World's richest 2,000 people hold more than poorest 4.6 billion combined - Oxfam

[mogandave]

The idea that people world wide are getting poorer is just ridiculous. 
 

It’s just another made up “fact” the left uses to get people worked up. 
 

 

[ThomasThBKK]

4 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

Thanks for your post . I have nothing against billionaires ... I just think there should not be any .

I agree , some people have been clever and creative , and earned billions ( look at Bill Gates f.e. he's a philantroph , he gave a good part of his money away to help people ... *)  nothing wrong with that , but it would be better if  ( the ) a good non corrupt government took care of that ... Again , money that is not needed by somebody anymore , ( because super rich anyway ) , should be distributed to and used to solve some of the many problems in our present societies ...?

Anyway , regarding the inheritance taxes , please do not be naive ... these people set up international companies with their headquarters in low- tax countries , just to avoid paying taxes ... I think their lawyers would be very creative about what concerns the inheritance taxes ...

 

* Asian billionaires do apparently not have this tendancy ... I read this somewhere not long ago , not remember where ...

Yeah because governments are so efficient.... 

 

The problem our society has is that there's TOO MUCH government, and not too little.

 

Quote

Anyway , regarding the inheritance taxes , please do not be naive ... these people set up international companies with their headquarters in low- tax countries , just to avoid paying taxes ... I think their lawyers would be very creative about what concerns the inheritance taxes .

 

yeah so does everyone with a brain, <deleted> should a government be allowed to take away my money after i died, money that has been taxes already x times. I am the only one who will say where it's going and not some random kleptocracy government that buys itself a bunch of lambos with it.

[sirineou]

14 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Yeah because governments are so efficient.... 

 

The problem our society has is that there's TOO MUCH government, and not too little.

Take a few minutes to ponder "what is government" I think you will conclude that is not government you have a problem with, but government you don't like.

[Inn Between]

1 hour ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Yeah because governments are so efficient.... 

 

The problem our society has is that there's TOO MUCH government, and not too little.

There's just as much government and its enforcers as the "haves" need. It was established by them and populated by their type to serve their wants. 

 

 

[ThomasThBKK]

2 hours ago, sirineou said:

Take a few minutes to ponder "what is government" I think you will conclude that is not government you have a problem with, but government you don't like.

Not sure what you mean?

Governments are inefficient. Government jobs make people lazy and corrupt, with much power and responsibilities comes much corruption. 

Corruption exists mainly because the government has too much power, if it had less power there would be no one to corrupt.

 

Over are the times where governmental bodies only had powers granted to the government by its citizens, that's why america was founded.

A government that is all powerful has tremendous potential to subjugate and eliminate citizens and their liberties.

The gov should be accountable to its citizens and not vice versa - these times are however over, and that's sad.

 

Thailand is a prime example of how too much government can stale and ruin a whole country....

[sirineou]

5 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Not sure what you mean?

Governments are inefficient. Government jobs make people lazy and corrupt, with much power and responsibilities comes much corruption. 

Corruption exists mainly because the government has too much power, if it had less power there would be no one to corrupt.

 

Over are the times where governmental bodies only had powers granted to the government by its citizens, that's why america was founded.

A government that is all powerful has tremendous potential to subjugate and eliminate citizens and their liberties.

The gov should be accountable to its citizens and not vice versa - these times are however over, and that's sad.

 

Thailand is a prime example of how too much government can stale and ruin a whole country....

Ever since 10 families got together and built a wall around them to protect themselves from others, some sort of a government was devised to regulate their relationship. not enough regulation and some paid more than others, and some people got more than others, it is human nature.

  Those who want to pay less and take more desire less regulation.

Smart players knowing that because they have the resources they can game the system say : "we don't need a lot of government , leave it to ourselves we can work things out ourselves" 

 

It is not smaller government you want , it is a more fair government,

  How do you get a more fair government? By removing money's influence on government . Money will corrupt a small government just as much as they will corrupt a big government. 

There are many rational proposals on how to remove money's influence on government,but since money controls the implementation of proposals it is a difficult if not impossible thing to happen. 

[impulse]

19 hours ago, Ricohoc said:

Who cares?

 

No one of wealth ever kept me from getting mine. 

 

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40% of every baht spent in Thailand is siphoned off to the elite.  They're robbing you every day.

 

[nobodysfriend]

5 hours ago, sirineou said:

It is not smaller government you want , it is a more fair government,

  How do you get a more fair government? By removing money's influence on government . Money will corrupt a small government just as much as they will corrupt a big government. 

There are many rational proposals on how to remove money's influence on government,but since money controls the implementation of proposals it is a difficult if not impossible thing to happen. 

Hopefully one day in the future our politicians can be replaced by AI . I am sure the world would be more peaceful if money's influence on governments is removed .

[Berkshire]

16 hours ago, Thomas J said:

nobodysfriend, No billionaires put a gun to peoples heads and said give me your money.  People become wealthy because they provide something that others "value" and they are willing to pay for it.  Most of the billionaires in the USA are first generation.  China ( a communist country) is creating 2 new billionaires every week.  What you liberals forget is that these wealthy people provide value to society far more than those without wealthy.  Look at Bill Gates, HE WAS UNDERPAID.  If you count the productivity given the world by Microsoft and windows he was paid a pittance.  Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest man in the world.  First generation wealth.  Microsoft employs 175,000 people and Amazon employs 750,000 people.  If you have a lottery where the top prize is only $1 million you sell few tickets.  If you have a lottery where the top prize is $1 billion dollars you will sell many.  YOU WANT AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE STRIVING TO BECOME BILLIONAIRES.  Those are the people who invent things, make society in general richer, and employ people.  Lastly, they really don't get to keep the money.  At their death, they either need to give the majority of it to charity, or the government will take at least 50% of it in inheritance taxes.  

 

What you say makes perfect sense...except reality is much different.  I've got nothing against billionaires per se.  In fact, people like Gates, Buffet, Bezos, seem to be genuinely decent people.  Gates has a foundation doing good things and has vowed to not give his billions to his kids.

 

But do you really believe these are the smartest, most creative people?  Luck plays a large part, being at the right place at the right time.  The problem with capitalism is that it hasn't figured out a fair way to distribute wealth.  Do you think that hedge fund managers, athletes, movie/TV stars, founder of Facebook, etc., should make millions more than teachers, policeman, nurses, military personnel, etc.?  It's a huge gap and not an accurate reflection of their contributions to society.  Again, I do believe that capitalism is the best system currently in existence.  But it's far from perfect. 

[RuamRudy]

16 hours ago, Thomas J said:

nobodysfriend, No billionaires put a gun to peoples heads and said give me your money.  People become wealthy because they provide something that others "value" and they are willing to pay for it.  Most of the billionaires in the USA are first generation.  China ( a communist country) is creating 2 new billionaires every week.  What you liberals forget is that these wealthy people provide value to society far more than those without wealthy.  Look at Bill Gates, HE WAS UNDERPAID.  If you count the productivity given the world by Microsoft and windows he was paid a pittance.  Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest man in the world.  First generation wealth.  Microsoft employs 175,000 people and Amazon employs 750,000 people.  If you have a lottery where the top prize is only $1 million you sell few tickets.  If you have a lottery where the top prize is $1 billion dollars you will sell many.  YOU WANT AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE STRIVING TO BECOME BILLIONAIRES.  Those are the people who invent things, make society in general richer, and employ people.  Lastly, they really don't get to keep the money.  At their death, they either need to give the majority of it to charity, or the government will take at least 50% of it in inheritance taxes.  

 

They get obscenely wealthy because they can afford to lobby governments to weaken workers' rights, environmental legislation and all those other pesky things that are designed to make the world better for all but prevent the obscenely rich from getting even more obscenely rich. 

 

Would Bezos be any less happy if he allowed his staff to go to the toilet when they needed to? I suspect he would still be obscenely rich but his staff might feel less mortified at the conditions they have to accept just to pay the rent and put food on the table. 

 

Amazon Warehouses Now Issuing Adult Diapers To Workers

[Saint Nick]

17 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Agree, 

 

the only billionaires if have any issues with are those that got their money in kleptocracy, asian and african dictators, russian oligarchs etc...

 

Fair game to bezos, gates and co, the world needs more of them, not less.

Fair game to Bezos?

The guy who sits on 150+ billions and does not allow his workers time for toiletbreaks?

 

[yourauntbob]

So what their saying is, if we robbed the richest 21xx people in the world and gave it straight to the poorest 4.6 billion without any transfer costs, then we would have 4.6 billion + 21xx people who are still extremely poor.

 

 

[yourauntbob]

12 hours ago, rhyddid said:

They create wars to sell more oil and guns, they create hate to have humans of different color of skin and believing fight each other, they create economic migrants so they will be hated by who will received them.

They create the huge deforestations and pollutions careless of humans suffering.

They create political puppets such Trump, Boris, Merkel, Macrons in order to make believe the fools that there is a so called "democracy" and someone else to hate.

Do not hate a muslim or a jew or a christian, do not hate a white or black or yellow or a south american or an african or a middle east or asian or european or an american, they are same you .
Hate to billionaires that for their own greed are making the globe as you see it today !

you're speaking of governments right?  because last i checked, no private institution has ever started a war