Richest Woman

Those who love to diagnose our society’s inbuilt sexism will be disappointed to learn that the country’s top earner is a woman. She is Denise Coates CBE, founder and majority shareholder of the Bet365 Group. Those who do not like outrageously generous pay packets for bosses are likely to be disappointed, too. She earns £469million per annum, but if you take off her dividends, her basic pay is a mere £421million. I think it works out at £54,000 per hour.

In one respect I do not care how much she is remunerated; as a private company, her firm can pay what it wishes. She will also hand over just under half in taxation, unless her clever accountants find ways of withholding it. I am more horrified at the prospect of charity bosses and public sector chief executives earning £300,000 than she earning all that. Yet at the same time, I wonder what she can do with it all. She might buy expensive food, but still possesses only one intestine with which to digest it; she may have lots of houses with huge, four-poster beds, but she still only has one body to lay on them. The rich are often so preoccupied with this world, that they neglect the world to come. If you consider yourself poor (and not just in relation to Ms Coates’ salary, I hasten to add), consider it a blessing. Having little on earth to distract you, you may better look for Christ’s kingdom, which shall soon be established on the earth.  

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Mark 8:36

Image by steven means from Pixabay