With the rise of poverty, we can definitey see what Marx preditected when he wrote about pauperization -- richer are getting richer while poorer are getting poorer; the gap between them is growing days and days. Currently, we live in a world where simulatenously, there are people who live with $2/month and others who make $100,000/sec (real fact about Jeff Bezos's wealth - he could earn an average woman/man’s lifetime salary In 5.6 sec). In that sense, being a billionaire is immoral as this disparity is absurd . Therefore, I strongly believe, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that being a billionaire should be forbidden. While it is their right to own and benefit from succesful businesses, they should donate or publicly reinvest their earning after a certain amount.
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Being a billionaire is not inherently immoral. A system in which becoming a billionaire is even possible when millions live paycheck to paycheck is an immoral system.
Asking billionaires to redistribute their wealth through philanthropy is obviously not a sustainable solution, nor is it even that effective in the short term...(see here https://news.stanford.edu/2018/12/03/the-problems-with-philanthropy/).
The only way to address wealth inequality is through public policy. Bold systemic solutions to systemic problems. Taxing the uber-wealthy their fare share is not enough (though it would be a start), we need to then invest in addressing the root causes of these inequalities. Invest in better schools, affordable healthcare, criminal justice reforms, etc.
We need invest in solutions that render a billionaire’s philanthropy unnecessary. If that means less billionaires, too bad.
@Lise hard to disagree but.... companies and individuals have been paying taxes for centuries and the situation still hasn’t changed. Why should billionaire pay more on behalf of corrupt countries and governments that do not redistribute money accordingly? Do you think that billionaires paying a penny more will change anything? Will just make some new corrupt millionaires. Unless we have a way to trace funds from source till final delivery, there is no added value to raise taxes. Now back to immorality... would you say no to a billion USD right now? Would you feel immoral and guilty to finally be able to afford everything you’ve dreamt of, knowing that generations and generations won’t have to suffer, knowing that you could personally help people in need through direct donations?
I don’t think that being billionaire should be forbidden but they should get more taxed. Mega rich people have the opportunity to make the world a better place but they don’t seem to be concerned with societal issues.
The gap between the poorest and the richest in getting deeper and providing for a middle class family get harder everyday. 50 years ago it was an achievable goal to get a house before your 30’s. Now, a lifetime of hard working is not always enough.
I think the state should play a role of regulator by redistributing wealth with the goal of reducing this increasing disparity. This will notably allow children from poorer backgrounds to get a better education, reduce homelessness, hunger...
I know it will be easier for me to criticize billionaires that seek to justify their wealth but I am going to try.
We don't have to forget that many billionaires are borned in poor or modest families such as Buffet, Musk, Koshbin, Gates. The issue is when Besos, before to create Amazon, failed 8 times to create a company nobody on the leftists were here to bring some help. However when the success is here you can be sure that people would like to tax you at 99 % and to steal your labor.
Furthemore, many people don't have enough knowledge in economy to know that for instance Musk does't have 190 billions in cash in this account but it is in fact the Tesla stocks. In real life if Musk try to sale these stocks he could not obtain the price because investors have a trust on Musk more than on Tesla itself. In this case investors will lose their trust on Tesla and the stock price will drop violently.
Finaly, when leftists want to begin to tax billionaires they know it will be very difficult for them to succeed because billionaires have a wealth in many countries and a lawyers army. So it will be easier for leftists to put some taxes on small rich people because they cannot move.
Jeff Bezos made history and became the first person ever to be worth $200 billion. I'm he makes good use of every single $. Just remember that he makes your lifetime salary in 6 seconds - it's a shame.