Of all of the leaders (business, military, political, religious) in the world, who is the poorest and most powerful?
The Pope. He doesn’t own any of that, he’s just allowed to use it. Oath of poverty and all that.
The President of Uruguay:
People will argue for the Pope and the Dalai Lama, but while their personal wealth is very small, they control a great amount of wealth.
The President of Uruguay isn’t very powerful, but he isn’t very rich, either.
I was thinking maybe Putin, then I searched online and found he has a secret net worth of 70 billion, as opposed to his public net worth of less than a million.
I would think the Dalai Lama may have an edge. Granted Tibetan Buddhism isn’t as widespread as Roman Catholicism, but the Dalai Lama has a lot of influence outside his religion that the Pope hasn’t always had.
However, I think we need to consider the possibility of people who are poorer than either of these two. Yes, they own nothing, but they also have no debt. There may be people who are more powerful who have more personal debt than they have assets. Technically, they would be poorer.
Barack Obama seems to be worth about $12 million, which, for a guy with launch codes, ain’t much money.
gracefulfatsheba, any chance of clarification? It’s like saying “what’s the fastest cheapest car”?
How do those constraints relate? Or are we setting thresholds and saying, for example, wealth < $1million = poor?
Or are you asking two separate questions?
Edward Snowden? Wanted and homeless with terabytes worth of classified documents. Though I imagine book and movie deals are forthcoming.
Also, probably quite a few very powerful people in prison throughout the world. Mandela types.
Do we have a list of the most powerful people in the world we would agree on? Here’s a list by Forbes which seems questionable:
That little girl the Taliban tried to kill for wanting an education. Her courage will change her nation, possibly other nations nearby. Quite poor I believe, not living in palaces anyway like religious figures though they don’t own them I’m aware.
I don’t think having had an effect on the world is the same as having power. If she were to issue a decree tomorrow, I doubt if anyone, even her most ardent admirers, would feel any need to follow it.
My bad, I was imagining the power to change the world. You mean power to wield!
Jesus. His followers collect millions everyday but he doesn’t get a penny. His word is also law.
But, I think this question was answered in Fight Club: who watches you when you sleep? Who prepares your food? The people we entrust with our lives are usually paid minimum wage.
Snowden doesn’t have any classified documents. He gave them all to journalists before fleeing the country.
Erdosain: Thak you for that link. I had never heard of the man before today; it was fascinating.
Angela Merkel. Not the poorest leader, but in 2012 rated the second-most powerful person in the world by Forbes, yielding her a very high [power / wealth] ratio.
Merkel worked as a research scientist before entering politics in 1990. She earns around €300,000 p.a. as Chancellor. Not “poor” by any measure, but certainly poorer than most of her world leader peers.
How about any General of the Army or Fleet admiral in any nuclear power? Your average general doesn’t get paid like the comparable private sector roles like CEO. But they could start WW3 if they wanted to. They have a lot of people with a lot of guns and tanks- plus the nuclear button to toy with…
Look at the coups in Thailand, Egypt and many other places. Plus heavy military involvement in places like Pakistan.
Otherwise, I’d also agree with the Pope. There’s no other religious leader with such a large following and what he says affects public policy and law around the world directly or indirectly. There are many other religious leaders (almost all men) who have as much effect but with a much smaller pool of adherents.
As a female, the obvious negative impact of this has been in respect of women’s rights/ acknowledging simple biology regarding their reproductive systems. Look at the case of women in El Salvador who are being jailed for murder after miscarrying (the natural rate of miscarriage being roughly 25%). Rape survivors having forced pregnancies (think 11 or younger). And that’s just in officially Catholic countries. Condoms being reluctantly accepted to prevent HIV infection between clients and prostitutes but still banned between husband and wife.
There have been positive initiatives over time no doubt but within smaller orders of Catholicism- the Jesuits with education, general health care in impoverished/ rural areas run by nuns, architecture, art.
The fall out of the sexual abuse cases within the Western World alone demonstrates how one person’s leadership can negatively/positively affect the well being of millions. Whether it is through action or inaction. For me, that’s as much power as an army but concentrated into one person.
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The Pope doesn’t take a vow of poverty.
Hasn’t the current Pope taken a vow of poverty, not because he’s the Pope but because he’s a Jesuit?