My dear friends, good day to you!
There are statistics that describe reality. And there are statistics that conceal it, according to the famous saying: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." (there are three kinds of falsehood: lies, huge lies, and statistics).
The annual UBS report on global wealth places Greece in 30th place worldwide in terms of average wealth per adult. A figure which, if isolated, creates the impression of a country that is prospering.
But averages have one flaw. They love exceptions more than rules.
The same report reveals that the median wealth of the Greek is a little over one third of the average. Put simply, the “typical” citizen is far removed from the picture given by the average. Real wealth is concentrated in a limited number of households, while for most people the economic reality is much more difficult than what the numbers show.
So here it is, the Greece of two speeds. The Greece of statistics and the Greece of everyday life. Up to this point, moreover, we have not “learned anything new” from UBS. But there is also a second reading.
Greek wealth continues to be based mainly on real estate. Homes remain the major investment of Greek households, while financial products continue to occupy a limited place compared with other developed economies.
The result is wealth with limited mobility. It exists, but is difficult to utilize. It increases net worth, but not necessarily disposable income. Especially if we take into account the so-called “closed homes.” It offers security, but not always financial ease. At times, moreover, as during the memorandum years, it “traps”.
This explains why many Greeks own real estate and at the same time feel financially pressured. They are well-off “on paper,” but not necessarily in everyday life.
The paradox becomes even greater if one adds an old Greek pathology: tax evasion.
In an economy where part of wealth is created or concealed outside the official mechanisms, inequality is not only the result of the market. It is also the result of the rules or, more precisely, their unequal application. The more some acquire wealth without contributing proportionally to public burdens, the more the gap with consistent taxpayers widens. And along with it, the sense of injustice widens as well. A characteristic example is the absurdity of applying income criteria for granting all kinds of subsidies, in a country with still so extensive tax evasion.
The real message of the UBS report is not that Greece is poor. It is something more complex and perhaps more worrying.
Greece produces wealth, but it does not spread. It has assets, but a large part of them remains trapped in non-productive assets. It shows higher averages than those experienced by the majority of citizens.
In other words, the country seems richer than its people feel.
This does not change only with more growth. It changes when wealth becomes more productive, when investments acquire greater extroversion, when distortions are limited, and when the same rules apply to everyone.
Because prosperity does not begin when the average rises. It begins when everyday life finally approaches the numbers. Something that the current government appears not to have fully understood, but which, unfortunately, few in the opposition share either.