You should thank the super-rich, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg

[Kevin Lancaster]

You should thank the super-rich, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg

Oxfam has released a report titled An Economy for the 99%, slating the super-rich and calling for transformation of the economic system.

 

[R4ziel]

No info and no link? Well... uuuhhh, Thank you Bill and Mark for something i suppose

 

[Kevin Lancaster]

No info and no link? Well... uuuhhh, Thank you Bill and Mark for something i suppose

We experienced a brief drop in connectivity. The link has been inserted. Thanks.

 

[Ho3n3r]

We experienced a brief drop in connectivity. The link has been inserted. Thanks.

It's not brief. It keeps happening, and causing some other weird issues as well. Someone made a thread.

 

[Gaz{M}]

It's not the fault of Billionaires that they are super rich. Countries need appropriate tax and regulation to ensure they pay their fair share.

Look at Trump, Billionaire, pays zero tax (unconfirmed, but probable). His secretary paid more tax than him in real terms. The tax laws allow rich people to manipulate their personal finances.

Also, most of their wealth is in share ownership of companies, not cold hard cash or physical assets. If you start a company and own 51% of the shares worth $1 million and it becomes a $1 Billion business, you are worth $510 Million dollars. You didn't steal it from anybody. It is created from the investments of other share owners. But you should be paying appropriate amounts of tax on any income and assets you purchase with your wealth.

This is a sticky topic. There are no real facts on either side that can prove what is the best course of action. But demonising a few billionaires is just a distraction. The politicians love distractions. It means they can loot our R1.3 Trillion budget in peace while pointing at Wiese and Whitey Basson and going "look, rich white dudes!".

 

[Thor]

It really bothers me that people blindly assume wealth disparity is bad.

In most cases it's a wonderful thing. If I invent something new and become wealthy I don't make anyone else poor. That's great. If I raise an army and plunder your stuff, that's bad.

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

MS Windows is up for debate, but I guess it has done some good over all these years, thanks Bill.

Zuckerberg?!? get f-ed, you simply help the world drag itself to ever dwindling social standards.

 

[FrankCastle]

Surprising that most billionaire's live modest lives.
Give a billion to a pauper and he'll blow it in a week.

 

[Bizkit87]

*article brought to you by the Bilderberg group

 

[access]

while i agree, the rich create opportunities etc.

there are those that sit on their wealth, like scrooge mcduck. not doing anything with it, just holding on until they die. BUT! it is theirs and they are entitled to do with it what they want. leave it all to their donkey or cat or chicken or wtf ever.

i applaud the super rich that create more opportunities, keep it going, the hoarders not so much.

 

[Valhallan]

This is by the most far right article Iv'e seen yet on MyBB ....always knew they were conservative/ center-right but wow.

Criticizing the outcomes of capitalism i.e wealth inequality, is not the same as saying Capitalism has done nothing good.

The problem with Capitalism is that wealth inequality is becoming entrenched, the middle-class wage in America has stagnated since 1970's. In other words the rich are getting a bigger cut of the pie via tax evasion and suppressing salaries of blue and white collar etc.

 

[Bizkit87]

while i agree, the rich create opportunities etc.

there are those that sit on their wealth, like scrooge mcduck. not doing anything with it, just holding on until they die. BUT! it is theirs and they are entitled to do with it what they want. leave it all to their donkey or cat or chicken or wtf ever.

i applaud the super rich that create more opportunities, keep it going, the hoarders not so much.

I think therein lies the problem:

Money is a zero sum game, if everyone on earths debts are wiped clean tomorrow, there will be no more money. So for 1 billionairre to hord $1B, means other people have to live in debt to the sum of $1B [ignoring interest etc].

The bigger problem society faces, is that money is inherently useless, it has value because we agree it has value. It's tied to nothing, it's controlled by PRIVATE companies the world over, and only the reserve bank can issue money, yet they expect everyone to pay them back with interest. How can we pay back interest if we can't create it? we can only create it by creating debt.

So without massive amounts of debt, there can't be massive amounts of wealth. Don't even get me started on fractal-reserve banking...

 

[netcruiser]

Lol, all these poor people defending the rich. Would be funny if it wasn't so ironic.

This trend is disturbing. We now have 8 people owning 50% of the money. In another 10 years it will be 4 people, in another 10 years 2 people, etc. When will it be enough? When one person owns 50%, when one person owns 95%, where's your limit?

 

[Vrotappel]

Lol, all these poor people defending the rich. Would be funny if it wasn't so ironic.

This trend is disturbing. We now have 8 people owning 50% of the money. In another 10 years it will be 4 people, in another 10 years 2 people, etc. When will it be enough? When one person owns 50%, when one person owns 95%, where's your limit?

Actually there wealth is reflected in the price people are prepared to pay for shares in their companies. You think they have bunkers full of money?

 

[Fulcrum29]

It really bothers me that people blindly assume wealth disparity is bad.

In most cases it's a wonderful thing. If I invent something new and become wealthy I don't make anyone else poor. That's great. If I raise an army and plunder your stuff, that's bad.

But, but, but what if that is an army of lawyers going on a patent crusade?

 

[Thor]

But, but, but what if that is an army of lawyers going on a patent crusade?

The flaw in every system, God damn lawyers.

 

[Billy]

How much do the Oxfam execs get?

 

[diapason]

Lol, all these poor people defending the rich. Would be funny if it wasn't so ironic.

This trend is disturbing. We now have 8 people owning 50% of the money. In another 10 years it will be 4 people, in another 10 years 2 people, etc. When will it be enough? When one person owns 50%, when one person owns 95%, where's your limit?

No, 8 people don't own 50% of the money. They own the equivalent of the wealth of the POOREST 50%.

 

[grok]

“Using their own numbers, I did the calculation that if you confiscated every single dollar from the 86 wealthiest people, each one of the poorest 3.5*billion would get $500,” he said.

My first thought as well, economic transformation i.e. killing the goose that lays the golden egg while raising all those billions of people out of poverty. LOL!

This is just commie-speak again, the inevitable outcome will be even greater poverty & misery for all.

ps: Should we kill the 8 richest and give their wealth to the poor? Here's a poll,

• Yeah, fsck em. (59%, 2,651 Votes)
• Fsck the poor. Lets just kill them and keep the money ourselves (31%, 1,381 Votes)
• No, there's too many people in the world anyway (10%, 456 Votes)

 

[BBotha]

When the rich eat cake and the poor starve watch out, the guillotine is coming.