I don’t think this actually true. Bill Gates, 1/8th of that number, is *already* doing massive-scale philanthropy, it hasn’t yet solved the problem of human poverty because human poverty is an even more massive scale problem, and it’s not obvious to me that any authority that could tell Gates to run his philanthropy differently/confiscate his money and do it instead of him would necessarily do a better job than him.
I’m in favor of governments taxing very wealthy people and using the money to pay for things that make the lives of poor people all over the world better, but I think this specific claim about the 8 richest people in the world makes solving poverty seem like a smaller problem than it actually is.
The thing about using mass immigration to try to solve global poverty is that it can’t keep up with birth rates. Redistribution from the wealthy mostly can’t, either.
Only what is produced can be consumed. The production capacities of these migrant-generating countries must be increased, and their birthrates must fall (increasing paternal investment per child, further increasing per-capita economic productivity in addition to not spreading limited base resources as thinly).
Probably the way forward isn’t quite giving or taking but something like partially self-funding institutions that “sell” infrastructure at a discount and promote development of local businesses and foster self-improving attitudes, promoting the formation of better institutions that will help the changes to stick.
One of the things Bill Gates is trying to do is cut birthrates in the developing world by promoting contraception, girls education, and vaccines (cut the death rate and the birth rate also drops).
Yes. That’s part of the reason I don’t approve of seizing his fortune for the glory of the third world - the US government in the hands of the Republicans does the opposite with bans on funding to nations that practice abortion.
In their religious fervor, the Republicans are Natalists - a policy that might make sense for nations like Japan, but which does not make sense in countries that already cannot feed their populations.