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"Eight richest men own as much as 3.6 billion poor"

rabbitcaebannog said:
Not true.



Let's start with Bill Gates and the Melinda Foundation. From their own website; Partners Pledge $30 Million to Strengthen African Think Tanks to Inform Development Policy - Bill & Melinda Gates - Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

They along with Bloomberg have a large hand in corporate reforms toward public education. Public Education: Who Are the Corporate Reformers? | BillMoyers.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/us/politics/think-tanks-research-and-corporate-lobbying.html
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I don't see how this makes them plutocrats. A donation to 24 think tanks focused on helping developing countries in Africa doesn't sound insidious to me and the Gates Foundation isn't exactly the Clinton Foundation or most others. As for Bloomberg, improving education isn't exactly a controversial endeavor either.

So do you have anything that supports your assertion that these 8 individuals make us a plutocracy or are you against helping Africans help themselves and other mission focused work?
 
AliHajiSheik said:
I don't see how this makes them plutocrats. A donation to 24 think tanks focused on helping developing countries in Africa doesn't sound insidious to me and the Gates Foundation isn't exactly the Clinton Foundation or most others. As for Bloomberg, improving education isn't exactly a controversial endeavor either.

So do you have anything that supports your assertion that these 8 individuals make us a plutocracy or are you against helping Africans help themselves and other mission focused work?
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The point is that think tanks are meant to influence policies. A Plutocracy is when a minority of wealthy people control/shape/influence policy through money. Also, corporate reforms are controversial. It really has nothing to do with rather you approve them or not. These policies were not something you had much say in at all. That really is the point.
 
The only one's I really know anything about:

Bill Gates.. Think about what he/his company did... It changed the world.. They made PC's more usable, Had a very big hand in the internet explosion..

Mark Z.. Sure Facebook is huge,, but it's just (as I call it) vaporware... they produce nothing.. I would assume that Facebook makes money only from advertisement... Sure I have a Facebook account,, but in the few years that I have,, I only posted about a dozen time's

the rest of the gang,, I really don't know much about...

djl
 
TobyOne said:
Nice try, collectivists.
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Because clearly, anyone who considers whether or not it might lead problems that the available wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few - the exact thing that has triggered social unrest since civilization began - must clearly support a totalitarian government that confiscates and distributes all wealth as it see fits?
 
That's not the implication of these stories.


Mr Person said:
Because clearly, anyone who considers whether or not it might lead problems that the available wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few - the exact thing that has triggered social unrest since civilization began - must clearly support a totalitarian government that confiscates and distributes all wealth as it see fits?
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Captain Adverse said:
Red Herring. Government "wealth" is held in trust for the governed, not actually "owned" by the government. (Unless the government is an absolute Monarchy or the like). :coffeepap:
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That depends on the government.
 
TobyOne said:
Nice try, collectivists.
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Mr Person said:
Because clearly, anyone who considers whether or not it might lead problems that the available wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few - the exact thing that has triggered social unrest since civilization began - must clearly support a totalitarian government that confiscates and distributes all wealth as it see fits?
Click to expand...

TobyOne said:
That's not the implication of these stories.
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Inequality has moved up the agenda in recent years, with the head of the International Monetary Fund and the Pope among those warning of its corrosive effects, while resentment of elites has helped fuel an upsurge in populist politics. Concern about the issue was highlighted again in the WEF's own global risks report last week.


(from OP link)


Corrosive effects leading to or at least correlated with populist uprising. In what way is that not "social unrest"?
 
A person with only $20 is richer than many of the world's poor people combined. Because when you add up a bunch of zeros (as in zero net worth) you get zero.

Anyone else notice that six of the eight richest are democrats?
 
Gonzo Rodeo said:
Those people also have very little cash. An overwhelming amount of their wealth is stake in companies that are very rich. And yes, I'm sure that gives them access to vast sums of cash, but the whole concept of "8 richest men" is designed to paint a mental image of these old white dudes literally swimming in their money vaults like Scrooge McDuck.

They built wealth that did not exist in the world before they built it, and almost all of it is in their companies.
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Wel they have cash, but you are correct most of their wealth is in property and investments, not hard cash. For example a billionaire might only have 2 bil in cash, but be worth 40 billion through ownership or investment of numerous companies plus land ownership.

Another part of the issue is the more than 3.6 billion people, that covers pretty much the whole third world, where making 1 american dollar a day is middle class, which skews the numbers to make an argument, but does a poor job of supporting the meme.

Oh and for scrooge mcduck swimming in gold family guy is in order
 
Mr Person said:

Inequality has moved up the agenda in recent years, with the head of the International Monetary Fund and the Pope among those warning of its corrosive effects, while resentment of elites has helped fuel an upsurge in populist politics. Concern about the issue was highlighted again in the WEF's own global risks report last week.


(from OP link)


Corrosive effects leading to or at least correlated with populist uprising. In what way is that not "social unrest"?
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If populism is unrest, the US has been in a state of unrest since inception.
 
Goshin said:
Interesting shame-a-thon article about how the world's 8 richest men own "half the wealth" of the world, though actually it is the same wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion in the world. Now the first article was in my news-feed and contains the following line...


... but doesn't name the other five wealthy men. I thought this was odd so I did some searching, and found the second article which names them all, and interestingly enough those other names include...


One wonders at the omission of Buffett and Bloomberg in the first, front-page article....


https://www.yahoo.com/news/eight-men-own-half-worlds-wealth-oxfam-001214017.html


http://fortune.com/2017/01/16/world-richest-men-income-equality/
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Forbes Welcome

This one has Soros too, who should gives all his money away being the giant lefty he is.
 
Goshin said:
Interesting shame-a-thon article about how the world's 8 richest men own "half the wealth" of the world, though actually it is the same wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion in the world. Now the first article was in my news-feed and contains the following line...
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Not to mention it conjures the picture of a limited amount of pie where these evil rich people have so much of the pie and that leaves very little left for the poor downtrodden when the reality is that we have a fiat money system where it doesn't matter if a few people have a lot of money because that doesn't limit you at all. Wealth is created.
 
American said:
Forbes Welcome

This one has Soros too, who should gives all his money away being the giant lefty he is.
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Now there's a man who does spend lots of money funding organizations that have been tearing down our institutions for decades that have made this country so great.

I read a couple of days ago that Soros lost almost a billion dollars in the stock market in the past weeks because he did not anticipate the strong rally after Trump's win.

Couldn't happen to a better guy.

Billionaire George Soros Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Weeks After Trump Election - WSJ
 
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rabbitcaebannog said:
The point is that think tanks are meant to influence policies. A Plutocracy is when a minority of wealthy people control/shape/influence policy through money. Also, corporate reforms are controversial. It really has nothing to do with rather you approve them or not. These policies were not something you had much say in at all. That really is the point.
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Since I can't find your definition of plutocracy anywhere, I can't argue that point. Perhaps you can share your source.

Regardless, the real point is whether these 8 individuals had any influence beyond that of many others. Does a pipefitter have any influence? Certainly as part of a union they do. Back to your point, you say that the fact that these 8 individuals have as much wealth as 1/2 the world PROVES that there is a plutocracy is clearly false. Nothing has been proven.
 
**** up stats.
 
AliHajiSheik said:
Since I can't find your definition of plutocracy anywhere, I can't argue that point. Perhaps you can share your source.

Regardless, the real point is whether these 8 individuals had any influence beyond that of many others. Does a pipefitter have any influence? Certainly as part of a union they do. Back to your point, you say that the fact that these 8 individuals have as much wealth as 1/2 the world PROVES that there is a plutocracy is clearly false. Nothing has been proven.
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I disagree.

From the scholars who did the extensive research: “Majorities of the American public actually have little influence over the policies our government adopts. If policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.” From the research paper: https://www.cambridge.org/core/jour...-citizensdiv/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
 
beerftw said:
Wel they have cash, but you are correct most of their wealth is in property and investments, not hard cash. For example a billionaire might only have 2 bil in cash, but be worth 40 billion through ownership or investment of numerous companies plus land ownership.

Another part of the issue is the more than 3.6 billion people, that covers pretty much the whole third world, where making 1 american dollar a day is middle class, which skews the numbers to make an argument, but does a poor job of supporting the meme.

Oh and for scrooge mcduck swimming in gold family guy is in order
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It's half the humans on the planet, compared to eight people. THAT's skewed!
 
Manc Skipper said:
It's half the humans on the planet, compared to eight people. THAT's skewed!
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Of course it's skewed. But maybe not in the way you think.

We say things like "x number of people live on less than $10 a day", and we think, how are these people even alive? It's not that they are living on theft or charity, but rather a combination of extremely low cost of living and the fact that the land they use to grow and forage isn't counted as "owned", so it also fails to show up as "wealth". These people don't have iPods or Chevys, but they do have land and equipment. They simply participate in a different sort of econony.

Sure, 8 people own half of the dollars in the world, and those things measured by dollars, but not all of the world's wealth is counted in that statistic.
 
AnnaNoblesse said:
A person with only $20 is richer than many of the world's poor people combined. Because when you add up a bunch of zeros (as in zero net worth) you get zero.

Anyone else notice that six of the eight richest are democrats?
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No surprise. God favors the righteous.
 
vesper said:
Now there's a man who does spend lots of money funding organizations that have been tearing down our institutions for decades that have made this country so great.
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What institutions has Soros spent money to "tear down"?
 
Casper said:
Yes, he knows how to lose lots of money, just like trump.:doh
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The're business people. The're risk takers. As such they win most, lose some. The idea is that the wins are greater than the losses.

You and I don't lose money in the stock market by selling short because we don't play the game.
 
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