General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Agree or disagree? [View all]ProfessorGAC
(64,850 posts)First, there are many billionaires doing important monetary thing to help the less fortunate. If they weren't billionaires, they would have to help less.
Second, the slogan is hyperbolic nonsense. Musk is worth $150-180 billion, depending upon whose estimate we go with.
If 20% of people are in food distress, or homeless (both) that's 65-70 million people.
If Musk gave 100%, at assumed face value, it would be $2,500 (at most) for every single person.
That doesn't solve hunger or homelessness.
If all used toward hunger, it would last 18-24 months and we'd be back to baseline. (Bad). And, solves homelessness, not at all.
Flip it, and it provides (depending on location) 3-8 months of housing. But, no food.
Combine the two and we address homelessness for 4 months & hunger for less than a year. That's not a solution. It's a band aid.
The solution should be taxes on gains, realized or not. This has the benefit of increased governmental revenues, a stimulus to the markets, and an increase in the velocity of money.
I disagree that the only solution is to ban wealth. That strikes me as needlessly screechy anticapitalist rhetoric, and facilitates no long term solutions.