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Recursion

(56,582 posts)
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 08:38 AM Jul 2020

Suppose you could push a button

And if you pushed this button, half of the people in the world living on less than $2/day cross over that threshold and live on more than $2/day. And half of the people who don't have toilets get toilets. But. The 100 richest people in the world would see their wealth double.

Do you push that button?

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JI7

(89,182 posts)
1. How much more than 2 dollars a day would they get ? It depends on whether their standard of living
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 08:40 AM
Jul 2020

would change for the better .

JI7

(89,182 posts)
8. I guess this has already happened in places and yes it is better compared to how things were before
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 09:10 AM
Jul 2020

so yes .

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
13. Good question. The life of Innocent Masengo's grandfather,
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 09:46 AM
Jul 2020

as described by his grandson posting on line to Quora from his urban home in Kampala Uganda, is illuminating. Mr. Masengo is "Lecturer Language and Communication at Makerere University" while his grandfather, who was 95 and lived on less than $1/day when he wrote this a couple years ago,...well, read it. It's very enjoyable and rather lovely. What IS poverty?

https://www.quora.com/What-is-something-most-people-dont-know-about-Africa

So is just finding out while getting this link that his grandparents were still alive earlier this year. He was able to visit when Uganda's nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was eased.

grumpyduck

(6,199 posts)
2. I would start an online petition
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 08:47 AM
Jul 2020

claiming that whoever is behind that button is a racist and insist that they change the code.

Didn't work with Trader Joe's either.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)
4. IDK.
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 08:57 AM
Jul 2020

What if rich people getting richer is an inevitable consequence of reducing poverty? It's not a crazy idea.

WhiskeyGrinder

(22,147 posts)
6. One of those things is going to happen a lot sooner than the other on the timeline we're currently
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 09:04 AM
Jul 2020

on, so I push the button.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)
7. What if they're related?
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 09:07 AM
Jul 2020

It's not a crazy idea. What if reducing poverty as a consequence makes rich people richer?

MoonlitKnight

(1,584 posts)
11. Well we have seen the opposite fail
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 09:28 AM
Jul 2020

Making the rich richer does not trickle down and help the poor.

So let’s try to focus on lifting those at the bottom and we likely see everyone else get a boost. Was that not the result of the New Deal? And when FDR tried to scale it back we saw a recession.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)
14. But we have seen this exact hypothetical
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 09:51 AM
Jul 2020

Over the past 25 years, global poverty has been reduced in absolutely astounding terms. At the same time, the richest people on earth have gotten much much richer.

What if "trickle up" actually works? What if a consequence of reducing poverty is that rich people get richer?

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
12. I'd consult experts for severe negative consequences
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 09:31 AM
Jul 2020

before pushing the button. What we consider poverty is an inextricable part of many fine and healthy cultures.

But, sure, on its cluelessly simple face, no one dies much less many millions, etc., no prob. The 100 richest people in the world already saw their wealth more than quadruple (probably more times than just quadruple for them), but the enormous planet-wide technology-driven growth of the wealth that they couldn't gather all to themselves has pushed the PLANETARY expected life span into the UPPER 70s, caused the numbers of those living in severe poverty to plummet to @1%, and increased wellbeing for several billion.

Wow. Of course Covid is reversing that course, not completely of course, but tragically.

Speaking of first doing no harm when WE vote...

Laelth

(32,017 posts)
15. Sure. I'd push it.
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 10:03 AM
Jul 2020

Why not? And I assume the implied correlation. The rich people would be richer if poor people had more money to spend.

-Laelth

grumpyduck

(6,199 posts)
16. I'm okay with the idea of a correlation,
Fri Jul 31, 2020, 12:48 PM
Jul 2020

but pushing the button does not allow for a correlation to happen or develop naturally. Those gazillionaires wouldn't have to do a damn thing to get all that extra money.

So I would not push it.

JI7

(89,182 posts)
17. But how about lifting people out of poverty ? That would be a huge positive change
Mon Aug 3, 2020, 04:05 AM
Aug 2020

in people's lives.

grumpyduck

(6,199 posts)
18. If pushing the button would make
Mon Aug 3, 2020, 12:31 PM
Aug 2020

those gazillionaires give half their money to lift people out of poverty, then I'd push it in a heartbeat.

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