What is the point of billionaires?

[flobadob]

What is the point of the world having individuals amassing billions and billions of unused money when there are so many people living in poverty? Could there not be a cut off point of even one hundred million dollars or the equivalent which any individual would be allowed to keep and the rest to help humanity?

[emmie]

when i am a billionaire i will support Macmillan cancer care, RNLI,
they are two organisations that need all our help.

[murraymints]

Moning qad...don't you remember ???

[murraymints]

make that Sqad...

[Sqad]

Murray....LOL

[sandyRoe]

It's funny how the already rich need the prospect of unlimited wealth as an incentive while the ordinary person faces eviction and homelessness if he fails to keep up with his mortgage payments.
The carrot + stick philosophy in action, I suppose.

[murraymints]

excuse the aside..how are you Sqad my love ??

[Sqad]

Murray........back to normal ..thanks.

[murraymints]

normal ???...mmmmm...lol...I thought you were told to be good !

[Brenden]

Share the wealth out to the world and we will all have an extra 2p in our purses.

[emmie]

sandy how did many get those riches, perhaps you assume it's all inherited wealth, or did they work for it? read the link i provided and see that many of the seriously wealthy do indeed spread their capital around. Some may not, that is there choice. Remember too that they do provide industry, thus jobs all to the good, like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and mark zuckerberg.

[ummmm]

The world needs the likes of Bill Gates...who gives most of his wealth away.

[ummmm]

And Richard and Mark :-)

[sandyRoe]

Many of the Russian oligarchs stole it. The 19TH century American capitalists were also ruthless in their pursuit of the almighty dollar.

[emmie]

I am sure there are lots of philanthropists that don't advertise their good deeds, so don't see what is wrong with having loads of money, it's what you do with that counts. Look at those who win big on the lottery, how many go on to give to charity, and how many blow the lot on cars, houses, planes and whatnot.

[EDDIE51]

Shame on me for being aspirational , an oxymoron if ever I heard one !
My ideal of communism is like this
http://www.brainyquot.../communism146096.html
You can see why it has never been achieved and probably never will be.

[emmie]

communism, a misguided and brutal method of keeping people under control.

[EDDIE51]

When JJ becomes a millionaire I am going to move to Brighton :-)
As long as the free bar inculdes real ale !

[weecalf]

Does greed come into it at all ?

[murraymints]

JJ...can we have danish pastries too ???

[Davethedog]

em10 You have no understanding of politics - Theoretical communism is a great idea, unfortunately it doesn't work in practice due to human nature. It was never espoused as a means of control but it was used, as was facism, to enable dictatorships to rise.

The fact is now that it is handy for capitalism, to enable capitalists to dictate social conditions. As an example 25 million americans have no access to health care, Obama wants to make it accessable, but Republicans see this as comunist and because of brain washing over the years even some of those who don't have access agree.