[ExI] dead weight

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of John Clark



The richest 8 people in the world have more wealth than the entire poorest half of the entire human race, that's 3.8 billion people. Think of it, 8 people versus 3.8 BILLION. …John K Clark

 

 

John I have heard that statistic before but I don’t believe it.  Wealth isn’t just currency or gold or any arbitrary measure of wealth.  Imagine if the 8 richest people pooled their funds and tried to buy the land occupied by the 3.8 billion poorest people.  What fraction of that land could they buy?  Not much.

 

If 8 people have more gold than 3.8 billion poor, that isn’t a problem.  If the big 8 own more silver, that isn’t a problem.

 

If 8 people own more land than 3.8 billion, that too is arbitrary for most people own no land, yet all living people live somewhere.  Shrugs.  I see no evidence of instability from it.

 

This is not to say we don’t have real problems, for we do.  I don’t know what happens when we get hordes of people living in tents along freeways with nowhere to go.  We can easily imagine them becoming increasingly hostile to ordinary people.  They are not hostile against the 8 people with all that money (for they don’t even know who or where they are (do you?)) but rather the very poor become hostile against those ordinary people who are right there on the other side of that freeway wall, who own a house with a mortgage and a car in the driveway.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

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