They could end poverty 4X over but couldn’t pay off the US national debt.
Oxfam's report is fair enough, but it ignores some rather unpalatable truths. The problem has never been shortage of resources, or even shortage of good will from the rich countries. After all, most Westerners are of good heart and have no wish to see others suffer. The real problem is the shortage of infrastructure in the 3rd World. You can buy food for their starving millions, but how do you distribute it? There is a shortage of transport and very few good roads. How do you store it? There aren't enough warehouses and few of them have refrigeration. How do you protect it from the bandits and warlords who pretty much control most of the rural areas and would sell it for drugs and guns? Even if aid gets to the needy, how do we stop them from becoming dependent on aid?
That’s the fallacy of their thinking; it wouldn’t “end” poverty. If all wealth were gven equally to every person on the planet it would not be equal for long. It would be far worse because the wealth producing people would disappear if everything was going to be confiscated all the time.