The cost of inequality: how wealth and income extremes hurt us all
They could end poverty 4X over but couldn’t pay off the US national debt.
$240 billion is enough to end global poverty? LOL
bull sheet.
It has been shown by the lottery winners that you can give poor people money but it will slip right through the fingers of some, spending it on drugs and Dodge Challengers and assorted garbage instead of starting a business or educating the children. And then some of them kill each other over it. It is hard to fix stupidity and lack of integrity and character.
Exactly how many flat screen tv’s would it take to end poverty?
End poverty for how long? One day?
3 Trillion didn’t end poverty in America.
Without “poverty”, how would commie Democrats get themselves elected? They rely on “poverty”. “Poverty” gives them their “powah”!
For what it's worth, if you tap into the investment side of the business of being rich you are tapping into the incomes of the employees of those investments.
This is one of the reasons tax systems of all kinds go for the incomes of the middle class and the poor. The idea is the broad masses are used to being poor, so leave them that way.
Modification of the inheritance laws to favor family members over the exchequer or the non profit ffoundation professional class would go a long way toward keeping that wealth invested which will keep people employed and make a lot of relatives of the really rich very happy.
I've proposed many times that we simply require that wealth above a certain level be distributed to the 500 closest blood relatives upon the death of the owner. That way you keep it in the family (to maintain the integrity of corporate interests or large agricultural groups) while busting up the really big piles into manageable chunks.
I think some folks worry this would result in an increased murder rate among the really rich ~ not really something we need to worry about eh.
They could take that $240 billion dollars away from the rich, redistribute it to the needy all over the world, and once those “needy” spend it, they’ll have to come back for another $240 billion, which won’t be there the next time. Then, the needy and the rich will be equally poor and destitute and without a prayer. The rich could probably start over, but what incentives would there be for them, but the number of poor will either remain the same or grow bigger.
Poverty is not something that can ever be overcome by government programs, or by taking money from the well-off to give to the poor, or by just giving them handouts.
“The poor ye have with you always.” J.C. c.30 A.D.
If money solved poverty then there would be none in America. The Government has spent 16 TRILLION dollars OVER what they took in to spend and yet we still have people living in poverty and homeless..
They could not end poverty by spending/giving money.
They might postpone it for a few months or possibly a year for some, but it would not end. It would not change everyone into a different person with different abilities and priorities.
Maybe for a day, what about tomorrow?
Fiscal cannibalism should be no more tolerable than the big iron pot variety.
A quick Bing search says the world GDP was about $70 trillion last year. So $240 billion is only 0.3% of the wealth created last year. Is this so outrageous?
How many times would $69.76 trillion eliminate poverty?
There would be a run on 40oz Malt Liquor in the US
You probably couldn't find a decent nose bone in Africa
There would be an explosion of babies in South America that would make today's poverty look like Happy Days Are Here Again....
...and in the end they would come back expecting more.
You can't take from the savers and investors and give it to the masses..it will be gone, with the wind, in a day.
Really twisted thinking. How much money (our tax dollars) have we spent over the years on the “War on Poverty”? Check it out. The Dems, libs, whatever, want the majoity in poverty for their votes.