The Thinking ‘Kat: Greed & Charity
Is the above information not rather frightening? Does it not go to show how much unfettered greed has hurt the progress of the human race?
Let’s look at this again, from the 2024 Forbes Rich List. The top 10 billionaires could contribute $1.542 trillion to various causes, and all would still be billionaires. If you add billionaires 11-20 to that list, you have a pot worth $2.459 trillion.
To place this into some context, the charity UNWFP estimates it would cost $40 billion a year to end world hunger by 2030 (based on an article written in 2022). That’s $320 billion, or just under 21% of what the world’s ten richest people could achieve, if inclined to be altruistic. It’s 13% of the top twenty, to add some additional context.
What about other social problems, such as homelessness? A 2021 HUD article estimates that it would cost $20 billion a year to end homelessness in the USA by 2030. considering eight of the Forbes top ten billionaires are US-based (14 of the top 20), it seems like the money is there, no? Keep in mind, I am basing these numbers off the top 20 billionaires on the rich list, there are many other billionaires on the list, so the funds, assuming we left each billionaire with $1 billion, would in fact be even greater.
To look at this another way, the top 1% have more wealth than the bottom 95% combined.
Now, some people might say ‘Ben, these people earned their wealth, it is unfair to take it away, least of all to untrustworthy governments’. The thing is, these people often haven’t earned their wealth. No one earns billions of dollars. A lot of people working for these multi-billionaires are why there are billionaires; that, and inherited income, rafts of lawyers striking deals, and other, less intensive means of ‘work’. I don’t doubt the ingenuity of some billionaires, but to pretend they are self-made, or that they work as hard as those under them, is to be ignorant.
Is it fair to take away their wealth? Well, the very people who would say it’s unfair are people who rather ironically, are either the extremely wealthy (who naturally don’t support doing anything that might slightly impede their wealth), or those who are heavily indoctrinated to both distrust the government, and paradoxically trust the wealthy. No one particularly likes taxes, but how else would we fund important infrastructure? Do people want functioning roads, emergency services, water and power? Do people want schools and hospitals and railways? By what mechanism would these be funded, if not via taxation of some form? Should we rely on the altruism and charity of the wealthy?
It is painfully obvious that to rely on the generosity of people like Elon Musk would be a form of folly. Musk has comfortably demonstrated that he is in it for himself. The same is true of most of these super-rich types. They look after themselves, and have little to no interest in doing anything for the benefit of others, unless it also somehow benefits them. The expectation that we can rely on charity to handle problems of global poverty, homelessness, hunger and disease is a fantasy. The concept of trickle-down economics filling the coffers of the working class has never come close to coming true, in all the decades that the idea has been bandied about.
Why do people choose to trust these billionaires, more so than they would trust their own government? Who do they think billionaires work for? The average person? Clearly not. They horde wealth for the sake of it, whilst others – sometimes their own employees – cannot put food on the table, or pay for expensive-but-vital medical treatment. Worse, they manipulate others into thinking this is somehow a good thing, that the accruement of money is a virtuous pursuit, even if others have to fall by the wayside to do so. This is not to say that entrusting anything and everything to government hands is wise, or even necessary, and the quality of governments certainly vary. Some I would trust more than others. I certainly do not trust billionaires to act in my interests, and I am baffled that anyone would believe otherwise.
