Subtle wealth

Switzerland is clearly a wealthy country.   According to every study or report I’ve seen it’s the richest in the world.   The 2015 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report compares 174 countries and lists Switzerland in the #1 position with the average adult having a net worth of $567,122.   New Zealand was #2 ($400,811) followed by Australia ($364,896).  The US and UK rounded out the top five with $352,996 and $320,368 respectively.   When I read this I thought, wow, that’s a lot of money.  It doesn’t seem correct.  Then I looked at the second column in the table, the one showing the median adult wealth.  This shows  how broadly this wealth is distributed in each country and Switzerland gets a surprisingly low grade in this category.  When you look at the ratio of average wealth to median wealth, Switzerland’s is 5.3, which isn’t as bad as the US (7.1) but compared to New Zealand and Australia (both 2.2) it’s considerably less fair than I expected.  Another, more sophisticated metric that economists use to measure fairness of wealth distribution is the Gini coefficient.   At the risk of oversimplifying the statistics involved, the Gini is a quick way to assess how financially satisfied people will be in the context of their culture and country.  In yet more basic terms, it’s an indication of how they see themselves compared to their neighbors.   In Gini terms, zero means that everyone has the same wealth and 100 means one guy has it all.   The Gini in Switzerland is 80.3 while in the US it’s 85.0.  To give a bit of perspective, the average for European and North American countries is 74.8.  Those Kiwi’s and Aussies?  65.5.  Damn, talk about finding an economic sweet spot.  Wealth and fairness, together.   If you’re wondering where Putin’s kleptocracy ranks, it’s a 91.2, which, as a bad as that sounds, it’s even worse when you consider that the average net wealth in Russia is south of $12,000.  The economic unsweet spot, poor and unfair.  Anyway, back to the subject of this post, subtle wealth.  The reason that I was surprised that Switzerland’s wealth is relatively unevenly distributed is that you  don’t see the level of ostentatiousness here that you do in the US.  Plainly, there are a lot of rich people here.   Try to find them though and you’re bound to be disappointed as the Swiss are masters of subtle wealth.  They’ll wear a watch worth more than your retirement savings but hide it under a shirt sleeve.  They are a private species and matters of money may be viewed as the most private of all.  When I first moved here I noticed that even the model numbers on the BMW’s and Mercedes, indicating the engine displacement (and value),  are left off  the cars sold in Switzerland.   The attitude seems to be, why rub it in?  While you’re not likely to see a rich Swiss dressing down, you won’t see them behaving flamboyantly either.  And you will never hear them publicly making a boorish statement like, “I’m rich, really rich”.  Ever.

By the way, have you ever met an unpleasant, unhappy Kiwi or Aussie?  Me neither.