The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
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Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#2Sorry, but does this guy not realize that many of the world's richest people gave half their wealth to the Gates foundation, thus forming an engine for human improvement that could have never been attained by distributing their wealth? The wealth divide is not a "real" problem - the real problem is figuring out how to keep everyone employed in a world that is constantly evolving, where most jobs are getting automated or over-seaed (neither of which is a problem in of itself). A real problem is figuring out how to stop corrupt people that enrich themselves by being parasites to the poor/middle class, take advantage of our relatively indifferent government, or our screwed up law system (like patent trolls).
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#3Sorry, but does this guy not realize that many of the world's richest people gave half their wealth to the Gates foundation, thus forming an engine for human improvement that could have never been attained by distributing their wealth? The wealth divide is not a "real" problem - the real problem is figuring out how to keep everyone employed in a world that is constantly evolving, where most jobs are getting automated…
Many?
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#4People like this grind my gears. Many things go into being rich, but the top of that list is making more money than you give away. Practically by definition, people who continue to do this will continue to get rich.
There is no shortage of humanitarian efforts, funds, and foundations started by the wealthy for the sake of the underprivileged. To suggest these are insufficient because their founders remain wealthy is foolhardy.
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#5Personally I think this is a public policy issue to be addressed with the government which in democratic nations requires a sea change social movement given that most are pretty conservative. Addressing the issue of wealth disparity to rich people seems entirely pointless to me. Anyway, this more like a publicity stunt not meant to address poverty but to get this guy rich and or famous visa vis plugging his book.
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#6Sorry, but does this guy not realize that many of the world's richest people gave half their wealth to the Gates foundation, thus forming an engine for human improvement that could have never been attained by distributing their wealth? The wealth divide is not a "real" problem - the real problem is figuring out how to keep everyone employed in a world that is constantly evolving, where most jobs are getting automated…
Many?
113 at current count.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge
Yes, there are 1,426 billionaires at current count, but that is still a significant number. Many != the majority.
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#7Sorry, but does this guy not realize that many of the world's richest people gave half their wealth to the Gates foundation, thus forming an engine for human improvement that could have never been attained by distributing their wealth? The wealth divide is not a "real" problem - the real problem is figuring out how to keep everyone employed in a world that is constantly evolving, where most jobs are getting automated…
[deleted]
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#8Y'know, I have seen Mr. Kay talk before, and I wouldn't regard him as an idiot. However, he's seemed to have missed the entire point Bill was making.
> So what about China and India? Their recent growth performance has been exceptional, but both are still desperately poor countries by the standards set by Switzerland and Norway. The gap will take many generations to eradicate.
Which Bill completely acknowledges? However, he also makes the point that today, China and India are moving up at considerable speed when it comes to income. They have the abject poor still, no one will disagree, but compared to where they were 20 years ago, even the poorest in those countries are much, much better off, and all signs point to it getting better very quickly.
> But you do not have to venture far from the centre of Nairobi or Shanghai, and only round the corner in Mumbai, to see sights unimaginable in Norway or Switzerland.
The appeal to emotions here wasn't needed, nor was it affective. Not to mention, it still misses the same point: Bill isn't saying that things don't suck currently, he's saying that while they're not great, they're considerably better than they were before and that's an ongoing trend.
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#9Sorry, but does this guy not realize that many of the world's richest people gave half their wealth to the Gates foundation, thus forming an engine for human improvement that could have never been attained by distributing their wealth? The wealth divide is not a "real" problem - the real problem is figuring out how to keep everyone employed in a world that is constantly evolving, where most jobs are getting automated…
Many did give much wealth to the Gates foundation, but it would be far from most.The wealth divide seems to be a pretty real problem. Concentrating all the wealth of the world in a few people seems pretty sub-optimal, trials[ 1] of directly giving cash to impoverished people demonstrates that if wealth was redistributed more evenly, it would not be wasted.
[1]http://forbesindia.com/article/real-issue/direct-cash-transf...
Re: The world’s rich stay rich while the poor struggle to prosper
#10Sorry, but does this guy not realize that many of the world's richest people gave half their wealth to the Gates foundation, thus forming an engine for human improvement that could have never been attained by distributing their wealth? The wealth divide is not a "real" problem - the real problem is figuring out how to keep everyone employed in a world that is constantly evolving, where most jobs are getting automated…
I don't think either wealth disparity or unemployment are themselves direct problems. I think the huge and fundamental problem, which is a problem even in a so-called 'rich' country like the US, is access to the basics of human life, which I think are food, housing, and education of a certain standard. Wealth disparity itself may be ok, but in the US at least it seems to contribute to costs of education and housing rising so as to prevent access by a large segment of the people. Ways must be found to solve that, even if wealth disparity itself doesn't necessarily need solving.