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.

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.

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.

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

How do you know they don't?

'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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

@mumofoneAloneandwell please answer my question about the ‘purge’.
Who is going to be purged?
Just a warning - revolutionaries can find themselves turned upon and purged.

I heard that Elon Musk asked the World Food Programme to provide him with a fully costed plan to end world hunger- which they did, at a price he could well afford.

And then he just decided not to go ahead and didn't give them the money.

I'm at this point too. I can't do everything of course, I can choose not to shop at Amazon etc.

Yes, I do know about AWS and Azure hosting before anyone jumps on that.

I heard that Elon Musk asked the World Food Programme to provide him with a fully costed plan to end world hunger- which they did, at a price he could well afford

How will that address factors such as countries ‘invading’ other countries, political factions overthrowing governments etc, and blockading Elon’s food, or 1001 other scenario’s where it’s not just a case of throwing good in?

PP mentioned Gabriel Zucman. Thomas Piketty and Robert Reich are other economists who focus on wealth inequality.

You're wrong, though. Most of them fund loads of charity work. Many have pledged to give 99% of their wealth away in their lifetimes.

Your assessment of human nature's way worse than the reality - I'm happy to say. And nobody thinks success shouldn't reap reward, you've made that up to suit yourself. We're saying it doesn't make sense to be THAT rich.

A hundred million? That's a lot of money. Five hundred million? Crazy amount of money. Six, seven hundred million? Buy anything you want, however absurd!

Nobody needs a billion, let alone several. Elon Musk is richer than Sweden, Belgium or Ireland (GDP 2026). For one person, what's the point?

Obviously you can't just take the money out and distribute it to the 4 billion poorest people, although that would be an interesting experiment! You're wrong about the nature of this argument, though.

This is such a disgusting attitude.

No, if I were very fortunate and was able to amass more wealth than I could ever possibly need, I would not further rig the system to further enrich myself, to the detriment of others.

Yes, if I had more wealth than I could ever possibly need, I would put it towards charitable causes.

@SomeGarlic Thank you so much for typing all that out, I did make an attempt but in the end I just couldn't be arsed! Of course you're right. Some people are awful but lots of people do lots of good stuff, including lots of rich people.

For all those going on about jealousy and envy, there is honestly nothing about Bezos or his life that I would want. I'm not sure extreme wealth is even very good for those who have it.

The crisis in Sudan is caused by war, state collapse, armed groups, disrupted supply chains, corruption, displacement and difficulty getting aid safely to civilians.

Politicians and war leaders are the ones to be held accountable.

If we boycott the businesses of billionaires jobs of low paid workers are lost. You can’t end one crisis by creating another one.

If only it was that simple.

You sound very new to international affairs and politics, OP.

Think of the billions and billions that have already been given as international aid by countries across the world and charities. What has it achieved?

Global poverty has declined, and many regions have seen significant reductions. But the gains have been uneven, with Africa and low-income economies increasingly at the centre of the challenge. Rural communities, children, and young people remain disproportionately affected.

blogs.worldbank.org/en/opendata/how-has-the-profile-of-extreme-poverty-changed-over-the-last-dec

Billionaires create company's worth billions...... How dare they be successful?

Under-five mortality rates have dropped drastically. For instance, in Sub-Saharan Africa, the under-five mortality rate dropped from 151 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 down to 73 deaths per 1,000 by 2020

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9750046/

Mean years of schooling in low-income countries have more than doubled. Initiatives such as the Millennium Development Goals prioritised universal primary education, while the Sustainable Development Goals extended the focus to secondary and tertiary access, gender equality and learning equality. Globally, the average time a child spends in school rose from 7.2 years in 1990 to 9.3 years today.

https://www.visionofhumanity.org/human-development-in-low-income-countries/