To think that we should all boycott the businesses of billionaires until they sort the situation of kids starving to death due to famine and war?

If one of your children became a billionaire, would they give it away? Of course they wouldn’t

I think people also greatly underestimate how much billionaires DO give away. There are tax schemes designed to encourage philanthropic activities and added on top that many of those people are not assholes and voluntarily donate an eye-watering amount of their wealth to causes that are important to them.

It seems like lots of people are simply jealous because they do not personally receive any wealth from a billionaire. So they demand that money go to corrupt and deprived regions of the world just to make themselves feel better. Let's be honest, OP would not last a single day in Sudan. Imagine a woman going there and trying to tell warlords what to do with their money. Hahaha

Nail on the head. Throwing money at a problem is never the solution.

A better option is to overthrow the dictators but then we'd get blamed for interfering.

Life is an uneven playing field! If the system exists for them to to do then of course they will. Anybody would take that opportunity if they had the intelligence, skills and imagination to do so.

But people stamping their foot and saying ‘it’s not fair’ is pure envy,

If someone gave you more money that you or your family could ever spend in your lives, would you take it? Of course you would. Would you then give it away? Of course not.

If one of your children became a billionaire, would they give it away? Of course they wouldn’t

Lets face it, we would all be in their position if we could - the fact that so few of us are capable of it makes people want to take that away from them in the name of socialism

They literally go in and ensure policies are put in place that entrench their products. They create an uneven playing field so that others cannot succeed. This is poisonous and unfair. No one should be a billionaire.

So they put the money elsewhere… Socialism is lovely I’m sure but as a concept it rewards the less successful from the pockets of the more successful.

If any of you had come up with a product that millions of people wanted and that made you billions, you wouldn’t be rushing to end world poverty - I guarantee it.

It does though, as you seem to think throwing billions at it will fix the problem. It won’t as you need to address the root causes, which money won’t fix. You can get all the billionaires together to hand over their cash, they will be broke, and the problems still won’t be fixed, so, yes, you do sound like a 12yo who had no idea.

'Every time you try to say 'Africa is...' the words crumble and break. From every generalisation you must exclude at least five countries.'

There's an interesting book called 'Africa' by Richard Dowden where he looks into the history, current situation etc of several African countries.

In his conclusion he disagrees with aid efforts really, and offers a few more practical suggestions for reducing poverty and inequality.

One key one was suggesting the UK put much stricter checks on the source of funds for people buying up houses in places like Kensington. These houses (which stand empty most of the time, contributing nothing to the local community and contributing to UK housing shortages) are in essence bank alternatives for corrupt officials and businessmen.

I'd suggest lobbying for the more practical suggestions like this one would be a lot more use than a blanket call to socialism as per the OP. Start with the small, achievable stuff which can actually help.

How do you know they don't?

But then that’s still interfering in politics.

I find it shocking that people expect others to make a fortune by providing something with high demand and then give the money away.

It’s spectacularly naive to think that even if they did do this, that it would make any difference in the medium to long term. Give everyone enough money to live on and some will always lose it all, some will want what others have etc. And on an international level that creates wars and starvation

i don’t think it matters now much money they put in, the world will always be the same place it always was - there will always be conflict and wars.

And I think it is envy because most of these people have come up with a product or service that has gone global. It’s not luck or coincidence or someone chucking billions at them, they created a demand which has paid off.

Anyone could potentially be in their position if they had the vision to come up with something that became that successful.

Billionaires are constantly interfering in politics. They are funding people like Nigel Farage to sow division and disrupt our society, while ensuring structures are in place to help them keep their billions / stop others from sharing the wealth. Perhaps they could turn their minds to more altruistic causes.

But those billions are are not sitting as cash in the bank, in many cases it is the value of the companies they own /shares they have. You can’t just extract it or the company goes down

How on earth are they to blame? wouldn't the corrupt governments or the people who keep on bringing children into the situations be at fault?

Why do people expect billionaiires to fix everyone elses problems?

One of the silliest threads I've seen on Mumsnet for a long time.

Do you imagine Bill Gates can nip over to North Korea and start handing our food parcels. Or Bezos can have a quick chat with the Taliban and arrange Domino's deliveries for the milllions of families who no longer have a second wage coming in because women aren't allowed to work.

The reason people are suffering is because aggressive war mongering arsehole men get their kicks and feed their egos fighting over land, resources etc, and aid deliveries, no matter how large, won't stop that. They actively enjoy abusing women & children. Bezos & Gates can't change that.

Better to demand Amazon pays their workers a living wage, and at least deal with poverty that is within our reach. And encourage them to provide food aid and education to those countries that will accept it.

A lot of these countries are controlled by corrupt leaders. Where do you think most of the help would end up? And if you are going to boycott billionaires, that’s social media, vinted etc.

Having scrolled all the way down the Forbes list - there are 345 people worth over $10billion. That's ten thousand million dollars each. Who needs that much? You'd be pushed to spend it on gold-plated houses, personal planes and satellites, diamond fucking shoes. That's so much money, it makes millions just by sitting in a bank.

Let them have their unfeasible, unspendable ten billion each. All 345 of them. I can't be bothered to add up the excess, but we'd be looking at many more trillions to invest in a healthier, happier, more peaceable world.

I don't think it's envy. A lot of people dislike gross inequality; it's unjust.

If the world's richest 20 people had their wealth reduced to $100 billion for philanthropic purposes, they'd still be the world's richest people and it would release $1,904,000,000 to the greater good.

I suspect two trillion dollars could make some difference. And the rich fuckers would still be the rich fuckers.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/

Cynical and selfish - otherwise known as human nature.

Do you honestly think that if someone who advocated for them to pay to end poverty was subsequently in the same position, they would agree to do the same?

Actually it’s animal nature.

Absolutely - plus It would mean they could make their own rules and completely own everyone,

I find it fascinating that people will say the rich should be forced to give their money up, when you just know that if those same people were in that position, there is no chance they would do it.

It’s envy, pure and simple. It boils down to people wanting what these billionaires have and when they can’t have it, they insist that nobody should own that much,

It's clear that your OP was half joking.

Idk where all of these billionaire apologists have come from. NB, by that I mean 'apologists for billionaires' - I assume that these posters are not themselves billionaires, though many seem to have the same cynical and selfish mindset 😮

Basically!

I voted YANBU because YANBU. No fucker needs that much money, and a handful of individuals now own more wealth than half the world's population.

Annoyingly, PPs' objections are correct. If the ultra-billionaires could come up with a way to depose all the corrupt leaders, their corrupt sidekicks and their equally corrupt opponents, that would be a start. Then they can get going with the cool infrastructure, health, education, clean energy and food production projects to fix the world.

This would be very good for them: it will turn the poorest 4 billion into customers for them, like the rest of us. I already am a customer - can't boycott them because they run my life 😕