I'm rich.

It's overwhelming. It's humbling. And being reminded of how wealthy I am fills me with the sort of gratitude I could use in grocery store aisles while doing price comparisons on items. By the way, does anyone else get as annoyed as I do that when comparing food prices, two of the same items will have measuring units that differ -- one listed in pounds, the other listed in ounces or pieces? Come on, stores, help a shopper out. Believe me, you don't want us moms in your aisles whipping out calculators, letting the kids whine or have their way with products while we get our nerd on.

But enough about weekly chore drama. I was saying that I'm rich. Oh, you're likely rich, too.

If your family income is $10,000 a year, you are wealthier than 84 percent of the world. If it's $50,000 or more a year, you make more than 99 percent of the world. That's one of the more oft-cited stats. The World Bank, Poke's Global Rich List and various economists have a bunch of perspective-gathering statistics to chew on if you have some time to go online and find out just how rich you are. They can also back up their numbers.

Americans have a horribly unhealthy view of -- and relationship with -- money, even though as a society we seem more interested in our unhealthy relationship with food. I'd like to see at least as many people using their bully pulpits about this view-of-money problem as we have message-senders fighting childhood obesity.

Maybe the global focus the Olympic Games are bringing help in a small way. As a New York Times piece by economics reporter Catherine Rampell says, "It is easy to see that in such a world, most of one's lifetime income will be determined at birth." She was reviewing a book, "The Haves and the Have-Nots," by World Bank economist Branko Milanovic. The book is about income inequality around the world. As Rampell notes, Milanovic includes a chart that shows how relatively rich the United States is -- even the poorest among us are richer than most of the world. And our nation's income gap is a whole lot better than the gap is in some countries.

During this phase of the political cycle, as one party or the other is preaching that your beliefs and financial security are in peril if its politician doesn't win the election, perspective would be extremely helpful. I'm getting a lot of emails from notable people -- Nancy Pelosi, James Carville and Al Gore have recently been in touch with me ... and thousands of others. They ask for donations, stressing that there are millionaires "buying" this election. I wish they would busy themselves with messages about how good Americans have it.

We have incredible infrastructure and "free" K-12 education, parks and libraries. Americans have access to health care. Even without health care reform, American emergency rooms don't send people away. And heck, there is so much food here, we can go nuts in the grocery store aisle doing price comparisons. All this and nearly half of all Americans don't even pay income taxes (see The Heritage Foundation's 2012 Index of Dependence on Government at tinyurl.com/bpzw3ae. Even if you dislike Heritage, the numbers are eye-opening.)

The rich among us should and do share their wealth, even if they sometimes do it begrudgingly when it comes to tax contributions. And while it's true that Americans with more money can better afford resources we all share (roads, schools, defense) -- and the social services that mostly help those less fortunate -- it's been fascinating to watch Mitt Romney get vilified for doing what the majority of Americans want to do: make more money than the average American.

As we think about how relatively rich we are and how American-rich we want to be, we should ask ourselves why it is that we want to be "rich."

A lot of people have gotten into debt and need to become more financially comfortable. I get that. But a lot of folks, especially in upper-income categories, seem to misdefine "financially comfortable." So is more money desirable because we want to get more? Or do we hope to do more -- help more people, live more generously? After all, a lot of people regret buying a boat. I don't meet people who regret donating money that helps change a life.

Of course, you can have a boat and donate money, and we should stop vilifying people who do. Most of all, it's time to end our perspective problem with money. Remember: We're rich.



Elizabeth Hovde writes Sunday columns for The Oregonian.