• Friendly reminder: The politics section is a place where a lot of differing opinions are raised. You may not like what you read here but it is someone's opinion. As long as the debate is respectful you are free to debate freely. Also, the views and opinions expressed by forum members may not necessarily reflect those of GBAtemp. Messages that the staff consider offensive or inflammatory may be removed in line with existing forum terms and conditions.

The top 26 richest billionaries own half the money of the whole world

Noctosphere

Nova's Guardian
OP
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
6,719
Trophies
3
Age
30
Location
Biblically accurate Hell
XP
18,001
Country
Canada

Xzi

Time to fly, 621
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
17,703
Trophies
3
Location
The Lands Between
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
8,371
Country
United States
Surely you don't mean to tell me that income inequality is a massive problem worldwide! Le gasp!

Seriously though, yeah it's out of fucking control. If all of them donated 1% of their wealth, world hunger would no longer be an issue. We could probably fund universal healthcare and tuition-free college too. The problem is that the entire world bought into the "greed is good" garbage philosophy that spewed forth from the USA in the 80s. Now nearly forty years later we continue to have an almost-farcical reverence for wealthy individuals, even if their wealth was handed to them or it's mostly dark/blood money.

Eventually there's going to be a breaking point because the gap is simply unsustainable. At that point we have to decide if we want to go out like bitches and have a worldwide economic collapse imposed on us by billionaires who believe themselves isolated from it, or sack up and start rolling out the guillotines.
 

CallmeBerto

The Lone Wanderer
Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2017
Messages
1,468
Trophies
1
Age
32
Location
USA
Website
steamcommunity.com
XP
3,849
Country
United States
Yeah so? As long as they earned it who cares? As long as there is economic mobility who cares?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

oh and this is a good video to watch on this topic -
 
  • Like
Reactions: the_leg

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,183
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,694
Country
Norway
Surely you don't mean to tell me that income inequality is a massive problem worldwide! Le gasp!

Seriously though, yeah it's out of fucking control. If all of them donated 1% of their wealth, world hunger would no longer be an issue. We could probably fund universal healthcare and tuition-free college too. The problem is that the entire world bought into the "greed is good" garbage philosophy that spewed forth from the USA in the 80s. Now nearly forty years later we continue to have an almost-farcical reverence for wealthy individuals, even if their wealth was handed to them or it's mostly dark/blood money.

Eventually there's going to be a breaking point because the gap is simply unsustainable. At that point we have to decide if we want to go out like bitches and have a worldwide economic collapse imposed on us by billionaires who believe themselves isolated from it, or sack up and start rolling out the guillotines.
World hunger isn't just an issue of money, though it would certainly help. It just wouldn't eliminate it completely.
 
  • Like
Reactions: CallmeBerto

Xzi

Time to fly, 621
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
17,703
Trophies
3
Location
The Lands Between
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
8,371
Country
United States
World hunger isn't just an issue of money, though it would certainly help. It just wouldn't eliminate it completely.
IDK man, if that money is distributed to the right organizations, it would almost certainly be enough to establish food kitchens everywhere in the world where they're most needed. Make it 2% from the richest billionaires and we'd have enough to house and clothe the world's entire population too.
 

coolfuze

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2013
Messages
371
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
457
Country
IDK man, if that money is distributed to the right organizations, it would almost certainly be enough to establish food kitchens everywhere in the world where they're most needed. Make it 2% from the richest billionaires and we'd have enough to house and clothe the world's entire population too.

Get out of here you NPC commie :P In all seriousness stealing money (Cause that's essentially what you're proposing) won't improve the world situation for long. Poor people are poor mostly because they don't know how to or are motivated to create wealth. If you start handing out money to people who don't know to handle it they'll just be poor again in a short while.

Even I would love to get money without doing anything to earn it, but I realise that chances of me falling on my backside into a pile of cash is slim to none. My time would be better spent becoming more educated, working on my mental and physical health problems and just living a life where I can look back at yesterday and say "I love myself and the people in my life"
 

Xzi

Time to fly, 621
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
17,703
Trophies
3
Location
The Lands Between
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
8,371
Country
United States
Get out of here you NPC commie :P In all seriousness stealing money (Cause that's essentially what you're proposing) won't improve the world situation for long. Poor people are poor mostly because they don't know how to or are motivated to create wealth. If you start handing out money to people who don't know to handle it they'll just be poor again in a short while.

Even I would love to get money without doing anything to earn it, but I realise that chances of me falling on my backside into a pile of cash is slim to none. My time would be better spent becoming more educated, working on my mental and physical health problems and just living a life where I can look back at yesterday and say "I love myself and the people in my life"
Most of these billionaires did not earn their wealth. Ever stop to think why it is that you believe only people born at the bottom should have to earn their way up the ladder? The truth of the matter is that capitalism isn't structured much better than feudalism was, it's just that capitalism is better at concealing most of the pain and suffering it causes. Like I said, if we keep moving in the same direction, it'll collapse eventually because this level of greed and inequality is unsustainable.
 

kuwanger

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
1,510
Trophies
0
XP
1,783
Country
United States
As long as they earned it who cares?

Does usury count as "earned it"? Honestly, I tend to heavily question any of those "richest billionaires" lists because most often supposed assets are tied up in companies or investments that can't be readily divested without substantial loss of stated value.

In all seriousness stealing money (Cause that's essentially what you're proposing) won't improve the world situation for long. Poor people are poor mostly because they don't know how to or are motivated to create wealth. If you start handing out money to people who don't know to handle it they'll just be poor again in a short while.

Do you mean create wealth, create money, or create value? But what you're saying is right, the whole point of taking out a tax on income isn't to magically end poverty. There's literally no way to end poverty short of either (1) getting rid of all assets or (2) constantly redistributing all assets. Most of those who are poor aren't motivated to seek wealth because it comes at the loss of friends, family, and most of your free time (ie working 12 hrs, 7 days a week minimal) along with giving up any sense of morality. There are, of course, exceptions. But that's really the only path that has a decently high probability for most people who are poor.
 

Xzi

Time to fly, 621
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
17,703
Trophies
3
Location
The Lands Between
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
8,371
Country
United States
Do you mean create wealth, create money, or create value? But what you're saying is right, the whole point of taking out a tax on income isn't to magically end poverty. There's literally no way to end poverty short of either (1) getting rid of all assets or (2) constantly redistributing all assets. Most of those who are poor aren't motivated to seek wealth because it comes at the loss of friends, family, and most of your free time (ie working 12 hrs, 7 days a week minimal) along with giving up any sense of morality. There are, of course, exceptions. But that's really the only path that has a decently high probability for most people who are poor.
Indeed, and though it shouldn't have to be stated, people need to understand that the ultra-wealthy and those in poverty are not mutually exclusive, but rather directly tied to one another. No shit there's going to be tons of poverty if a very small collective of people are sucking out 50% of the wealth generated by the world's economy, year over year, without returning a reasonable proportion of it. The money just sits there and piles up in multiple forms and currencies, avoiding nearly all taxes, until the world's 26 richest billionaires each decide to buy 26 more yachts/luxury jets.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IncredulousP

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,183
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,694
Country
Norway
IDK man, if that money is distributed to the right organizations, it would almost certainly be enough to establish food kitchens everywhere in the world where they're most needed. Make it 2% from the richest billionaires and we'd have enough to house and clothe the world's entire population too.
There isn't enough food in the world for everyone to be well fed, and creating more farmland requires destroying more nature which has its own problems.
 

Noctosphere

Nova's Guardian
OP
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
6,719
Trophies
3
Age
30
Location
Biblically accurate Hell
XP
18,001
Country
Canada
There isn't enough food in the world for everyone to be well fed, and creating more farmland requires destroying more nature which has its own problems.
The real problem in Africa is that lot of land aren't harverstable
They can't grow anything in a desert
They'll first need to irrigate the whole land to make grass grow on it first...
 

Xzi

Time to fly, 621
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
17,703
Trophies
3
Location
The Lands Between
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
8,371
Country
United States
There isn't enough food in the world for everyone to be well fed, and creating more farmland requires destroying more nature which has its own problems.
You'd definitely have to give me a source on that one. AFAIK we can grow certain foods in labs now without issue. Hell, Americans on their own waste/discard enough food daily to feed an entire continent.
 
  • Like
Reactions: IncredulousP

kuwanger

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
1,510
Trophies
0
XP
1,783
Country
United States
You signed a contract to borrow money at X interest rate. Therefore the one lending you the money needs to see some kind of profit.

Not really. Anything physical deteriorates over time. Modern money is fundamentally different because it's fungible, fiat, and exchangeable to full restoration of its face value indefinitely. One could argue usury is necessary because of inflation, but the current system of artificial inflation is by design to spark investment by those with money and partly as a response to usury.

One could argue that this is overall good economic policy, but it fundamentally means that most banks virtually print money. Couple this with fractional reserves and loan magnification occurs. This creates circumstances where financial crises can occur because of loans and investments being intermingled (it's what caused the 1929 stock market crash and the 2008 crisis). Further, stocks function as de facto paper money (which is where most the "wealth" of these billionaires appear) which is based upon the distortion of either the supposed long-term worth of a company and/or the buy price of other people presuming relatively stable sale of said stock (which is why I pointed out originally how hypothetical the worth is).

What does this all amount to? That in the end, a lot of people with wealth are part of a system that by design grants consistent substantial payout well above inflation. It makes sense then in such a system to minimally tax that same group accordingly to not only (1) make sure people at the top can actually "lose" but (2) to offset stated crises that occur because of how the system can and will be gamed by some with catastrophic effects on the whole system. That doesn't even get into the point of the more obvious stuff: one way or another, the wealthy don't want the poor mobs rioting and destroying their wealth so paying taxes to assure reasonable levels of "bread and circuses"* makes a lot of sense.

* Seriously, it was considered a duty of wealthy Roman citizens to pay for food, public baths, etc above and beyond what taxes they paid because it was realized the poor if left unhappy long enough would do great damage. Even those in the gilded age saw this. With a world of poor, unhappy internet hackers, I wonder what sort of damage could be wrought today.
 

osaka35

Instructional Designer
Global Moderator
Joined
Nov 20, 2009
Messages
3,729
Trophies
2
Location
Silent Hill
XP
5,896
Country
United States
There isn't enough food in the world for everyone to be well fed, and creating more farmland requires destroying more nature which has its own problems.
fun fact: the united states has way way more trees now than when Europeans discovered North America existed.
 
Last edited by osaka35,
  • Like
Reactions: Xzi

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Sorry for accidentally bending over