A Wealth of Notions: How Laypeople Define Wealth Across Five Countries

• In Event: Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 4. Global Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility

Abstract

Wealth inequality is high and rising in many countries. Whereas economists operate with clearly delimited definitions of wealth, it has rarely been examined how laypeople conceive of wealth and how these notions differ across national contexts. Examining laypeople’s understandings of wealth is crucial as they form the basis for how people perceive and evaluate economic inequality and related policies. Understanding how these notions align or differ within and across national contexts may help identify underlying conditions for laypeople’s discourses. We implemented 42 focus groups in five countries with distinct macroeconomic performance and welfare regimes: Botswana, Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and the US. A thematic coding revealed that notions of wealth were multi-layered, but diffuse. Across countries, wealth was regularly conflated with income, included non-material notions, and demarcated a narrow band of high positive values rather than a continuous scale. Moreover, participants operated with a binary of relatable, “ordinary” affluence that they observed in their social surroundings and the incomprehensible wealth of the superrich. Definitions strongly overlapped between countries in their essence, but minor differences emerged, particularly concerning asset classes, perceptions of neediness, and wealth’s capacity to grant access. In conclusion, we argue that such diffuse and non-specific notions of wealth make it more difficult to publicly contest economic inequalities and injustices.

Authors

• David Schieferdecker, Freie Universität Berlin

• Angelika Juhász, Freie Universität Berlin

• Flavio Carvalhaes, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro