"Calls to abolish billionaires, or at least curb their growth, have gained traction across many capitals in the West, where extreme wealth has risen to unprecedented levels. Elon Musk's pay award of a potential $1 trillion in November will make the Tesla owner not just the richest person in the world, which he already is. If Musk gets the full pay package, he will become the richest person in history."
"Currently, about 831 million people live at or below the level of extreme poverty across the globe. According to the World Bank, that's $3 per day when adjusted for currency and cost of living. In fact, if every billionaire were left with only a billion dollars to their name, the rest of their seized wealth would be enough to cover the amount UN experts believe is needed to end world extreme poverty for the next 196 years."
"According to some analysts and economists, the wealth owned by billionaires can skew the world's politics, media, and even the way we think, to reflect the interests of the super-rich. Others argue that this epic wealth benefits the global economy by ensuring that the world's innovators and creators have the funds they need to spearhead new technology and innovation. So, what if we got rid of the world's billionaires and redistributed their wealth, or capped people's earnings below a billion dollars?"
Extreme wealth concentration has intensified, prompting calls in Western capitals to abolish or curb billionaires. A single potential pay award could make one individual the richest in history while global billionaire wealth totals around $16.1 trillion among roughly 3,028 people. Approximately 831 million people live in extreme poverty at about $3 per day. Redirecting excess billionaire wealth to one billion each could, by some estimates, fund the end of extreme poverty for nearly two centuries. Analysts warn billionaire wealth can skew politics, media, and public thought, while others claim such wealth funds innovation and technological progress. Questions remain about institutional, social, and economic consequences of abolition or caps.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]