Billionaires

[clatoden99]

What would happen if the world's richest men donated $1 million to every inhabitant on earth?

[bjl584]

Probably not what you think.

I'd estimate that about 85% of the population that received the money would be broke within a year or two.

[disneysteve]

Probably not what you think.

I'd estimate that about 85% of the population that received the money would be broke within a year or two.

Agreed. If you took all of the world's wealth and evenly distributed it amongst the population, within a short time, the situation would be pretty much back to where it is today. The rich would be rich and the poor would be poor.

You can't fix poverty by throwing money at people.

[Singuy]

I would predict the following

1. Massive increase in pollution since more material goods would need to be fabricated.

2. Massive increase in inflation

3. The rich people who distributed the wealth will have it back again since they are the ones who own Samsung/sony/apple/gm, etc etc..and since massive amount of people are buying their stuff..business would BOOM and money will redistribute back.

4. More small business would pop up due to increase demand for EVERYTHING..and also now with a mil, you can either spend it or invest it.

5. High demand for all sorts of jobs(but no one is willing to work because they all have a mil..but due to inflation I think they need to because a mil is nothing when a car cost 10 mil.

5. Like Steve said, give it 30 years and things will be back to square one.

[disneysteve]

One big problem would be a flood of immigrants into the developed countries. Think about it. If you give some guy in a small village in Africa $1 million, what good is it to him? There's no infrastructure there. There's no WalMart or Target for him to go buy things. If he wants to use that money to better his life, he needs to go to the US or Europe or Great Britain or somewhere where that money will actually fund a better life for him.

[ua_guy]

I agree with the others. In the game, "Monopoly", everyone starts out with the same amount of money, which is kind of like giving everyone $1 Million. We all know how the game ends--one person eventually ends up with all the money and property.

[disneysteve]

I agree with the others. In the game, "Monopoly", everyone starts out with the same amount of money, which is kind of like giving everyone $1 Million. We all know how the game ends--one person eventually ends up with all the money and property.

That's a great analogy.

[rennigade]

If anyone would have done simple math this thread would have stopped after the 2nd post.

Lets see...7 billion people...in early 2015 there were 1,826 billionaires worth 7 trillion USD.

7,000,000,000 people
x $1,000,000 USD

= 7,000,000,000,000,000 ... this is the amount needed to give everyone approx $1million.

The bold number is the single billions. I can only shake my head at this point.

All of the billionaires could give everyone on earth approx $10. The current 1,826 would have to have a combined worth in the Quintillions. So Million, Billion, Trillion, Quadrillion, then Quintillion.

Ive seen this question pop up from time to time and people still think that everyone can receive $1million if all the billionaires handed out money.

[Fishindude77]

You can't help the poor by giving them money. They don't want money and quickly prove that every time they get hold of some, by promptly disposing of it with nothing further to show.

[ua_guy]

You can't help the poor by giving them money. They don't want money and quickly prove that every time they get hold of some, by promptly disposing of it with nothing further to show.

Are you speaking for all poor people? Just curious. Because I definitely know some that would do productive/fruitful things with free money.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

You can't help the poor by giving them money. They don't want money and quickly prove that every time they get hold of some, by promptly disposing of it with nothing further to show.

When I was a poor person given some money, I used it to go to college, and buy books for class. As a poor student I was then eligible for student study work at minimum wage with the advantage that social security tax was not paid on the earnings (but neither were SS credits accumulated). With those earnings I could buy food, bus fare, and very occasionally have enough change to use the library xerox machines, though mostly I had to just spend many hours in the library to read then non-checkable items there.

Thank you, US citizens and Senator Clairborne Pell for whom the earliest public but non-military college college tuition assistance programs were named. Lots of poor students have benefited and gone on to all kinds of careers.

[Singuy]

Probably the same DOPES feeling the Bern

Guess I'm one of those dopes. I support Bernie and yes my household income exceed way more than 250k/year. Voting against my self interest? Most likely.

But name me another candidate who is willing to take money out of politics by repealing citizen united.

An extra 4% tax (over 250k) will not kill me because I don't have a millionaire lifestyle (since it will cost me like 1200 bucks) and if I do want one, I'll pay for it in cash. But a bump for the lower middle class(no matter how insignificant) will be good for my wife's business(more customers due to more money on their end).

I'm all for single payer healthcare system(with the private sector on the side for those fancy folks who cries about waiting in line). Do you know how much money is wasted in healthcare right now? Did you know that people who drives their little Humana Vans "selling" people free Medicaid and Medicare makes over 200k/year? Why would large insurance companies give these people such incentives for poor Medicaid pts?

A lot of our tax dollars are funding people's jet fuels and that BS needs to stop. We pay more for healthcare in our federal budget than our expensive military. Do you know where all that healthcare money went? Perhaps with some healthcare savings, we can actually give some to education and the space program.

I don't and never will believe in trickle down economics. If the government gives my wife a huge tax break..we will hire exactly 0 additional people because we don't need it. I am not a fan of paying people just to watch them sit around. I'll however, go out and buy myself an nice Aston Martin thanks to that bonus Jobs are created at the consumer end, not on the business end. We scale according to customer load, not from fancy tax breaks.

[bjl584]

Are you speaking for all poor people? Just curious. Because I definitely know some that would do productive/fruitful things with free money.

I'm sure that some would, but most probably would not.

Without any sort of financial education or responsibility to back up that free money, the money will most likely be squandered away in short order.

I know several people that are perpetually poor and behind on bills not because they don't have enough money, but because they don't manage the money that they do have coming in.

If you take someone that is in extreme poverty and hand them a large sum of money, what are the statistical chances that they will do something productive with it? They most likely have never had money, have no idea how to budget, how to save, how to invest, where to even start to look into getting an education or a better house. I'm sure that there is that one in a thousand person that would better themselves, but the other 999 won't. We should help the poor, but I would argue that simply throwing money at them isn't really helping. It might actually make things worse. Without some form of education and coaching to go along with the money, we're just wasting our time in an attempt to make ourselves feel better that we are doing something to help the poor.

[Singuy]

I'm sure that some would, but most probably would not.

Without any sort of financial education or responsibility to back up that free money, the money will most likely be squandered away in short order.

I know several people that are perpetually poor and behind on bills not because they don't have enough money, but because they don't manage the money that they do have coming in.

If you take someone that is in extreme poverty and hand them a large sum of money, what are the statistical chances that they will do something productive with it? They most likely have never had money, have no idea how to budget, how to save, how to invest, where to even start to look into getting an education or a better house. I'm sure that there is that one in a thousand person that would better themselves, but the other 999 won't. We should help the poor, but I would argue that simply throwing money at them isn't really helping. It might actually make things worse. Without some form of education and coaching to go along with the money, we're just wasting our time in an attempt to make ourselves feel better that we are doing something to help the poor.

Poor people in the U.S will most likely stay poor. I'm sorry but this is a cultural thing. If 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and 62% of Americans have less than 1k in their savings, then it's a cultural thing. Maybe people here are just bad at math or the word "interest" shuts their mind down? Maybe people here are just learning from their peers/parents and it's expected to spend every dime they make? I am not talking about lowly educated people, I'm talking about people of all income levels. Look around on a college campus and most of the students have no idea how much their total debt is and what their interest rates are.

You give a mil to a poor Asian and they will be set for life. Rarely you see a Chinese bad with money(unless they are white washed...see I'm telling you it's a cultural thing). Guess how many debt consolidation commercials I have seen or heard while in China for 3 months? Exactly 0. Not even sure if these agencies even exist.

Like I said, poor people=good for business so whatever, they can stay poor..as long as they are consumers. Perhaps this is what drives the capitalistic machine of the U.S. Brainwashing millions to spend every dime they make so business can boom.

[ua_guy]

BJ and Singuy - absolutely. Good management is the key to long-term success with any amount of wealth.

I was just catching a very negative vibe from FishinDude's post--it's very reminiscent of conservative pop culture, ideologies that I do not disagree with, strategies that I see causing more issues than helping solve what Singuy described as having a cultural component, except it really has nothing to do with any particular race/ethnicity or nationality. It's a culture of hopelessness. It has to be, because we see all kinds of people who could be described as "monetarily poor" but thrive in, and embrace lifestyles with few resources, but these aren't the people we're talking about. We're talking about the people who have given up.