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?

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

They can literally afford to fix this issue.

Enough is enough.

Prayers for Sudan 🇸🇩 and to all those suffering across the world.

Thanks but I'm not bitter and I don't feel bad. I just don't want to give my money to Bezos and the likes when I can do other things with it. I don't feel bad that people working at Jaguar might be out of a job because I don't spend my money there so why would I worry that people working at Amazon might be? I can't spend my money everywhere so I want to choose wisely as far as possible. It's not just that Bezos has far more money than is reasonable; the whole business model is just not something I want to be part of. And if everyone made similar choices, businesses would need to adapt. The fact that so many people continue to spend with eg Amazon is disappointing to me but I agree I can't do anything about it. I can choose who to give my money to though and as far as is practically possible I avoid giving it to greedy, selfish fuckers.

Don’t take things so personally - it’s only random people on the internet.

Why are you accusing me of trolling? I am genuinely concerned for you because you are so angry with everyone.

Enjoy the Dark Ages.

Trolling, stalking? I don't think that means what you think it means!

Omg I am not angry 😄

But being harassed and piled on today for: opposing billionaires - has really been a lot 🙄🙄

Amazon waits for you

Amazon is so successful because it provides good products for decent prices with good delivery times.

Most things people buy are from companies owned by very rich men. It’s unavoidable

Such weird responses on this thread.

Billionaires become billionaires on the back of the suffering of others. Poor worker pay and rights etc. Redistribution of billionaire wealth should not be contentious to anyone with common sense. Not least because the billionaire class has far too much political power and materially undermines democracy.

This guy reckons he knows how to do it sensibly. I

https://www.waterstones.com/book/we-need-to-tax-billionaires/gabriel-zucman//9781399839600?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=626889&awc=3787_1780436640_55c3af2d460a206ea55c09fe7b965bb2&utm_source=626889&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=adstrong

Nah it’s fine - I managed to order my very expensive item in surprisingly little time 😬

Just what I was thinking! Life really isn't as simple as you seem to believe OP.

That is how life is and always has been, There has never been a time when everyone was in the same financial position.

Most people aspire to be very rich. And most people, if they did become minted, would want to keep hold of as much of that as possible.

You only have to look at COVID to see people stockpiling things as they wanted to make sure they had enough. If there was a famine and someone had just enough food to feed their family, would they share it with others? Of course not.

It is human nature and it always will be

For those comments re this:

https://www.un.org/digital-emerging-technologies/content/global-connectivity

The internet is not yet a human right, but theyre working on it. As they should, the access to knowledge and communication often depends on our internet access.

This isnt even one of my fun threads but there we go, sometimes mumsnet mumsnets 😫🤷‍♀️

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 😕

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 😮

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,

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.

Evening everyone,

Just a quick one following reports about this thread. We'd love to keep the thread up, however there are a number of posts breaking our guidelines. Please stick to the topic at hand or we will have to remove the thread.

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/

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.

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.

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.

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?

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