UM-Bot Posted January 22, 2014 #1 Share Posted January 22, 2014 The world's 85 richest people possess the equivalent wealth of the world's 3.5 billion poorest combined. The remarkable divide between the world's richest and poorest people has been highlighted in a new damning report from Oxfam which is attempting to emphasize the extent to which the planet's wealth is controlled by a small 'global elite'. Read More: http://www.unexplain...ver-16-trillion 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted January 22, 2014 #2 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Money goes to money. Always has, always will. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir Smoke aLot Posted January 22, 2014 #3 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Majority of that poor people just 'enjoy' being lazy, using drugs, alcohol... Hardly lifted anything heavier then a spoon in their life. Compare that to people who sacrifice many things and pleasures just to earn money and make their business grow... At least in my area its like this, who works hard he have a decent life no matter if country is in deep $%&. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Merton Posted January 22, 2014 #4 Share Posted January 22, 2014 What does one do with that kinda money? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted January 22, 2014 #5 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) What does one do with that kinda money? Hire people like Sir Smoke aLot? Edited January 22, 2014 by Eldorado 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashyne Posted January 22, 2014 #6 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) The movie Elysium springs to mind. Edited January 22, 2014 by Ashiene 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark_Grey Posted January 22, 2014 #7 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Majority of that poor people just 'enjoy' being lazy, using drugs, alcohol... Hardly lifted anything heavier then a spoon in their life. Compare that to people who sacrifice many things and pleasures just to earn money and make their business grow... At least in my area its like this, who works hard he have a decent life no matter if country is in deep $%&. 3.5 billion people who are poor because they enjoy being lazy? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashyne Posted January 22, 2014 #8 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) Beautiful movie, you should definitely watch it. Nice visuals and music. There is a sort of dreamy feel to it. Edited January 22, 2014 by Ashiene 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rashore Posted January 22, 2014 #9 Share Posted January 22, 2014 What does one do with that kinda money? Develop the habit of spending foolishly. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibeliever Posted January 22, 2014 #10 Share Posted January 22, 2014 3.5 billion people who are poor because they enjoy being lazy? Don't forget they also all do drugs and alcohol. If they would only work harder in their food service, janitorial, mining and manufacturing jobs they would be wealthy too! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Id3al Experience Posted January 22, 2014 #11 Share Posted January 22, 2014 (edited) Majority of that poor people just 'enjoy' being lazy, using drugs, alcohol... Hardly lifted anything heavier then a spoon in their life. Compare that to people who sacrifice many things and pleasures just to earn money and make their business grow... At least in my area its like this, who works hard he have a decent life no matter if country is in deep $%&. Yes becasue a woman in africa walking for 10 miles to get water for her family is real lazy. Yup... really lazy Edited January 22, 2014 by The Id3al Experience 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafterman Posted January 22, 2014 #12 Share Posted January 22, 2014 And nary a Rothschild among them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazzard Posted January 22, 2014 #13 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I heard someone say once that,... If the people with money would give it all away to those who have nothing, come 50 years later and the order would be restored. Make of that what you will. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted January 23, 2014 #14 Share Posted January 23, 2014 From OP link: Oxfam warned that the fight against poverty cannot be won until wealth inequality has been tackled. I think that is two different problems. If you tax the rich so they are no wealthier then the people between 1% and 2%, I suspect that the rates of poverty would not increase or decrease. At least not in the Developed nations. I suspect that even if the world took all that trillion pounds (about 1.8 trillion dollars), that the poorest 25% would not be elevated much. That is about 2 billion people, so each would get about a thousand dollars, which is not going to stop poverty very much, unless you give that to them every year, and even then, it would only help tremendously in the Under Developed world. Taking from the rich does not help the poor directly. It only indirectly helps them by pulling the super-duper wealthy down so the poverty level does not seem quite as bad by comparison. The whole idea comes right out of Mao's little red book. Is wealth hoarding a problem? Yes! Is poverty a problem? Yes! Can each of those be dealt with seperately to improve humanity? Yes! Does fixing the one fix the other? NO!!! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerberusxp Posted January 23, 2014 #15 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Every one of those going to the Davos global meeting are millionaires and billionaires. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eldorado Posted January 23, 2014 #16 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Every one of those going to the Davos global meeting are millionaires and billionaires. We elected them, my friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashyne Posted January 23, 2014 #17 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) Yes becasue a woman in africa walking for 10 miles to get water for her family is real lazy. Yup... really lazy "Africa is not poor, it is just poorly managed" http://news.bbc.co.u...ica/8215083.stm Edited January 23, 2014 by Ashyne 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunn Posted January 23, 2014 #18 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) Majority of that poor people just 'enjoy' being lazy, using drugs, alcohol... Hardly lifted anything heavier then a spoon in their life. Compare that to people who sacrifice many things and pleasures just to earn money and make their business grow... At least in my area its like this, who works hard he have a decent life no matter if country is in deep $%&. You my friend...are a frigin' genius! I love the way you assume things about the "majority" of the poor. From OP link: I think that is two different problems. If you tax the rich so they are no wealthier then the people between 1% and 2%, I suspect that the rates of poverty would not increase or decrease. At least not in the Developed nations. I suspect that even if the world took all that trillion pounds (about 1.8 trillion dollars), that the poorest 25% would not be elevated much. That is about 2 billion people, so each would get about a thousand dollars, which is not going to stop poverty very much, unless you give that to them every year, and even then, it would only help tremendously in the Under Developed world. Taking from the rich does not help the poor directly. It only indirectly helps them by pulling the super-duper wealthy down so the poverty level does not seem quite as bad by comparison. The whole idea comes right out of Mao's little red book. Is wealth hoarding a problem? Yes! Is poverty a problem? Yes! Can each of those be dealt with seperately to improve humanity? Yes! Does fixing the one fix the other? NO!!! I see good part of your point and where you are going with this about the taxing of the rich, but still...people having that much money is ridiculous. Nobody needs that much money to have a decent life for themselves. It's greediness at the extreme. Too much excess money they really don't need and it could be put forth to doing something good for the rest of the world. EDIT: typos Edited January 23, 2014 by Purifier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rashore Posted January 23, 2014 #19 Share Posted January 23, 2014 I wonder how these numbers would compare to historical record? If we mapped the top wealthy against the bottom half of the population back to say 1900-1800 by decade since the records are probably there for it, 1700-1500? by chunks depending on records. Further back if possible. Such graphs might already exist, but darned if I would know what they are called to try looking for them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibeliever Posted January 23, 2014 #20 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Round and round we go. People were having much the same discussions in the 1920s as we are having today. It was just as polarized and nasty. Not much has changed eh? As with back then, the spike in the wealth gap has created a lot of "new money" folks who have no sense of social responsibility. They believe their fortunes were created in a vaccuum and owe society nothing in return. The wealthy of the 20's (Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, etc) had much of the same criticisms leveled at them. I read an article from the NY times from 1919 that discussed this very topic a while back, and I swear you could have changed a few names and published it today without anyone noticing. It would take some time but if anyone's interested I can go try and dig it up again. I don't have much of an opinion on the matter except to say that the people who are in control of our resources right now don't appear to be behaving anymore responsibly than they were 100 years ago. So I guess we get to ride the ride again. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scowl Posted January 23, 2014 #21 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Round and round we go. People were having much the same discussions in the 1920s as we are having today. It was just as polarized and nasty. Not much has changed eh? Back in the 20's Americans thought that the means of becoming rich had finally been opened to everyone. It was called the stock market. Now you didn't have to be rich or have connections to become wealthy. Anyone with some money could invest in a public company and reap the rewards of its success. Once insider trading became illegal, the market appeared to be a completely level playing field for everyone. We learned that most people don't have the knowledge to successfully invest in businesses. If you want to become rich, the means are unevenly there for everyone but it takes a lot of time, patience, studying and skill. Most people don't really want to be rich. They're happy with a decent pay check and a decent retirement. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F3SS Posted January 23, 2014 #22 Share Posted January 23, 2014 (edited) I see good part of your point and where you are going with this about the taxing of the rich, but still...people having that much money is ridiculous. Nobody needs that much money to have a decent life for themselves. It's greediness at the extreme. Too much excess money they really don't need and it could be put forth to doing something good for the rest of the world. EDIT: typos The problem is what do you do about it. Do we take it from them? How? Who takes it? What is done with it? Do we then set wealth caps? Too much social justice for me. I don't think things are much different than they ever were yet the world keeps on. The only thing different in much of the developed world is that many broke people live like kings compared to only a hundred years ago. Nothing can, would or IMO should (unless proven that money was gained illegally) be done. I'm just happy living my own life, being content and trying for my own bright future. Can't keep worrying about the day Robin Hood swoops in town. Ain't gonna happen. Assuming every richie rich is an inhumane devil smoking cigars wrapped in hundred dollar bills is about as sensible as assuming all poor are lazy. Fact is we don't know what they do and don't do with their money except likely keep one or many people employed. Edited January 23, 2014 by F3SS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunn Posted January 24, 2014 #23 Share Posted January 24, 2014 The problem is what do you do about it. Do we take it from them? How? Who takes it? What is done with it? Do we then set wealth caps? Too much social justice for me. I don't think things are much different than they ever were yet the world keeps on. The only thing different in much of the developed world is that many broke people live like kings compared to only a hundred years ago. Nothing can, would or IMO should (unless proven that money was gained illegally) be done. I'm just happy living my own life, being content and trying for my own bright future. Can't keep worrying about the day Robin Hood swoops in town. Ain't gonna happen. Assuming every richie rich is an inhumane devil smoking cigars wrapped in hundred dollar bills is about as sensible as assuming all poor are lazy. Fact is we don't know what they do and don't do with their money except likely keep one or many people employed. You make good points from looking at things from the freedom of a individual, mainly concerning the ultra rich, but when you see them have tons of material things (many mansions, hundreds of cars in their garages, etc.), I get to thinking "now how many more destitute children in the world would get feed or clothed who are less fortunate, if the money were not spent on those things". I don't know, just seems insane to me, with that much wealth and material gain for one individual. But hey, life isn't fair...right? Some get to live in the life of extreme luxury and some get to eventually die in their on filth. Oh well! Who cares...right? Yeah I know. You don't like my attitude about it when it comes to these things, but I just don't like seeing stuff like that happening on both ends of this issue. To me, something is just wrong with all this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted January 24, 2014 #24 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I see good part of your point and where you are going with this about the taxing of the rich, but still...people having that much money is ridiculous. Nobody needs that much money to have a decent life for themselves. It's greediness at the extreme. Too much excess money they really don't need and it could be put forth to doing something good for the rest of the world. I think the term "Too much money" is something invented recently. Some people are highly successful, and they buy up other companies and make those successful also, and then they repeat this over and over. It makes them terribly rich, but improves the lives of countless people by improving the finances and operations of bought companies. The fact that ONE person gets paid so much is what makes people fear, I think. If for instance, the money that the one person got, instead, went to the US tax fund, people then don't seem to see a threat, because apparently if an organization has money, they are responsible, but if an individual has money they need to be feared and envied. Which I think is totally naive. The government if anything, is horrible with money. Which the rich fellow probably is a money building Genius. Is the income, or wealth, disparity an issue? Probably, in that it highlights that even after a hundred years of liberalism the Poor are still Poor. Do the ultra rich need that money? No, they don't. But then does anyone really need any amount of money more then a couple million? Nope. A human can live fine in the USA, even with a large family, well below 5 or 10 million dollars. There is no actual reason to have more money then that, other then for luxuries sake. And I, personnally, say that since they, or a relative/ancestor, made that money, they deserve that luxury. And, I myself, would Never vote to take that away from them. Doing so is mostly ENVY, not due to some imaginary Balance of the worlds finances. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DieChecker Posted January 24, 2014 #25 Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) Yeah I know. You don't like my attitude about it when it comes to these things, but I just don't like seeing stuff like that happening on both ends of this issue. To me, something is just wrong with all this. How I feel about that is that individuals, or organizations, should petition such people to help others, or finance programs. And then if the person refuses, publish stuff that outlines how they are not willing to help, and that perhaps consumers could not deal with them and their products if they find them to be socially lacking. Edited January 24, 2014 by DieChecker 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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