To think there is a level of wealth that is ethically ok.

[Alanis126]

Firstly by developed world standards I'm by no means wealthy. I waa speaking to a friend about how supposedly if you shared all the world's wealth equally everyone would have £10,000. Clearly this will mever happen, but it does make me wonder hiw much is too much? Surely it can't be right that the 26 wealthiest people in the world own as much as the bottom 50%. But then by extension do we all have a moral responsibility to give away our net worth to help alleviate the desperate poverty in the world? It is always easy to use those with vast amounts more than you as a reason for inaction. I say to myself I've worked hard and having a nice if simple house and travelling and enjoying life a bit isn't a crime, but perhaps this isn't right? Just wondered what you thought..

This reminds me of the joke people in the USSR used to tell:

A meeting of the local soviet.
Speaker: "Comrades, there are people among us who wickedly have two houses. Nobody needs two houses. One is plenty."
People at Meeting: "Disgusting! Take one of the houses from them!"
Speaker: "Comrades, there are people among us who have two cars. Nobody needs two cars. One is plenty."
Meeting: "Disgusting! Take one of the cars from them!"
Speaker: "Comrades, there are people among us who have two chickens. Nobody needs two chickens. One is plenty."
Meeting: (everyone looks at their feet). "Mumble, mumble." In truth, anyone who didn't have a few chickens on the quiet was unlikely to make it through the winter.

I don't see anything wrong with billionaires like Bill Gates. Yes, he's obviously living a lavish lifestyle, but he also gives back a lot of his time, money and skills back to charity. He's also growing his wealth and is clearly extremely skilled at investing smartly. If his goal is to donate most of his wealth to charity after he's gone, surely it's best he hangs on to the purse strings for as long as possible. If I was the richest/second richest person in the world, no way would I be giving money to any old charity and risking the majority of it going to corrupt CEOs etc rather than the people who actually need it. I'd be starting up my own charitable trust and overseeing it for as long as possible.

Pouring money into Africa? So much wrong with that comment from scary teacher. First of all Africa is more than 50 diverse countries, which aren't by any means economically homogeneous, second to say we pour money into Africa neglects to account for the damage empire has done to quality of living in many parts of Africa including civil wars within that time that can be directly attributed in part by British occupation in African countries. And "nothing" seems to have improved? What's your evidence based for this? Lazy, prejudiced nonsense. Oh look, someone's posted about poverty so it must be time to make a throw away comment about poor people in Africa.

I just don't get how say Bill Gates doesn't give most of gis wealth away now, I know it sounds naïve but isn't he choosing to keep people poor by not giving it away?

Such a pity you didn't bother to look up just how much Bill Gates already gives away. (HInt: it's really not hard to find)