(January 21, 2015 at 1:14 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote:(January 21, 2015 at 1:01 pm)Heywood Wrote: I'd like to have Bill Gate's house and all his stuff. I sure you would too. I'm sure a whole lot of people would. Suppose we kill off Bill Gates and take his stuff. By the time everything is divided up among the 300 million other Americans, you might end up with a square of toilet paper.
You seem to be changing the subject. But if you divide 77 billion by 300 million, it's over $250 apiece. It won't make anyone rich or change their lives much, but it's far more than a square of toilet paper.
And you wouldn't be dividing it by 300 million. I wouldn't even give any of it to Americans, personally, but if I were, I would give it to the bottom .01% (about 300,000 people), and that's about a quarter of a million each, life-changing and life-securing money. Enough to ensure good health care, good education, and a secure retirement.
I wouldn't do Bill Gates like that, but let's stop pretending the wealth of the richest man in the world is insignificant in the larger scheme of things. One man could lift 300,000 Americans from the depths of poverty (by American standards) to the middle class, and almost guarantee the same for their children, in the form of a trust fund for their healthcare, education, home purchase subsidy, and retirement, maybe even a minimum income. A quarter million would change my life, and I'm already middle class (though I've been in the bottom .01%).
Me changing the subject?
I thought we were talking about dividing up the resources Bill Gates uses....not his money. You asked, "So you're saying most of the resources at their disposal are of no practical use to them, while millions starve for want of them?".
Bill Gates doesn't have Wharehouses full of stuff that he can buy. The only resources that are exclusively at his disposal are the ones he already owns.....like his house and toilet paper. Those other resources....well they are at the disposal of everyone else too. They are already in the market....making people other than Bill Gates better off.
If you took Bill Gates money and divided it up, people would just bid up the prices of things already in the market that Bill Gates wasn't using anyways.
