Topic: Some are hungry, some are losing their homes - some are doubling their wealth (Read 665 times)

Thank you all for participating in the discussion. Of course, we do not all have the same opinions, which is completely normal, but I believe that every normal person sees the disproportion of the distribution of wealth and that 90% of the world's population suffers direct consequences because of it. Politicians and global corporations perceive people as a necessary evil and work to make them dependent on systems over which they have complete control. That will be hard to change, because humans have become a bit like robots doing what they are programmed to do.

However, for a start we have Bitcoin which allows us to be somewhat financially independent not only in transactions, but also to protect our values. It’s a good starting point to start changing the world, from choosing honest politicians to saying no to companies that exploit people and promote modern slavery around the world.

This is why there should be going up taxes, the companies should be a part of it as well. If you have over certain amount of profit, you should be paying insane amount of taxes, you should be paying most of it back, FDR had as much as 90% and he really wanted to do 100% over a billion but couldn't.

So, I would say that if a company makes over a billion dollars in profit, I would say tax them over 70% new tax for every dollar they make over a billion dollars, keep all the taxes they are already paying, but a new tax for anything over a billion dollars, that could go towards helping people who are working but not making enough money. Or simply just get their whole revenue and tax that, facebook has Ireland as their main place of taxing because it is so low, I would say check their worldwide revenue and tax according to that.

We are living in a world where money manipulates mostly everything. The more money you have, the more impacts you have on the economy as well as politics. You can easily control the money flow on a market without any problem. And in this case, rich people will become richer and poor people can never escape the poverty circle

However, we cant not consider them as a god or some sort of that. We cant pray that one day they will share all of their money to every single man on the Earth. They don't have the responsibility to do that. Its how the world works and how many possibilities that the free market has given to us.

People are being too dependent on money. I don't judge anyone by claiming this sentence. The world is creating people, shaping us with a standard stereotype. And only a few people realize the fact that they are being manipulated since they were a child. And even if they know the truth behind everything, nothing can guarantee that they cant be standardized by their govs. It's about the mindset, our perspective of the world, and our education. Socialism was tested on the CCCP many years ago and it is still a fantasy dream to everyone.

Just live a life you want, don't try to become anyone. Be yourself, follow your dream and you will see that no one can controlled you

Governments are here for helping the rich individuals because they are bringing more revenue to the government and the life of this world is so unfair so if someone wants to become rich then they have to outsmart the existing people which is not really too hard to be honest.Most of the billionaires had the capital to invest money on something and made their company into one of the world's bigger but the system keep the people to not to have much money on their hands to do such things.

I try to wrap around my head with that concept but I do not think that we should be blaming these people when they go up. I know that I sound like an ass saying these but what we lack is oppurtunity and I do not think it is unfair that only few rise to the top, our society encourages competition so they did nothing wrong in my opinion, maybe their abuse to their workers are one thing but that is for another story. The reality might be harsh but we can do something about it, we do not want other people tearing down other people but when it is billionaires, it is justified? Another problem is there are so many who are not content with what they have, maybe it is a good thing but when it becomes an obsession then there is something wrong.

Remember that there is no healthy obsession.

This is the sad truth or harsh reality you can say. Every stock market crash brings in new billionaires or millionaires and on the other hand bring worries to the poor. Mukesh Ambani of my country has climbed up to position of 4th richest man from around 10th richest in this Coronavirus time itself. And he might just have donated a few million dollars into the government fund to fight his share of Covid. This is the sad reality these billionaires don't care about thr normal people. India has a lot of people who became rich in 2008 market crash some even made a fortune in local market crashes on 1991. Every crash makes a lot of billionaires.

Luck can be reversed mate and nothing is permanent in this world remember that.

So these richer people are really having good time now but we don't know what will happen in future.

while those people that you called miserable may find luck in their next years who may know?
I once become a desperate person also when i loss my Job in 2016 and has nothing to turn too,but in the next year i find much better job and until now i am enjoying it.

That's really how life is, there are some lucky people are even more richer, and many who are poor are even more miserable because of our current situation. We can't do anything because they are already on the top and they already reach the highest level that is impossible to turn them down. I just hope they learn to share the blessings they receive with the poor specially nowadays many are hungry and have lost their livelihood.

That's life bro and most of the people are just grabbing the opportunity that comes to them that's why they are already rich right now.

Life is so unfair and we need to deal with that because we have nothing to do but to deal with it and work hard as we can so that we can escape from poverty.

Those billionaires are really unfair although some of them already donated from the charities and poor people. Hopefully, people would understand that we should not rely on other people and the government. Being independent is really what we need, so that we can sustain our necessities and prevent losing our homes and wealth. But we have nothing to do to fight poverty during this pandemic as the rate of loss of job increases.

That's the self-made man fallacy. All these people didn't make themselves from nothing. For starters they have educated parents, some of them wealthy, that means they could all go to good universities. In the US universities are expensive, why ? There is no good reason for this.

I'm not saying they have no merit, and don't deserve to be rich. Nobody is talking about "distributing wealth evenly", that doesn't even make sense. We're talking about more redistribution, in the form of cheap/free healthcare and education, for example.

Helper always need Help mate and that is the Fact,not because they are tend to help others meaning they don't even need assistance as a matter of fact they are the less laid employee and always looking for a chance to grow up.
and now that the pandemic is here?they are the one who has been kicked out of Job and need a mutual support from government and other community.
Sorry but this is much brutal,Death is not just like something that we can wish on,because even how bad these people are?they have deserve a second chance.

SOmetimes it is also our mistake why these kind of people taking advantage of us because we are letting them to do that.

This is a great lesson that the Pandemic has thought the whole earth that sometime the helper might need help.

Truth be told, sometimes our inimical behavior toward the rich few is a little bit misplaced. In this system where the rich becomes richer and the poor poorer, both the rich and the poor may be considered victims of circumstance.

How are we to define greedy? If by greedy we mean that the rich's wealth is increasing in the direst of times, that can't be helped. If by greedy we mean that the rich are eating to their stomach's fullness while the rest are going hungry, billions and billions are actually being shelled out from their pockets for charities.

The issue is much much deeper than how it seems.

In order for someone to win, others must lose, and whatever the crisis and economic situation, there are always those who get the most out of that situation, because not everyone can be a loser.
Whether it’s power, ability, quick adjustment, skill, or a set of all that the average person isn’t able to have or isn’t in a position to make that breakthrough.
The system is like that, and an ordinary person lives in a different reality and always those at the top are a few steps ahead.

That's the only real problem I see with the "gig economy" and a major reason why the US needs to get its shit together regarding healthcare. Employers should not be in the "benefits" business. It hurts the competitiveness of small businesses far more than Amazon et al.

Perhaps payroll tax needs to be cleaned up too. The half-half arrangement between employer and employee doesn't make sense, it's still coming out of the same bucket.

With a proper healthcare system and no tax difference between "employees" and "contractors" it wouldn't matter if it's a gig or not. Unfortunately right now legislative efforts seem to be going the other direction - trying to make all gig workers into employees. I don't think that's going to work. It's not working in many other part-time situations where the employer simply won't schedule more than 30 hours a week to avoid making the employee full-time, and the employee ends up working two jobs to make ends meet, still without benefits, all perfectly legal. Such nonsense.

This is the sad reality which is really happening globally and its just really a shame for them to ask out some help even though they do know that they can handle it out without the need of help from others.

This really just proves out that they dont have sympathy nor do care into its employees in hard times like this.It really sucks when they didnt even making some action just to provide some help,
not on permanent basis but at least they do show of some consideration.

True role model wont really tend to shout out on what he had done but rather the people who have been helped will surely do the buzz.

Yes right, this recession has actually been going on since several years ago. but it peaked especially because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether this is true or just a global conspiracy. but in fact this has had a very bad impact, especially on the economy, at least in my country.

Seeing how their wealth has increased is sometimes sad especially when we also see how the majority of the population has to struggle every day just to get a bite of rice to eat with their families. 'It's true, this recession, this pandemic is making the poor even poorer. Many small businesses have gone bankrupt and are no longer operating. Unemployed workers. And also the increasingly rampant social inequality.
This may sound unfair. but this is the fact and maybe this will always happen, it will never stop.

While there are "role models" like those people, but there are also those who have made effort in helping the country financially to combat the pandemic who is considered as the REAL role model.
In my country we have Ramon Ang the CEO of Top Frontier Investment Holdings the largest share holder of San Miguel Corp. made almost $200m donation to help the country in eliminating the virus.
  https://business.inquirer.net/295084/smc-donation-for-covid-19-efforts-nears-p1-billion-help-extends-to-iloilo-leyte/amp

It's such a shame when a rich person is asking for donations to aid his own employees, when he himself can handle the expenses. Business still business amidst pandemic.

There are certainly those who want noncommittal, temporary, easy work or just a little something extra on the side (the burger flippers).

However, the size and growth of the gig economy suggests something else is happening. In the past 10 years, the share of gig workers at US businesses has risen by at least 15% (that actually only captures 1099-MISC workers). Half of that growth is from a shift from full-time employment to gig work. Companies do it because they can save so much on payroll taxes and employee benefits, and all projections I've seen show this is only going to continue.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/gig-economy-grows-15percent-over-past-decade-adp-report.html
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1034564/gig-economy-projected-gross-volume/

That tells me it's not so much that an increasing proportion of the labor force wants to be burger flippers, but that there is less and less available full-time employment, so they are forced to take what is offered. It's businesses who are transitioning away from full-time employment. And they can because labor unionization is at one of its weakest points in recent history. When Lyft's PR spokesman says "drivers do not want to be employees, full stop," I don't believe that for a second. Lyft's biggest interest is in getting drivers as close to minimum wage as possible without paying out any payroll taxes or employee benefits. It's not drivers who want that, of course, but shareholders.

When you look at the insane growth of companies like Amazon and Uber, who pay most of their workers as gig workers, you have to think, that growth has to come from somewhere. It's eating into the market share of companies who follow the traditional employment model, which in turn forces more and more companies to cut labor costs themselves just to compete. It's a vicious cycle and the biggest losers are workers, who have little to no bargaining power in the current situation.

Maybe I'm reading too much into the trend, but the whole thing seems tragic to me. On the scale of decades, this seems like a path towards extreme inequality and also a potential health care crisis as workers increasingly go without health insurance.

Because the thing is, if you "donate" money to poor people you are just temporarily fixing a trouble that is really not fixing, you are just helping with the consequences of the problem itself whereas you should be fixing the trouble itself. Look at Bill Gates, he could have donated 30 billion dollars to Africa and the whole continent would be better for few years yet end up horrible eventually once again when the money dries up.

Instead of that what did he do? He simply CURED a disease there, which is 10x better than just donating money, tons of people are all alive thanks to him. That is what should be done, all those super rich wealthy people and families should not just donate 1% of their money and claim a high moral throne they do not deserve, they have to instead build an infrastructure to help the world to be a better place instead.

Well, they can go work for UPS and get to drive a unionized $30-per-hour delivery truck with benefits in about 25 years from now. They could also participate in the social experiment called "election" and make laws requiring high pay and all that other stuff and see if that improves their lives or results in unemployment.

Gig workers are modern day burger flippers. It's quite bizarre how we've come to expect a lot of dollars and benefits from that.

Amazon uses gig workers and contractors for a big part of its business, deliveries in particular. So there is no fixed salary, no fixed hours, no benefits, no healthcare, no nothing, just some dollars here and there with no regularity. Of course that's only in the countries that actually allow this to happen.

I think many rich people had to have sociopathic tendencies to get as far as they got and I don't really expect that we can shame them into sharing their wealth. And some sort of government tax or regulation that would make rich people or big corporations less rich or big might have unintended consequences for their employees and/or smaller businesses. Not saying that a better balance is not possible, just probably not as simple as pleading to billionaires or taxing them more.


Working in an air-conditioned warehouse for $14 an hour would have been my dream job back in the day when I was breaking concrete with a sledgehammer and paid under the table. I think we have shifted our expectations way too far. Those are not middle class 4-bedroom-house-and-a-picket-fence jobs and it's not Amazon's obligation to create middle class jobs (although they do have quite a few of those... if you got a Masters in CS and know what you're doing). Those are jobs for high-school graduates, sufficient for young single people to stand on their own feet and pay for community college.

I see that there are a lot of good answers, I don't think it makes too much sense to answer each one individually, so I will try to comment on some of your opinions.

BIT-BENDER, the rich get rich, and the poor get poorer - so it has always been, and people seem to have gotten used to it - but if we consider that the exact figure is that 90% of the world’s wealth is controlled by only 10% of the world’s people, then everyone should ask how is it possible that 90% of people are happy with the remaining 10%?

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suchmoon, i believe all these rich people have huge amounts of cash that is hidden somewhere in secret accounts, I don't believe they would be so stupid as to rely only on stocks. Still, I wouldn't agree that $1000 wouldn't help those who are literally hungry, but it's also completely unrealistic to expect the rich to change the world for the better - even all those charities they organize serve more to calm their consciences and turn out positive in society. If these people were a little more aware of what was going on in the world, they could do great things - one child can be fed some $20 (one meal a day) all year round in some third world countries. They all have millions of followers on social media, people look at some role models in them, and honestly I would never like to be in their shoes and with what they have in their brains.

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The Pharmacist, There are few small people who really profit from Amazon, all the cream is grabbed by big fish at the expense of those 800 000 employees who are actually exploited to the extreme because they have no other choice. But I agree that it's not just Bezos and his ilk who are to blame for this, the system allows them to do exactly what they do - and I can't call it anything other than modern slavery whether someone liked it or not.

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odolvlobo&Darker45, I would say that politicians have a lot to do with these rich people because no one can succeed to such an extent without filling the pockets of the politicians, and in return they pass laws that favor big fish. This whole vertical is actually to the detriment of a little man who is doomed to be at the bottom and live in the illusion of some kind of democracy (elections every 4 or 5 years).

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pixie85, it may sound weird, but I've never bought anything over Amazon - luckily I have good alternatives and I'm always looking for a way to pay with BTC if possible. Trust me I know a lot more people who have little and are much happier than some rich people, money can buy almost anything, but some things still don’t.

It's easy to share money that exceed the wildest dreams of the majority of the population. We usually want this or that and these things keep growing in value once we achieve a certain level. A sturent wants a new computer, a grown up man will want a computer room, a millionaire will want a room full of employees so that he won't have to use a computer anymore. Once you have it all and more, all the yahts, apartments, houses and cars, you're free to play the good guy and donate. Donating doesn't make Bezos a good guy. It's just his way to feel better about all the money that he's gathering.

That is the sad reality of life that poor people becomes poorer and the rich people become richer because of the social classifications that are dividing the society depending on the capacity and wealth that each and every individual have. At this time of pandemic brought by covid-19, we have seen that not just in America but in all parts of the world, the effect of this crisis have directly beaten up those people that belongs to the lower class of the society for they become jobless because of the implementing health protocols that makes temporary closure of work places and no one is allowed to go outside because of the quarantine. The situation makes it so hard for those people to budget and manage their expenses for they have no source of income and there is no assurance that they still have a job to came back.

Rich people mostly on the technological industry and food and goods essentials are still earning more due to high demands brought by this pandemic. We can say that the world and society itself is not really fair for those who are needy are continuously starving and those with power and continuously gaining after all.


I agree. After all that is happening the terrible systemic flaws of the society is always putting the poor people on the most disadvantageous position while rich people are being continuously greedy enjoying their wealth and some are not having any concern on helping their fellow men for they only think of their own sake.

I think the sad part here is that even though they donate billions and billions of dollars to the poor, the world will not get better. We can't do anything about this since this is already happening. As time goes, the poor people will be there at the bottom pushing themselves to go up but what they didn't know is that by doing that, they are also pushing those individuals at the top. Well folks, this is the world at its best, we should face it.

Hope they could just start more jobs so those unemployed individuals atleast make a movement in their low position. It might make the gap wider but atleast that could also create an effect under them.

I think there cannot be a bigger folly than directing all of this angst against the wealthy. This is a very political stance and the people that benefit from political stances are only those who call themselves leaders. Its a failure of leadership and politics that the common people are on their knees today despite the fact that the people on this list have worked their asses off to create products and services leading to such wealth.

Its not the businessman's problem that he has to navigate a world of greedy politicians and political parties that need unabated flow of funds to advertise themselves. The problem is not the money that businessmen make. The problem is that part of this money is sucked up by political parties and the businesses are manipulated by lawmakers to do the bidding for their party rather than for their ideology.

Not having proper stratification of wealth or the specter of homelessness and poverty in a country like USA is a political issue, not an economic one.

He deserves the backlash from the public for doing this, he should be the one taking care of his people but he do not want a hands of it so they ask people to help him


No one advice him that doing this will anger people because this is greediness this is the time people needs some help and he has all the money to do it but prefer the american people to do it for people who made him rich.

Honestly, even if I am glad that the richest are donating for the cause, I can't help but feel stupid that we're being happy about them dropping some scraps for us to survive. If this doesn't showcase how the relationship between the rich and the poor works, then I don't know what does. Still, not that I'm against them donating, in fact, I'm pretty happy for those that they reach out towards people who are in desperate need right now.
Equity then? That would require a lot of manpower to even take a look at how rich the rich people are, and calculating taxes about that. And I really doubt the government would do that, when they could just pocket a fraction of that for themselves with no problem since they're the ones managing it anyway. What stays inside, stays there after all.

That's just the reality in what others call a free world. At the end of the day, it isn't.

Those who have the money will be able to make more in spite of a pandemic. As a matter of fact, they can leverage the pandemic itself to create more wealth. On the other hand, as fully expected, the poor will stay poor without a pandemic and poorer in a pandemic.

This is not all about freedom. This is all about a terrible systemic flaw which always puts the poor at the most disadvantageous position.

Jeff Bezos and other millionaires have donated at least 1% of their wealth to the coronavirus.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/06/how-much-americas-richest-are-donating-for-coronavirus-relief.html

The pandemic has taught us that we must preserve the most important thing that is health and our loved ones. We are also concerned about work, many people around the world have lost their jobs.

After the pandemic, I think that all these people, the richest in the world, should help create sustainable jobs to reduce the global poverty rate.

You'd have to trust the government that it would fairly and efficiently distribute that tax revenue. I think a lot of people would rather be poor .


Yeah I think you're right, technically they're supposed to offer at least a money market fund but it's not available online so I probably need to call and beg, ugh.

Last time I just took a loan but I think loans have a fairly low max size like 50k.

You could always just allocate your 401K to cash, right? If you thought the bubble was about to pop. That wouldn't trigger any tax penalties either since you wouldn't be withdrawing anything.

Bezos obviously can't do that. His best bet in that scenario is to use company cash to buy back shares, thereby propping up the price and his wealth. Amazon has something like $5 billion set aside for that. They haven't dipped into it yet because its stock performance is just so strong.

But that means the system is fine and you just need rich people to be charitable for all to be happy. That's the narrative in the US and other places since the 70's, incarnated by Reagan and Thatcher in the 80's, but has it worked out ?

Wouldn't it be better if these rich people paid more taxes, or paid their underlings more at the detriment of their wealth, but with the result that less people would be living in poverty or at the edge of it ?

Bill Gates has already donated ~$50 billion to charities. That is roughly his total net worth 10 years ago. By not giving it all at once he's still got $100+ billion to donate over the years to come. He's by far the most charitable billionaire and has publicly pledged to donate more than half of his wealth and has been encouraging other rich people to do so.

I'm not a fan of Gates or how he made his money (I think Microsoft was engaged in extremely shitty business practices back in the day) but I think his charitable donations are an example for other billionaires to follow.

Bezos is not my role model but I cannot deny that I'd like to have as much money as him.

What can we little poor people do about them making money? Stop buying on Amazon?

It's the old saying that while the rich are getting richer the poor are getting poorer. Our parents knew it's how the world is and so do we. Democracy doesn't work when you can buy votes and sway the outcome in your favor.

Bill gates is rich enough to fund his foundation himself, but there are still people out there who would not mind to donate to a good course and his foundation is that, and those are the individuals he is reaching out to for donations. It is not like he's robbing people of their money or something (mind you, it's voluntary). And if you consider how large the foundation is, as well as it's assets, it's obvious majority of the funds is coming from the wealthy and that's not a problem for them.

I can't really see a reason to blame the rich people for anything, you look at their assets and ask why they haven't paid their workers or why they ask for donations for their employees, but in business, what matters is what the company or organization is making at that time, if the company is struggling to make any income, obviously paying workers will be a problem, the billionaire wouldn't pay from his personal funds. That being said, this rich individuals are also donors to other foundations, sectors, groups etc.

I think in the case of these billionaires (maybe not all of them), they haven't a clear view of what society should be like. With their wealth, they should be leading the way, but instead they're mostly preoccupied by running their companies and making more money. Even Bill Gates, I mean, he's not running Microsoft anymore, he's running his foundation, that does good things, but why does he ask people to donate to it ? He could fund it entirely by himself.

Then there are politicians, and in the US, they're bought off by wealthy people. Even Biden, when/if elected, might mitigate some things, but he won't change the system.

The US economy could work as well if not better, while providing for free healthcare and education for everyone, but nobody rich enough is actually promoting it, and buying politicians to make it happen.

In my opinion, the primary causes of wealth inequality have been the actions of governments to solve economic problems through social, fiscal and monetary policies. Whether or not wealthy people are intended to benefit from these policies, they are able to make use of them more effectively than the rest of the population, and so ultimately they benefit the most.

An obvious example is quantitative easing. Though the purpose is to give everyone more money in order to stimulate the economy, it actually benefits wealthy people much more than everyone else by supporting prices of debt and equity, and by lowering the risks of investments. It is absurd to believe that the best way to help people suffering financially is to give money to banks and investors.

So rather than putting the blame on wealthy people, the blame should be put on the politicians and the bureaucrats that concoct those policies that are ultimately destructive.

The world has more money than people can. New debt tools create a lot of money without having a real cover, so the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The mistake lies in education, how schools teach what money is, investment, the difference between assets and liabilities.
 If everyone knew these basic rules, the rich would have difficulty raising more money, and the middle class would get richer, and thus the poor would be reduced.
people need to redefine what money is, investment and stop buying useless things.

It is partly a reflection of the free market. Bezos began in a garage when he chose to make the move from the white collar position to venture into the uncertainties of entrepreneurship, his risk paid off and out of that garage he was able to build Amazon. This is typical of the stories of a couple of other people on the rich list, some of them may have had certain privileges which streamlined their journey, but that does not go against a free economy.
I however said it's partly a reflection cause tech giants (as well as other businesses with monopoly over a certain sector) have certain advantages over smaller enterprises by virtue of their influence over the market, and with the anti trust inquiries we have had, they usually get away with just a slap on the wrist each time it's investigated.

True, social classes would always exist with an uneven distribution of wealth, that's not the fault of the people higher up the ladder. It's the job of the government to provide opportunities for the masses and build a system that is conducive for innovation and job creation.

The reason we say that the recession that began in 2008 never ended is simply because the amount of money floating in the market in the form of debt never reached the treasury and we have seen that the market is printing and pumping fiat cash back in the market when we are faced with the pandemic and it is not a good sign as we might face another major recession in the form of inflation

If you take into account the present pandemic situation it is not a big surprise that an Ecommerce business earned a substantial profit when the rest of the business were forced to shut down and the only business that were going on were through these platform in many countries.

Of course this is happening everywhere, in India also the same thing is happening.When the whole country is suffering due to this pandemic and millions lost their jobs and daily wagers are starving for months already but richest person of Ambhani climbed to top 10 richest person in this world recently and he climbed to 4th position in few weeks after that, this is happening due to the political system in India but not sure about other part of the world.

There is one great lyrics from my favourite song: This is the world you've created, the product of what I've become.
This words truly describes that we created terrible world and how? Let me clarify. Always, there are some people who have ambition to be better and on another level than others. Once this man achieves success and others become his/her slaves, there is someone who tries to overcome from this situation and become free and this kind of person also tries to attract people who may share the same idea but imagine what happens then? There is a one person who tries to get the most from this situation and rise himself/herself in a selfish way while abandon what others were working on and trying to achieve.

Maybe when you read this example, you may think about ancient slave-soldiers but this applies to current reality.

There are some people who own money that would be enough for most part of the society but... People even don't care about that and that's a huge problem. Have you seen very massive protests in the streets around this problem? No...

And Jeff Bezos, he is really mentally ill. He made a lot of money during pandemic and as a bonus, significantly cut affiliate fees for those who are under Amazon Affiliate Program.

The question boils down to whether you believe in truly free markets or not.  If you do, then the above situation is an unfortunate (but acceptable) consequence of free market capitalism. 

I'd also point out that the people getting rich right now are not necessarily doing anything illegal or even immoral.  Jeff Bezos's net worth no doubt increased, but he's created a service (Amazon) that is serving a lot of people right now, and Amazon shareholders have also done pretty well, too.  In addition, a lot of these ultra-wealthy individuals do some good things with their riches--charities, foundations, and the like.  I would never fault anyone for becoming super rich, as long as they didn't screw people over in the process (and that's certainly true of some of them).

IMO the focus shouldn't be on the wealthy right now.  It should be on the government and how they're spending their money and what they're doing to fix all these problems we're having.  They're the official rulers of all of our countries, not Bezos, Gates, Buffett, Zuckerburg, and all of those folks.  The government is the entity that collects our tax money and is supposed to provide services to us that we need.  The ultra-rich have no obligation to do anything other than to pay their own taxes.

While Jeff Bezos would not become homeless if he should lose his wealth but really what he is worth does not mean the amount of cash he has in his bank account or the value of fixed property he has in his name and just like others have right mentioned, stock value money is "air money" and it's proposed wealth not actual wealth that wouldn't even become warmth until it's is sold which I know that there are several conditions to make that happen.

While I have no issues with the riches and their value of wealth increasing while others are in serious pandemic across the world, I don't think majority of us on the forum or any crypto enthusiasts is any different because even in the midst of the pandemic, the price of bitcoin and major crypto have increased which means for someone who has some crypto back then before the pandemic is technically richer but not to the scale of Jeff Bezos of this world.

There is a social classification in U.S. as well as to other countries, namely lower, lower-middle, middle, upper-middle, and upper class. This measures one's economic and social status. The ones on the higher ends are mostly land owners, business inclined people or the capitalists. In the middle class are those which has college degrees, and are EMPLOYED in white-collar industries. While on the lower class, these are people who are mostly unemployed and working poor.

So how do I see it at this time of pandemic? Those people in the higher class are not that affected by this problem we are currently facing, but not every individual in this class because many businesses are forced to stop their operation due to some reasons and the majority still find their way to make money during this time since they are mostly the capitalists. While in the middle class, employees are also struggling because their jobs are also affected. People in the lower class are mostly affected. Their source of income were stopped by this pandemic which pulls them down in the social strata.

What makes the scenario worse? Many people in the upper class are not aware and some are just closing their eyes in this situation. Since most of them are not negatively affected they are lacking sympathy to help those in the lower brackets. The only one who could help these people is the government.

Germany is one of those countries who adjusted the financial measures of their economy to cover the loss during this corona virus outbreak.

Here's the link: (An article written by Richard Partington)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/04/germany-unveils-huge-130bn-coronavirus-recovery-package

A graph in this article shows how their adjustment made a change for their people and economy. I think relying to those wealthy people during this time of pandemic will not be that effective because it still depends to them whether they would help others or not but it is a responsibility for each of the governments to make an action that would save their people, but ofcourse with the help of its countrymen.

Let me just note that this stock market "wealth" is fake AF. I'm no Bezos but my 401k also ballooned since March... so what? It's a bubble, it's going to pop, the best I can do is try to guess when and how much and if it's worth taking a loan against it or cashing out and paying the penalty. I don't think Bezos can actually sell $190 billion worth of Amazon stock although he can surely sell some and build some spaceships or whatever he's got going on. Now if you were to take some of Bezos' wealth and give a $1000 to a few million people that would last how long?

The other thing to consider is that Amazon is profitable in large part due to low wages it's paying to its warehouse staff. The profit margins used to be very slim, possibly improved lately, but it hired a lot more people too. If Amazon had to pay higher wages then I'm sure it would find some equilibrium somewhere - possibly less profit, less "wealth" for Bezos, but likely higher prices, lower sales, fewer employees - not certain this would be a better overall outcome.

It might be alluring to contemplate some sort of wealth redistribution looking at those numbers (who needs more than a billion anyway?) but aside from pushing those numbers offshore I doubt that any such plans have much of chance to succeed.

I wouldn't go as far as calling them "role models" though. They're just rich people.

It's a case - cynical in some ways - where the rice gets richer and the poor makes no positive shift, let's take some scenes from the trading floor -stock market- the big dogs/whale make big profit while the average or low traders loses, these billionaire can control things to there favour even in difficult situations such as we have. They have the Arsenal/capacity to diversify -bill gate went into pharmaceuticals- this is not really a careless move because if wrong can fail -but these guys have the best management money can get-
But one fact is that they need the masses, they are selling something -service- and the poor Masses are buying.
Young entrepreneurs going into the same Field such as them are put under pressure and they mostly succumb and sell off to these guys, it's a power games where they eliminate any competition.

In my country it's a case of politicians and their associates getting richer and the masses go down ward.
Made this thread some time ago
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.54956210
It's a country where you don't make it if you are not rich or have a bond or connection with someone at the top/above. The masses should support other masses.
There is an area/region in my country known for making foot wares but they don't get patronage because there are not a known name -there guy fake emblems of big names on their products- the masses should mutually support each other
+ Buy local goods
+ Employ services of local businesses
+ Promote each other
+ Get working/productive.
It's really a hard nut starting from the bottom and aspiring to reach the top, the world system -government, powerful rich men- is making it extra hard.

We are witnessing a very difficult period, primarily caused by the recession that began in 2008 and which some claim has never actually ended. To make matters worse, the world has been hit by a pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus, which is very systematically eroding the already somewhat rotten world economy. While most ordinary people feel the direct consequences of all this happening, there are those who increase their wealth and do not take a smile off their face.

I recently read an article that the wealth of the 12 richest Americans climbed above $1 trillion for the first time in history and this is precisely because of what has caused almost the whole world to find itself in a very difficult situation. Although no one can deny that this is the result of a free economy and that everyone manages as he knows how, I wonder why these people are considered so special and almost have the status of gods if we consider the following fact :


Although from a legal standpoint we can't do anything, is it normal that 1/3 of the US population is literally on their knees, while others don't know what to do with their money?

To make matters even more tragicomic, Jeff Bezos leads the list of America’s rich is asking for donations for his 800 000 employees, and in same time his net worth is $189.4 billion This is actually the case for some serious psychologists if you ask me...

As long as people like this are our role models and moral verticals, we shouldn't hope for a better world - but lest someone misunderstand me, I'm not just criticizing the American system, this is happening all over the world.

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