About being rich...

Since I started earning a doctor's salary I've never been short of money, but neither have I ever felt truely rich. By that I mean that I have always found it hard to undestand how someone could spent £1,000 on a pair of sunglasses or £2,000 for a night in a hotel. It just seemed like a waste of money; could the expensive sunglasses really be that much better than a pair for £20 from the chemist for example?

South Africa has one of the largest income inequalities in the world. The average income of the richest 20% of South African households is 45 times more than the average income of the poorest 20% of households for example. Thus I find myself being in the former group while living in an area made up mostly of the later group. So while I earn something like 8 times the minimum wage, with the employment rate being under 10% in this area most families survive on far less than that.

I bought 12 bottles of wine today and it cost more than the monthly income for many families and I drove home in a car which for many is as far out of reach as a helicopter is to most people in the UK. I don't see why I should feel more guilty about that than if I had done the same thing in the UK but I do. And it has definatley opened my eyes to why people pay so much for their sunglasses.