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posted by takyon on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the self-made-trillionaire dept.

Global wealth inequality widened last year as billionaires increased their fortunes by $2.5 billion per day, anti-poverty campaigner Oxfam said in a new report.

While the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth dwindle by 11%, billionaires' riches increased by 12%. The mega-wealthy have also become a more concentrated bunch. Last year, the top 26 wealthiest people owned $1.4 trillion, or as much as the 3.8 billion poorest people. The year before, it was the top 43 people.

[...] To address many of these ills, Oxfam advocated raising taxes. It estimated that a 1% wealth tax would be enough to educate 262 million out of school children and to save 3.3 million lives. As of 2015 returns, Oxfam says that only four cents in every tax dollar collected globally came from tariffs on wealth, such as inheritance or property. The report also claims that the rich are hiding $7.6 trillion in offshore accounts

Previously: Only 1% of World's Population Grabbed 82% of all 2017 Wealth


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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:50AM (29 children)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:50AM (#790018)

    <sarcasm>But think how much wealth was created by those 26 people - they _deserve_ all those billions</sarcasm>

    Starting Score:    1  point
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       Troll=1, Funny=2, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=5
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    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:54AM (11 children)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:54AM (#790019)

    SN autodetected my <s> tags and decided I was trying to do strikethrough... rather than <sarcasm>

    • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:57AM (5 children)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:57AM (#790020)

      and even escape character \ does not help, but does some interesting things to the rest of the page (strike through everything else)... nb Plain Old Text is selected so I didn't expect any html. Browsing in firefox.

      Glad I code in C/C++ not html...

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:26AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:26AM (#790028)


        Filter error: Missing Comment.

      • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:09PM (2 children)

        by isostatic (365) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:09PM (#790037) Journal

        You've really screwed it now!

        http://imgur.com/325gTwNl.png [imgur.com]

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @03:51PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @03:51PM (#790102)

          You've really screwed it now!

          Does the strikethrough mean he hasn't screwed it now?

          And if this is struck through does that mean he hadn't but now he had?

          And I'm having visions of all these poor cats trapped in boxes all labeled Schrodinger. Help!!! I'm stuck in a paradox factory!

          (and yah.... I added the strikethrough in the quotes for persistence.... Sorry if that riled up whoever fixes this bug....)

          If

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday January 23 2019, @04:08AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday January 23 2019, @04:08AM (#790453) Journal
          I'm not the only one using emasculating pink!
      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:18PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:18PM (#790041)

        html is not a programming language, and that's actually the problem.
        had people decided to use TeX (which is a proper programming language), things would make sense.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:16PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:16PM (#790054)

      What did you do!!!!! You just screwed up all of SN!! :D

      • (Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:32PM (1 child)

        by driverless (4770) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:32PM (#790061)

        ZOMG! It's true! I just tried posting a standard reply and look what happened to my text!

        • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday January 22 2019, @06:27PM

          by nitehawk214 (1304) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @06:27PM (#790186)

          How did you post a completely blank comment?

          --
          "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:11PM (1 child)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:11PM (#790141) Homepage Journal

      My bad. Apparently <s> didn't make it into the tags balancing sub when it was getting put into the approved_tags field in the db. Manually escaped as &lt;s&gt; and disabled the tag for the moment.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:41PM

        by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:41PM (#790157)

        Sorry for breaking it. Thanks for digging...

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:18AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:18AM (#790026)

    No, no, no, no... they worked hard for those money, 8.3billions/26 times harder than any of those 8.3billions slackers just waiting for welfare

  • (Score: 4, Touché) by isostatic on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:01PM (15 children)

    by isostatic (365) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:01PM (#790035) Journal

    8 of them inheritted it

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by PiMuNu on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:33PM (13 children)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @12:33PM (#790044)

      Wish for 100 % inheritance tax. Even the economic liberals have to realise that this is a good idea.

      • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:40PM (9 children)

        by isostatic (365) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:40PM (#790066) Journal

        I'm a big fan of 100% inheritence tax. I'd put some nominal threshold of say $10k to allow sentimental objects to be passed, but I'm not

        The trouble is, there are easy schemes to bypass inheritence tax for those passing enough on to be concerned about it.

        As such I'd like to see taxes almost exclusively leveled on
        Things granted monopolies by governments -- land, copyright, patents
        Things with externalities - pollution, garbage, heroin, etc

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @02:04PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @02:04PM (#790068)

          Let's just confiscate all $7.6 + 1.4 trillion, which the US government alone can squander in about 2 years. Problem solved.

        • (Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday January 22 2019, @02:14PM

          by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 22 2019, @02:14PM (#790069)

          The trouble is, there are easy schemes

          Exactly... the problem seems to be simple inheritance like we have now would seem to be the least destructive solution to society.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:45PM (4 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 22 2019, @05:45PM (#790160) Journal
          I'm a big fan of apathy.

          But if we need to take money from the undeserving, then I am the obvious destination for that money. First, as I've noted before, I power trip responsibly. Other people just don't understand the nuances and obligation of it and just will be an embarrassment to you, the ruling elite. Second, when you need to take away the money again, what is more politically feasible? Taking it away from a population of thankless moocher brats who vote? Or take it away from me who will have carefully built up good, solid negative popularity polling numbers to efficiently expedite the process democratically and who only has one vote. You will, of course, down the road have to give it back to me else you would be taking from someone more popular. That would be work otherwise and the whole point of being an elite is that you don't sully your hands with that. Because I am the most undeserving of all, I am the logical choice for storing money between taxation voyages.

          Third, to continue the use of nautical terms, I spend like a drunk sailor. Good for GDP numbers. Your economic figures will always look rosy!

          I assure you the two minute hates will be rocking affairs; my rates for appearing in propaganda films and concerts are quite reasonable; and you'll be able to get it up with your mistress as you brag about how you once again foiled that dastardly khallow!
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @06:17PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @06:17PM (#790181)

            Third, to continue the use of nautical terms, I spend like a drunk sailor. Good for GDP numbers. Your economic figures will always look rosy!

            Spending money you don't have is now called "Net Spending Achievement": http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2014/01/diagrams-dollars-modern-money-illustrated-part-2.html [neweconomicperspectives.org]

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @07:12PM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @07:12PM (#790221)

            Your brain has begun the long slow fracturing process, once you devolve into the Fuck MDC level of AC posting you will know you're 90% towards rehabilitation. At that point just let go of your anger, admit you were wrong about so many things, and be reborn!

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:52AM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:52AM (#790487) Journal

            I'm a big fan of apathy.

            No, khallow, we all know you. You are a big fan of sucking up to rich people. You think they deserve their ill-gotten gains. And you wish that they may share some with you. You are a mercenary, khallow, a whore, a carpet-bagger of capitalism. You are a parasite on the working class, a syncophant of the richies, a non-productive member of society. You are an ideologue, a shill, a fifth columnist. You argue in bad faith, you bathe in bad faith, you breathe bad faith. So go suck up to rich people where there actually are some? I mean, TMB is "comfortable", which means first and last months rent, if it came down to that. And NCommander? No rent for him, living out of backpack, like all good Soylentils should be. Wealth is not what you think it is.

        • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:30PM

          by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:30PM (#790301)

          I'm a big fan of 100% inheritence tax.

          Me too, but the people who make the laws tend to also benefit from the lack of "death duties" so the chances of getting them back are zero.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:00AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @06:00AM (#790477)

          even 10 million should be ok. but billions, thats a whole different beast.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Sulla on Tuesday January 22 2019, @07:46PM (2 children)

        by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @07:46PM (#790252) Journal

        What is my incentive to take care of my own home then? Right now I have been working on restoring the home that my grandparents bought in the 50s so that when I'm dead in the 50s my kids or grandkids will have an asset in good condition. If we lose everything, what incentive is there to maintain anything?

        --
        Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
        • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday January 23 2019, @07:43AM (1 child)

          by isostatic (365) on Wednesday January 23 2019, @07:43AM (#790509) Journal

          I fix a leaky roof because I actually like to live in the house and don’t want to get wet. Horses for courses I guess.

          • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:57PM

            by Sulla (5173) on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:57PM (#790643) Journal

            Right, but why do any more than the bare minimum. Most problem with a house can be ignored for another two decades, especially if you do patchwork. Why spend 10-15k replacing the whole bad roof when some flex seal and some tyvekwill last a decade. You will have the boomers who continue to do things for asthetics, but i imagine they only keep up appearances because they think it makes their house more valuable. Sure as hell wouldn't plant a shade tree if i might be dead before it grows.

            --
            Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by Nuke on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:31PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @01:31PM (#790060)

      They worked hard inheriting it. You've no idea how much work is involved in filling in those probate forms.