8 Men Now Own Half The World's Wealth

[snakedafunky]

I don't have an issue with guys like Zuckerberg or Gates being super rich they have created a product people like.
I also don't have a problem with low-skilled people that can only work at Mc Donalds make minimum wage.

I think the issue with inequality lies in the middle class to upper class. As an example, my dad started working as factory mechanic building machines with 14 right after school in Germany.
Changed employers once after his apprenticeship and worked for the same company all on a contract he signed until retirement, got all the raises etc. And was able to work himself up provide middle-class life from that. He signed sometime in the late 70's.
Now the company got sold in the 90's and they almost only give out contracts for a certain time period so they don't have to give out raises and can pay less hourly. For the same job.
While at the same time wages for Management went up unproportionate. Mostly from people in a different region that have never been to the factory. And its the case in many other industries like delivery guys etc.

IMO the biggest issue is the shrinking of the middle class. Some people will always be poor some will always be super rich. But I think the most important factor is that we offer hard working skilled workers the ability to create a middle-class life.

No idea how to fix it without the government reaching to far into private business.

 

[Islam Imamate]

The article says that Oxfam is calling for tax rates to specifically target rich individuals. Really, and do what with it?

Invest in social programs and/or public goods like infrastructure or education.

 

[Deleted member 196663]

Ask Zuckerburg or Bezos about income inequality. These guys say theyre liberal but are complete cut throat capitalists. I never understood that with silicon valley.

It makes perfect sense when you stop trying to pretend that 300+ million people have to be one of two things.

 

[TheHatedGoyim]

Where's all the rothschilds, warburgs?

 

[MadSquabbles500]

Zuckerberg must die.

The guy basically stole the idea, and even had a movie made about it.

 

[MadSquabbles500]

How often though does this list change?

Is Bezos only wealthy because of Amazon? He is just an online retailer. How hard can it be to take some of Amazon's market share?

 

[IDL]

All three are big Democrats. I thought rich people were all on the right?

The Billionaire class tend to care more about protecting their wealth and power. That involves the elimination of competition, not the creation of it.

A corrupt socialist Big Brother type system serves their interests far more than a competition friendly society.

 

[Oiler]

If you and your wife make $180 together you probably are wealthier than the 1,000,000 poorest people on the planet.

Its really fucked up....but without ineqaulity we are doomed

We should give back

 

[IDL]

I possess more wealth than an infinite number of remote Amazonian tribesmen. There could be a trillion of them, and I would still have more.

 

[Prutfis]

The only way to truly solve "wealth inequality" by definition is through pure socialism.

If however, the ACTUAL problem is poverty, as suggested above, there are ways we can solve that without setting fire to the western world

Actually enforcing current laws and closing tax loopholes would also do quite a bit. You have to be really wealthy to be really criminal.. What consequenses did the Panama papers have again? Pretty much 0.
I remember reading once that the entire financial crisis could have been avoided with less than 5% of the money hidden away in tax shelters.

 

[Deleted member 196663]

The only way to truly solve "wealth inequality" by definition is through pure socialism.

Why can't you just unionize like the athletes in the NFL/MLB/NBA and demand a greater cut of the profits?

 

[Harmonica]

I fear him and his ilk so much. Not because they're rich but because of the massive amount of information he and other tech billionaires have on the public. I get that he's not some diabolical mastermind but that amount of information is a very unique kind of power and you know what Uncle Ben says about power. Its something that's so dangerous IMO that it can be disastrous even with the best of intentions.

In what capacity is it dangerous?

 

[CableandThanos]

So a couple rich guys have the equivalent of 4 billion poor people having $106 each......


AND????

 

[bmasters1993]

Why can't you just unionize like the athletes in the NFL/MLB/NBA and demand a greater cut of the profits?

I get what you mean, interesting idea. You'd need to ensure that the non-labour force got involved as well though. NBA/NFL/MLB players aren't as replaceable as sanitation workers

 

[freakyfarley]

I possess more wealth than an infinite number of remote Amazonian tribesmen. There could be a trillion of them, and I would still have more.

Just money

 

[King Joffery]

Thats disgusting.

Those lazy 3.6bn bums seriously need to pull their finger out and try harder.

 

[WiolentOne]

Anyone know where those 8 fellas buy their bootstraps?

 

[Squarechoke]

I'm not very surprised. We abandoned the feudal society for something else that turned into a different system with wealthy overlords. The US was a good pioneer to get rid of the aristocracy, but they've had a wealth distribution equal to medieval Europe for some time now, so without measures to keep it from happening some few people will always manage to grab the power and wealth. And as poor as large parts of the world are it's unsurprising that the global view isn't much different when dragged into the comparison with the richest people.

 

[BlacknBlue]

The article does not say how they calculate wealth exactly, but the headline gets slightly less impressive when you consider that almost 1.9 billion people in the world are 14 or younger, and 2.5 billion are 18 and younger. It is pretty difficult to amass wealth at such a young age. It is also worth noting that the bottom 30% of the world has negative wealth, or debts greater than their assets. So anyone in the War Room with $1 in their checking account and no debt has more wealth than the bottom 30% of the world.

I agree the rich are too rich, but headline is very misleading in almost any interpretation.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I think i know you well enough that you arent making a claim that there is some sort of exploitation on the part of people having to work to provide those keyboards, but rather that they were a critical component in the possibility of the keyboards being made and thus deserve better compensation than wages alone?

I wouldn't say that. My point isn't about what the workers deserve at all. I'm saying that wealth creation is a complicated process, and a lot of factors go into it--the rule of law (and trust), already-existing ideas and techniques, capital, physical labor, ideas, an educated population, strong infrastructure, rich consumers, and more. Gates himself has made the point that if he were born in Somalia, he wouldn't have a millionth of the wealth he has (I don't recall his exact words but something to that effect). We have private land ownership because people take better care of land that way and that benefits everyone (at least in theory). We have financial markets because that directs resources more effectively to create more wealth. These are deliberate policies that require a lot of gov't force, and it's absolutely reasonable to expect them to serve the general interest (who cares if we're increasing wealth production if it's all just going to a few people? No reason for the public to support force for that purpose).

It's ridiculous to think that anyone is creating that kind of wealth on their own, and I'd even argue that Microsoft employees are generally getting more than their marginal contribution (particularly if you note that the skills that they use are things they have learned from other people for the most part). That applies to pretty much everyone in a rich country.

No one likes to think they're getting something they don't deserve so we have different ideologies that promote soothing lies, but the vast majority of wealth we create every year is a result of ideas and techniques already thought up, existing capital (including land and infrastructure), and existing social order. And the flip side of it is that no one likes to feel like they're being taken advantage of so different political groups have different stories about how some other group is doing just that. I'm not trying to play into that (which is what I think you were suggesting). I think the goal should be to produce as much wealth as possible and to distribute it in a way that optimizes happiness in society (granting that those goals can come into conflict and people have different opinions about how to resolve it even if they're not being suckered in by the "taker"/"maker" lies).

why is it zuckerbergs fault he is rich when billions of people agree to make an accountwith him, and willingly give their money to their money managers, that willingly buy his stock, that he willingly offered to the public and has a minor ownership of.

I know this is directed toward Ultra, but he didn't answer. I'd say it's not about "fault." He didn't do anything morally blameworthy that I know of. It's just that one can argue that that's not an optimal distribution policy from the perspective of society. And "willingly" doesn't really make sense in the context of a society that enforces property. A renter "willingly" pays rent or he willingly gets thrown out in exactly the same sense that someone willingly pays taxes or willingly gets his wages garnished.