Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/25/rich-get-richer.html
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I’m pretty sure just giving people money wouldn’t solve poverty. It never has.
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[citation needed]
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I applaud your optimism.
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It has, in fact, been proven to vastly improve matters.
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That’s all well and good, but what about the yacht and private jet business? What about the real estate developers who are building empty condos and homes as safety deposit boxes in the sky? Why do you hate bootstrapping entrepreneurs, Cory?
See also giving homeless people homes. Pay no attention to this Wikipedia entry:
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You should tell that to your boss. I’m sure they would love to not pay you.
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Capitalism is clearly broken. I say we call it off and try something new. 
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“Yeah but, who’d dye my shirts?”
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Yeah, I imagine if a billionaire offered to give you a million dollars you’d say “no thanks, that won’t solve anything.”
Nevertheless, I’m not sure the point of the article is that billionaires should just give away all their money to individuals (except me perhaps-- billionaires, contact me through boingboing, I’ll gladly take any spare millions you don’t need), but that they have more than enough wealth to make a huge difference in the lives of the poorest populations.
If those 2000 billionaires used 1/7th of their earnings to help the poor, the starving would be fed, and yet they’d still be enormously wealthy.
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It would be far more entertaining, however, to just feed the world’s 2000 richest billionaires to the poor.
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Alternative Title: “The Catholic Church could wipe out extreme poverty in one lump sum”
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The world’s richest 2000 billionaires could wipe out extreme poverty with one seventh of what they gained last year
But they won’t.
The money and resources aren’t the problem; avarice is.
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Really, all that nazi gold should be put to a good use, instead of gilding mansions for pedophiles.
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That’s little more than a tithe! (I can math?)
[snark] But then again, what about all the jobs they create with that 1/7th!? [/snark]
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Poverty and human rights for vulnerable people go hand-in-hand.
Ladies at Davos, we’re listening.
What say you?
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Pretty sure, but totally wrong.
What Happens When You Just Give Money To Poor People?
Giving Money Directly to the Poor
Name checked in a couple of those articles is the very successful GiveDirectly.
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Just giving money to poor people does not provide nearly enough opportunity for graft.
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Without giving out personally identifying details in a public forum, I work with both extreme ends of the spectrum and I have to disagree with Jong as well. (Successful trolley?)
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The desire for power is at the heart of greed. The ability to make others feel as good or as bad as you want is a hell of a rush to the old brain. If it was mere greed it would be easier to make more money by driving people to buy their desires beyond basic necessities but what’s the fun in merely making money when you can have them do all kinds of silly things for it instead? To see people struggle for want of shelter or need of food is a kind of sport for the rich I think. I can’t really divine any other reason for them to allow accelerating inequality but that.
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