MM: " I find it obscene that 85 people own almost half of the worlds wealth."
Actually the headline reads:
World's 85 richest people have as much as poorest 3.5 billion
There is a considerable difference.
How would you distribute the wealth of the 85 MM, by force, confiscate it ? You could then hand out the proceeds to the poorest 3.5 billion at just under $500 USD per head. To do this you would to have to realise the wealth tied up in all the companies and assets of the "85", if you could find buyers and sale prices. Then you would have to explain to the employees of the companies concerned why they were all out of a job, and various governments why their tax take was down/gone. Or do you wish to nationalise companies like Microsoft, Google etc?
You want equalisation MM include taxation, company and personal, because in Australia for instance:
"The wealthiest 10% pay almost 50% of income tax revenue.
The wealthiest 20% receive only 3% of all cash benefits.
The bottom 20% receive 42% of all cash benefits"
"The top 25 percent of the income distribution, pay 5 times as much of total personal income tax revenue, as the remaining 75% in the lower income group"
You find it obscene, sobeit. I find it disturbing that you do so without further rational comment , at least Oxfam are playing this populist chord with the World Economic Forum in mind .
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