To think billionaires shouldn’t exist?

[ThisIcyWriter]

No one earns a billion through hard work alone - it’s exploitation. AIBU to think billionaires shouldn’t exist in a fair society?

JK Rowling has probably given away more than you’ll ever earn

philanthropicpeople.com/profiles/j-k-rowling/

We are not billionaires, and we're not spectacularly wealthy either. BUT, we are just at a level that makes us targets for the wealth hunt. So we shall probably buy a passport to a jurisdiction where the taxation is not punitive. And not pay UK tax. Job done. We are just people who started a small business 30 years ago. It's done okay. It's not Amazon. We have a nice house, worth less than £1m, and a pension also worth less than a million.But the current government regards us as easy plunder. So my mission is to remove us and our savings, all earned honestly and full tax paid, beyond the reach of HMRC.

Welcome back from cryo sleep, comerade.

Buy a passport? Where are you planning to go where you won’t be taxed?

I would be out of a job

I think OP’s point is that they have rarely paid or treated people fairly. Amazon staff peeing in bottles springs to mind.

If of course someone manages to become a billionaire but still treated and paid staff well then hats off to that person and they have my full admiration.

I am expecting to pay income taxes wherever we end up. Tax avoidance is not my objective.

I get you, but IMO equal distribution of wealth will never work. Say you give 100 people a million pounds each. Fast-forward a few years on (or less); some of them will have lost the lot and are worse off than before; some will have just spent the lot to have a good time in the short term; some will be comfortably off from cautious investment; and the odd one or two will be millionaires and may be on their way to being billionaires - visionaries and risk-takers who are discovering how to turn money into more money. These 100 people will never be equal just because they have the same thing and their gain will only be temporary if they're not capable of 'billionaire behaviour'.

You're not a billionaire. This thread is not about someone like you.
This is specifically about extreme wealth.
It's not a thread where to air grievances about the current Government.

Start a new thread if you want to do that.

The issue isn't that everyone should have the same, it's that the current state of inequity is absolutely inconceivable! I don't think anyone on this forum would ever want communism, it just needs to be something different than we have at the moment.

The current government have made it quite plain that if you prospered at all, then they are coming for you financially. My reply is that I will look for every available opt out.

How would fewer billionaires help?

And?

The increasing income disparity doesn't bother you in the slightest?

They are certainly not pursuing growth! When the state controls earnings and makes people give up too much, these people go. Ok so not communism but socialism that’s being rejected almost everywhere. Also we only have around 52 billionaires! The state won’t get far by robbing them.

Not advocating communism, just less disgusting income disparity between the top and the bottom.

There are 2,781 billionaires in the world.

Their net worth is $14.2 trillion USD. That’s about four times the GDP of the UK.

The richest 26 billionaires have as much money as the poorest 3.8 billion people COMBINED. That is, 26 individual people are richer than half the population of earth combined.

I’m not a communist or anywhere near it, but surely everyone can agree that those figures are fucking obscene, even if they did start from nothing in a garage?

Totally agree.
People’s minds struggle to comprehend just how much a billion is. It’s an obscene amount of money.

Here's a handy dandy visualization:
TikTok Showing Jeff Bezos' Wealth By Using Grains Of Rice Goes Viral

I think your problem lies in the reality that there are people who really are not capable of living independently.. I don't actually know how we support them. I'm not thrillled by the idea that I should be paying for them for 60 or 70 years of their life. I think I am becoming a bit eugenicist. I know that's not acceptable.

Exactly this!

What absolute rubbish and what a vile attitude.

One day you may find that you need help or support.

This is a great illustration.

I honestly think people have become desensitised to how much a billion really is. This shows just one billion

And the people with the most have lots of these!

You're right that people struggle with how much £1 Bn is.

Think about it as time. £1 gets you 1 second back in time.

1 million seconds is about 11 days. So for £1 m you could go back to a week last Friday.

1 billion seconds is 37 YEARS

So £1 bn takes you back all the way to 1988.

The richest man on the Uk, has £18 bn to his name in seconds that's 666 years.

His fortune takes him back to the Middle Ages. 1359

Musk? He's 'worth' 14,687 years. So his money converted to seconds would take him back to the ice age.

I think that's why people think addressing the increase in number and wealth of billionaires is the same as going after people who want to do well for their families.

But it really isn't. £1bn is a different league.

And who's pulling the strings attached to the politicians to make sure that doesn't happen?