income NZ pays the full NZ Super from the beginning, and only starts cutting it down when it receives the statement from Human Resources Development Canada of what they are paying you. (· One other factor: at least one of the Canadian pensions starts at age 60 but I think you get it only after you have applied for it - you would be eligible for those few tens of dollars a week now, if you had applied earlier.) Love, David.