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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.World's 8 richest men own as much wealth as poorest half of world's population: Oxfam
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bruinfan
False gospel. he goes again what Christianity is about, sadly.
BertieWooster
Right? Left?
There's no difference.
The guys who pull the strings are WAY above all that. They're way above countries, so political factions are meaningless.
Don't be fooled by the smokescreen.
pointofview
Nah. Lefties are never satisfied.
MrBum
Both sides complain a lot in my view. But that's how things change and progress.
The left complains about real problems like income inequality and climate change, while the right complains about stuff like wars on Christmas, Obamacare (when they're on and love the ACA), immigrants, etc.
pointofview
@MrBum,
Yeah, they just want to take and complain about every little thing. There`s always something the lefties go on about.
bones
I heard a remark by a clergy official on the radio earlier that was mind boggling as I listened to it and I thought to myself if that is true we are all doomed. He said in reference to trump specifically -that wealth is basically a reward from god- So if that's the case then being a billionaire means god basically omly concerned with the rich and wealthy, so being poor any penniless but being a good human being is essentially a punishment!
katsu78
I criticized a thing you did, you reacted by personally what I am, or the strawman caricature of what you think I am.
This is the real damage Trump has already wrought. He's normalized the reduction of conversation from rational discussion to childish name-calling.
Todd Topolski
Talk about nonsense. The Richest men are people like Vladimir Putin who has trillions and the resources of an entire country. Also nonsense is the implication somehow these 8 "not that rich compared to the political class" men, somehow stole it from the poor when the, absolute fact is people, are poor because government steals, owns and controls 80% of everything and government does in fact steal it from the poor. So instead of complaining about bill gates getting a penny per MS windows sold, try a real story, like, why does the political class, 10% of the population control 90% of everything, because it is this group of people and, what they control which is directly responsible for all of the, worlds poor.
bass4funk
The problem with the left is, as long as they can use other people's money to pay for all the entitlements they crave they are in heaven, until it runs out, then it's back to demonizing the top earners. Even if the country became a full blown Socialist Nation and you combine all of the 1% and took their money, it wouldn't even take care 1/3 of the nation entirely. What are liberals thinking?
Jimizo
"Seriously, when do liberals make sense of anything politically?? A bit baffling......"
What's more baffling is the sheer irrelevance of what you are posting. There are other threads where you can ROFL, LMAO and whatabout about liberals until the Benghazis come home but this is bizarre.
Back on point. What do you think of this kind of wealth concentration? I'm looking forward to the full intellectual weight and polished elegance of a writer published in the financial section of the Washington Post.
Hit us with it, Bass.
bruinfan
Hopefully they won't end up like Dives.
BertieWooster
Katsu78,
Spot ON!
bass4funk
I'm sorry, what makes sense of Moore other than being a hypocrite? Please do enlighten me.
I've noticed through the years that when liberals come up with responses like that, it's usually a strong indicator that, you've been got! Lol
I have no idea what that is.
No, my favorite game is to bring liberals into the light and show them the error of their wicked ways and guide them along the path of accountability, responsibility owning up to their faults and failures and to let them know that they are fallible humans as well. Humbleness is a trait that liberals lost decades ago.
@Aly
He did???? Oh, dear lord.....
Ok, that's one...
No comment.
As in?
By using the communist model?
I want Moore to give half of all his wealth to the needy Americans that have been sufferering these last 8 years. I doubt he'll starve anytime soon.
Yeah, I would like to see him try that, I dare him!
Madverts
Making money is a drug. These people will never have enough, even if they have it all. Dark times seem to be ahead, cheered on by poor idiots ....
bones
If the super rich get their way, they will probably start charging the rest of the population for the air they breathe.
Jimizo
After reading through rants about US democrats, Michael Moore and brief mentions of job creators, I'm still not sure what the conservatives here actually think about concentrations of wealth like this.
presto345
Infinitely obscene.
katsu78
Intentionally unanswerable question is intentionally unanswerable.
Comments like this make it hard to have reasonable discussions about macroeconomic policies. Wealth doesn't magically disappear, at least assuming it doesn't exist as a paper trick to begin with.
So if it suddenly disappeared, someone else would have it. And that means the question is pointless, because instead we'd be asking about what the people it moved to should be doing with it instead of who it moved from.
This premise is already leading to an impossible question because we don't know what their tax rate is in the first place. I'd wager despite being phenomenally wealthy, these people's tax rates don't just vary by what country they do business in, but by whether their money comes from investment or labor.
Part of the problem with much of the world's economy is that investment is taxed very low (or in the case of failed investors like Trump, potential not at all) while people who do real labor can potentially be taxed very highly. Republicans have often played the sneaky trick of using the sting of tax on the poor and middle class (who feel it sharply because of how little they have to begin with) to justify a reduction of tax on the extremely wealthy.
It's hard to have a reasonable discussion with people who frame their arguments under the implicit assumption that governments are A) out to get them and B) involved in "trickle down" economics. Governments getting tax revenue the opposite of "trickle down" economics, which in reality proposes that whenever tax rates are reduced on the wealth they will use their increased wealth to do more business which gets their money in the hands of other people and gradually that wealth trickles down to the poor. America's far-right disguised as the moderate right have put their faith in trickle down economics since the 80s and all we have to show for it is a soggy mattress in Moscow that stinks of ammonia.
Also, governments' "huge revenues" are nothing but a red herring until they are compared with that same government's expenses.
MrBum
Yeah, that's one of the reasons. But the rich are taxed less in the US too.
turbotsat
They'd put the managers out in the fields.
Clearly other countries do it. It's not done in the USA because of the nature and direction of health industry lobbies.
MrBum
Lots.
And if the billions of laborers and working class around the world suddenly disappeared, what would happen to these men? No one is saying anyone needs to disappear. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, but right now, a small minority is benefiting way more than the rest of the world combined.
Depends on who's in charge.
And yet the US, as an example, is one of the few advanced nations in the world that doesn't guarantee healthcare for all, mainly because the naysayers say it's financially impossible. Clearly the wealth is out there though.
turbotsat
How many people are employed directly or indirectly by these men?
If they and their wealth suddenly disappeared, how many would be unemployed?
And if the governments suddenly doubled taxes on them, how much of that tax do you think the governments would allow to trickle down to the poor? The governments take in huge revenues already!
SenseNotSoCommon
When a employer pays less tax than his secretary or cleaner, heads need to roll. Literally.
MrBum
Don't worry, there are plenty of conservatives in the rest of the 1%, this is only the top eight. And like others have said, a few of these eight are also the most charitable in the world.
Still though, it's pretty staggering how much wealth the top 1% own. I'm all for capitalism, but there has to be limits, rules, changes in societal values, something to spread the wealth a bit more.
katsu78
Wow... that doesn't even make sense as a retort. Are you just playing off of an alt-right madlib sheet?
I mean, I know your favorite game here is to try and just turn everything around on anyone who criticizes anything done by your team, but could you at least turn it around in a way that makes some kind of rational sense?
Daniel Neagari
@ Reckless
Sorry, but no. Revolutions are only the transition of power to one side to the other... all in the middle will be the same in the end.
Sure once a "revolution" occurs we will see much change.. but on the long way the result will be the same.
We don't need revolutions.. we need evolution
Aly Rustom
Did you even bother to check?
Causes supported
1.Adoption, Fostering, Orphans,
AIDS & HIV,
Children,4.Education,
Health,
Poverty,
Weapons Reductionhttps://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/michael-moore
Not to mention he's opened his home to syrian refugees...
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/michael-moore-michigan-gov-syrian-refugees-are-welcome-my-home
SenseNotSoCommon
There goes that self-limiting belief again: that socialism and wealth are mutually exclusive.
goldorak
Yep.
Although it's always interesting to see the difference between the 'super rich' of this world and the rest of us, there is little doubt inequality (read wage gaps) is also widening within a given region/country/community/organisation. I would say most of us know someone (a friend, gf, neighbour, colleague etc) who earns 2, 3 or 5 times less/more than we do and if anything the gap is widening.
Always thought it's a bit easy, and hypocritical perhaps, to 'scapegoat' the super-rich and forget that we are very much part of this capitalism that makes us sick , conveniently from time to time that is. Would most of us accept a pay cut if that meant more $ and a more comfortable life for our secretaries, cleaners, warehouse guys etc? Not sure most would, Easier to blame Buffett and co I guess.
papigiulio
Au contraire, bill gates gives a lot of his wealth to good causes, mark zuckerberg also said 99% of his wealth will go to good causes. But yeah Buffet and Bloomberg....not sure. And these are just the richest people, below them there are still enough filthy rich people that could give more to good causes.
PTownsend
If PutinTrump merger of the US oligarchy with the Russian oligarchy comes about, expect the richest to get richer and the income gap to further widen.
Putin, according to some sources, is the richest man in the world. http://www.businessinsider.com/former-kremlin-banker-putin-is-the-richest-person-in-the-world-until-he-leaves-power-2015-7
Trump admires billionaires; he wants to make them even richer. He wants to make himself richer. The world's remaining 99%? Looooosers.
Strangerland
You mean the Michael Moore you pretend to nof know when we quote something of his that you don't like because it makes sense?
bass4funk
I know.
Because liberals are hypocrites, especially when it comes to them preaching about poverty
Jimizo
@Bass
We're talking about worldwide poverty here and in some cases extreme poverty.
Why do you have to turn everything into a hillarybenghaziobamamaybeaMuslimLMAO fest?
bass4funk
Moore is the biggest hypocrite in Hollywood, I don't see him showering the poor and doing everything he possibly can to help the poor, at least Angelina Jolie, Mia Farrow, these women really do a lot and devote their time to help the needy, but Moore is nothing but talk, not to mention, the capitalist system which he hates so much rewarded him handsomely, then it's ok, I guess.
So very true.
I thought Obama already did that by cutting coal block fracking and tried to send jobs out of the country and I remember Hillary hated to be associated with the working class once they started to make money.
Rana Sodhi
These richest, are they satisfied? No, they want more.
SuperLib
Conservatives will be along shortly to convince you that this is evidence that half the world is lazy and we should write them off.
Jimizo
Sickening.
pointofview
Michael Moore always goes on about this. Yet he`s worth tens of millions and does his best to live the high life.
These 'poorest' people are the ones buying the richest peoples products.
Wolfpack
Aren't most if not all of these guys Left-wing / Socialists? The hypocrisy of the Left knows no bounds.
Utrack
The Gate's do give opportunities too, via U.S. Aid. If you have an idea that improves conditions in third world countries. Go on U.S. Aid and submit it. They take unsolicited ideas as well as solicited invitations to submit your ideas and you do not have to be an American citizen.
katsu78
They are going to die, but their deaths won't be like poor people's. They aren't going to die painfully at a young age from diseases that are preventable but weren't prevented due to lack of resources. They aren't going to spend their final years in constant pain from a lifetime of labor in unsafe conditions. When they do get sick, they'll never have to wonder if they'll still be able to feed their families if they take tomorrow off. When surrounded by their loved ones, they won't have to wonder how their children or grandchildren will get an education and claw their way into an even slightly better life.
Serrano
Yeah, but those 8 rich guys are still gonna die just like the poor people.