JoeyJoeJoeJr. Shabadoo Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 3 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said: So, every single billionaire should spend the next 30 years feeding the poor until they go broke? That’s the plan to solve world hunger? Would they agree to that? Who’s going to tell them the bad news? What happens after 30 years? $360 billion seems like an impossible task for the billionaires, as you said, but it seems much more realistic when realize its only 2.5 percent of the 14.4 trillion those billionaires control. It's an overly simplistic hypothetical anyway. The money could be used in many more ways than you suggested. Billionaires and corporations would continue to replenish their coffers. Imo its entirely doable, and if the billionaires spent half as much money on this issue, as they do convincing us its out of their control, society probably wouldn't be as divided as it seems these days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elias Pettersson Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 2 hours ago, JoeyJoeJoeJr. Shabadoo said: $360 billion seems like an impossible task for the billionaires, as you said, but it seems much more realistic when realize its only 2.5 percent of the 14.4 trillion those billionaires control. It's an overly simplistic hypothetical anyway. The money could be used in many more ways than you suggested. Billionaires and corporations would continue to replenish their coffers. Imo its entirely doable, and if the billionaires spent half as much money on this issue, as they do convincing us its out of their control, society probably wouldn't be as divided as it seems these days. Out of that $14.2 trillion, how much is liquid cash? Probably not that much. Musk has to sell shares of Telsa in order to give money to his charity. I believe Bill Gates does the same thing with his Microsoft shares. Same with Warren Buffett. Liquidating $360 billion every single year doesn't really seem feasible. Also, how exactly do you "force" 3,194 billionaires to give up 2.5% of their net worth to charity every single year? Seems like an impossible task to me. I'm not actually against this at all. I just think logistically it would be too complicated to ever be sustainable as a long-term solution to feed the poor. As others have mentioned, we need to teach the poor how to "fish". So, how do you teach 1 billion people who have no formal education how to "fish", i.e. how to make money? And even if you could do this, how many jobs are there in Africa where the poor could even make a living wage? Isn't the whole problem in these impoverished countries that there isn't much of an economy to sustain its people? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elias Pettersson Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 3 hours ago, Ilunga said: You know how simple it actually is ? This simple " Just 10 percent of military spending could knock off world poverty,: think tank " https://www.reuters.com/article/world/just-10-percent-of-world-military-spending-could-knock-off-poverty-think-tank-idUSKCN0X12EP/ " SIPRI said military spending amounted to 2.3 percent of global gross domestic product - and ten percent of this would be enough to fund the global goals agreed upon by the United Nations' 193 member states in September to end poverty by 2030. " While this article is a few years old, the figures remain much the same. Humans would rather kill each other, than feed each other. Or at the very least make money selling the means of killing each other. You really hit the nail on the head my friend. Yes, fixing world hunger is quite simple. Instead of dropping bombs on each other and spending billions every year trying to make the biggest and most powerful bombs, nations could simply send the majority of their military budgets to the UN who could in turn distribute the money to the poorest countries in the world to feed their citizens. As of 2024, defence expenditure for the US was $755 billion per year. The rest of the NATO countries was $430 billion. So almost $1.2 trillion. That is much more than $360 billion and should be enough to feed the poor and end world hunger for good. Unfortunately, like you said, humans would rather kill each other than feed each other. Or at least have the means to do so. Who is in charge of defence spending? Governments or billionaires? So, who is ultimately responsible for world hunger? We all know the answer to that question. Stop invading countries and stop dropping bombs on other humans. Try feeding them instead... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ilunga Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 46 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said: You really hit the nail on the head my friend. Yes, fixing world hunger is quite simple. Instead of dropping bombs on each other and spending billions every year trying to make the biggest and most powerful bombs, nations could simply send the majority of their military budgets to the UN who could in turn distribute the money to the poorest countries in the world to feed their citizens. As of 2024, defence expenditure for the US was $755 billion per year. The rest of the NATO countries was $430 billion. So almost $1.2 trillion. That is much more than $360 billion and should be enough to feed the poor and end world hunger for good. Unfortunately, like you said, humans would rather kill each other than feed each other. Or at least have the means to do so. Who is in charge of defence spending? Governments or billionaires? So, who is ultimately responsible for world hunger? We all know the answer to that question. Stop invading countries and stop dropping bombs on other humans. Try feeding them instead... I know it's not possible, although I would be very happy, for countries to not spend on their military. As that article stated, it would only take ten percent, globally, of what we spend on " the military " to end world poverty. Ten percent.... On the subject of billionaire's, I do believe there should be a limit on the amount of wealth, any one person controls. Especially when we live in a world where there is so much inequality. Even in our supposedly well off western societies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StrayDog Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 2 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said: Out of that $14.2 trillion, how much is liquid cash? Probably not that much. Musk has to sell shares of Telsa in order to give money to his charity. I believe Bill Gates does the same thing with his Microsoft shares. Same with Warren Buffett. Liquidating $360 billion every single year doesn't really seem feasible. Also, how exactly do you "force" 3,194 billionaires to give up 2.5% of their net worth to charity every single year? Seems like an impossible task to me. I'm not actually against this at all. I just think logistically it would be too complicated to ever be sustainable as a long-term solution to feed the poor. As others have mentioned, we need to teach the poor how to "fish". So, how do you teach 1 billion people who have no formal education how to "fish", i.e. how to make money? And even if you could do this, how many jobs are there in Africa where the poor could even make a living wage? Isn't the whole problem in these impoverished countries that there isn't much of an economy to sustain its people? So therefor, we must of course not bother trying to make it happen. That $14.2 trillion can safely sit in the assorted tax shelters the billionaires have, and do nothing to help better the lives of millions of people. Do I have the answers? No. But I do know that sitting back and saying "Well, it's really tough to have them be decent human beings so why bother?" attains absolutely nothing. All of these billionaires are supposedly geniuses at generating capital, so they can turn that to figuring out how to lift people up instead of padding their own pockets. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIAHN Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 (edited) 18 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Around in circles we go... You know. it baffles me how people blame everyone else but themselves. "IF" we cared enough in mass to actually go to conventions and force parties to do our bidding Then they would. But we don't! This is no ones fault but our own, and I get sick and tired of the blame game...... If you are tired of your kid always putting their shoes on the wrong feet, then stop him, sit him down and get him to put them on the right feet, instead of just complaining it is someone else's fault Pretty Fn simple really! I ask you Pettersson, when was the last time you stood on a street corner and held a sign? When was the last time all your friends did the same? Edited August 26 by JIAHN 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarcore Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 7 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said: Doesn’t every billionaire use charities as tax write offs? Not the point of the post..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIAHN Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 18 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said: There is no doubt that billionaires control politicians. Money controls the world, as most politicians are bribed IMO. I don't have the facts on that so don't bother asking. Just my personal opinion. That said, governments ultimately control the money via taxation, the printing press, control over where the money goes, who gets it, etc. It's a vicious cycle with no end in sight. The problem started a long time ago with the central banks of the world. Nothing really has been fixed since then. And it probably never will... My personal opinion is that we should shoot all leftist, whining, sniveling, cry babies.........but that is "JUST MY OPINION" It does not make me right, nor does it prove that everyone else thinks the same! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIAHN Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 17 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said: Joe Londsale is the founder of 8VC corporation... After it came out that I’m supporting Trump this election, it was no surprise to be attacked by lefty journalists on multiple topics. The far-left Rolling Stone’s hit piece on me a few days ago based on our policy org Cicero’s success - we’re helping several states reduce corruption and death by fixing incentives and increasing accountability in the homelessness services area - is a badge of honor. But perhaps the most pathetic hit piece is a nativist Forbes reporter looking to paint our two Russian colleagues at 8VC as a “scandal”. America is an amazing country in part because it attracts the best and brightest, enabling us to achieve great things with talented people of all backgrounds. People like Albert Einstein, Jensen Huang, or Elon Musk. 8VC has ten partners including me and nearly 70 employees today, and we work closely with several hundred founders, who employ hundreds of thousands of leaders and innovators. We co-found companies and we invest. I work with colleagues of all backgrounds - men and women from Iowa, or from California; from Texas, and from Argentina; even close friends and allies from China and Iran, and from many other places, including Russia. We met my colleague Jack when he was a talented young man graduating from Stanford several years ago, known to people we respected as one of their brightest friends. My partner hired him and he became an analyst, and over the coming years rose through our firm quickly and is a star Principal, working as a leader at 8VC and earning the respect of our colleagues and of many founders and CEO’s. It turns out that his father is a successful agricultural leader in Russia; if you’re a businessman in Russia, and their leader says to meet, you go, regardless of your views. His father is now on "oligarch" sanction lists. I didn’t hire his father though, I hired him. And he’s a superstar. Jack has a US green card and is a resident allowed to be in the USA, as he should be - and he’s somebody I know and trust. Denis is a friend of Jack’s with whom he grew up - somebody he told us that he admired and respected as one of the brightest people in his life. Denis went to secondary school in the UK, and attended places like Yale and Harvard. When he was graduating with his master’s degree, a leading PE firm had been paying for it and he planned to go work there, but the cowards at that firm saw that Denis had a father who was now on sanction lists, and told Denis they could no longer hire him - for now to wait a year or so until things blow over, etc. So what did I do when I heard about this? I've known my colleague Jack for years, and trust his judgment. I looked into it, spoke with mentors I respect on the topic, and met with Denis. Truly top talent is hard to find, and we were impressed. Denis hasn’t lived in Russia since he was 12. Should we be holding him accountable for the invasion, and driving this amazing talent out of the USA? We work in a lot of sectors, including defense where I’ve founded more top US companies than anybody alive, not least Palantir, and we support great entrepreneurs. We have huge wins in bio-manufacturing, are the top venture firm in US logistics, and have done amazing work in healthcare and fintech - another company I founded and chair now has over a thousand firms reporting over seven trillion dollars over our system. These days we are doing leading work in AI and AI-services. Leaders I respect, including friends and mentors in the defense world, agreed with my decision. Let’s be honest: a lot of people make decisions based on fear today, especially money managers. A lesser man might put silly opinions and anxiety ahead of the truth and the substance of what’s right, and would have been afraid to hire Denis; lesser men in fact were. I detest Putin, and I’ve fought to help eliminate terrorists, save the US government billions, and make us more competent to deter our adversaries - at least as well as any American in the defense sector. But we also do important work in other areas, and I happen to disagree that it’s a good strategy for us to isolate the smart, wealthy Russian people themselves. Regardless, we have a strict compliance and legal framework and always make sure to respect and follow the law. We haven’t taken any money from their fathers or their fathers’ friends, and don’t need it - we know the relevant institutions and wealthy people everywhere in the world, and our funds are massively oversubscribed, as we hit home run after home run in multiple areas and keep the fund sizes smaller than our peers. But there’s no reason not to work with a talent like Denis on the AI Services theme and other areas as we are doing, and to help him soon launch a new venture with us as an EIR. This reporter wanted a response; he has it. I’m lucky to live in the greatest country in the world, and it will remain as such if we can keep working with the top talent of all backgrounds, including, yes, Chinese and Russians and Israelis et al, without demonizing people for imagined things they didn’t do. I’m not naive that there are bad guys in this world, and I’ll follow the law and the advice of US intelligence and defense leaders we respect, but beyond that I will continue to use my judgement. Loans do not define ownership..........Nothing has to be registered.......just pay or die............Musk knows the rules Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIAHN Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 13 hours ago, Joe King said: I am not an expert nor do I have the means to solve things like hunger and homelessness. I do know there are agencies in place like food banks and organizations in place to bring food and medicine overseas. I just don't see why hanging on to more money than you can possibly spend is a positive for humanity. Not trying to attack you Joe, but! When I was in Norway, I found out that the monthly allowance for unemployment was $3500 per month.............but there was no one on the system...........basically everyone worked..........what a concept! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIAHN Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 So that no one mis-understands me............ Yes, Billionaires influence political parties, and their policies For sure! But not enough people actually care to call the politicians on this..... This is our country.....one person one vote...... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bishopshodan Posted August 26 Popular Post Share Posted August 26 10 hours ago, Elias Pettersson said: Or they could all have a big laugh at the thought that some people think they should be responsible for feeding the poor. Havent seen anyone say they should be responsible for feeding the poor. All I have said is that the multi-billionaires could save the 9 million that starve per year globally. They could. They dont. That's why, and this is my 'opinion', I call them evil. The convo stemmed from Bob pointing out that Elon is going to save 2 space people and giving that props. I pointed out that Elon could save a hell of a lot more. 2 5 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewbieCanuckFan Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 9 minutes ago, bishopshodan said: Havent seen anyone say they should be responsible for feeding the poor. All I have said is that the multi-billionaires could save the 9 million that starve per year globally. They could. They dont. That's why, and this is my 'opinion', I call them evil. The convo stemmed from Bob pointing out that Elon is going to save 2 space people and giving that props. I pointed out that Elon could save a hell of a lot more. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bishopshodan Posted August 26 Popular Post Share Posted August 26 (edited) This billionarie talk has been interesting. It seems to me that billionaires are some people's super heros. I find the defense of them very strange but I am starting to understand. The uber-rich person represents a dream that none of you are going to achieve ( i'll apologise to anyone on here that becomes a multi-billionaire and proves me wrong) but its very important that the dream exists. But just look at these uber rich... They are a bunch of dorks. I wouldn't hang out with these people. Without their money they are getting picked last in gym class. Which is why I am realising that the dream is so important. It makes people think they could become something different. But like true love, money cant buy cool. I believe the dream is a lie. Edited August 26 by bishopshodan 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post The Arrogant Worms Posted August 26 Popular Post Share Posted August 26 USA rates... 6 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duodenum Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 2 minutes ago, The Arrogant Worms said: USA rates... Contrast that vs. gdp growth rates and reducing top tax rates hasn't increased growth at all vs. countries who didn't reduce their top rates (or reduced them less). One thing they did increase is the divide of power and wealth between the rich and the poor. 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 6 minutes ago, Duodenum said: One thing they did increase is the divide of power and wealth between the rich and the poor. Yep. Many pages ago we talked about Edison. He died being worth 12mil. That would be about $180 Million today. Google says Elon is worth almost $250 Billion. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post NewbieCanuckFan Posted August 26 Popular Post Share Posted August 26 (edited) (the shallow person in me went for seat #9 (for the free handjob). Edited August 26 by NewbieCanuckFan 5 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishopshodan Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 6 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said: (the shallow person in my went for seat #9 (for the free handjob). #9 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post King Heffy Posted August 26 Popular Post Share Posted August 26 22 minutes ago, NewbieCanuckFan said: (the shallow person in me went for seat #9 (for the free handjob). 3 and I'm kicking the seat the whole way. 3 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gurn Posted August 26 Popular Post Share Posted August 26 seat #7- and I only ask Hulk questions about Andre and Macho Man. was thinking about seat 5- but realized I'd be too afraid to leave my chair for a washroom break. 2 and 4- nah- I'm betting those obese guys smell. 1 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I.Am.Ironman Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 (edited) 1 hour ago, Duodenum said: Contrast that vs. gdp growth rates and reducing top tax rates hasn't increased growth at all vs. countries who didn't reduce their top rates (or reduced them less). One thing they did increase is the divide of power and wealth between the rich and the poor. It's more nuanced than just tax affecting GDP. During the decades of 1950-80 North America's population was rapidly increasing which has a huge effect on GDP Growth. There was also WW2, Korea, Vietnam etc during that time which all would have had an effect on taxation and GDP. GDP growth has been decreasing but so has our population growth rate. Taxes have also been decreasing during this time. Chicken or the egg? A more accurate metric is probably using GDP growth per capita. This however, doesn't account for inflation. I tried to find an inflation adjusted graph, not my area of expertise but below is the best/longest time period I found (FRED graph). In fact, as tax rates have declined, GDP per capita has increased. Personally, I'm in favour of increasing the tax on the top earners but to pay down the debt instead of relying on inflation to do it. Links: https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/gdp-per-capita https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1 Edited August 26 by I.Am.Ironman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stawns Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 1 hour ago, NewbieCanuckFan said: (the shallow person in me went for seat #9 (for the free handjob). Seat 3 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stawns Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 1 hour ago, NewbieCanuckFan said: (the shallow person in me went for seat #9 (for the free handjob). Was just gonna say, might get a hand jibber 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIAHN Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 @Elias Pettersson Just for the record At least you care. I also support your right to have a different opinion.....it is your right! I don't always agree with you, but, I know you care! To me, that is worth respecting 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.