The problem with poverty is taxation. The rich, in all countries, do not pay at the same rate as the working class in all of their cultures. It requires "Fairness". Unfortunately, life isn't fair. But imagine for just a moment...that if life was "fair"...that IF everyone paid into their respective government systems at the SAME RATE as required by each government system....no loopholes; no tax havens; no lobbyists; no 'campaign contributions'....there would be food for the poor; education for all; health care for all. But....but....those in power know that our Earth cannot sustain such a population and they await the dying off of "the insignificant". Corruption is rampant in the governments; lawmakers coddle to the rich; police are now indoctrinated NOT to "Protect and Serve", but to defend the property and welfare of the rich through paramilitary training and tactics AGAINST the population they were originally tasked to protect. Never relinquish your guns! It is through fear tactics and propaganda to the public which will dis-arm the population and the beginning of dictatorships around the world.  

The problem is that not everywhere the opportunity is ensured. The fittest in the game of life survives, but rules for the game are not equal in many places. Not everywhere capitalism is in its pure form (assuming it's functioning, no corruption/dishonesty exists, and rules for everybody are pretty much equal). We all will be happy when everybody will be given relatively equal opportunities (it's very hard...) - and then, it all depends just on you. You want it - do everything that is fair and honest, to achieve it. Don't want it - ok, stick to what you are OK with. You're ok with working at McDonald's front desk - that's fine, its your choice! But be prepared to give up many wants! Or will you argue natural selection?  

Well, our government will preserve this.  No worries, rich people, this is all rhetoric to make us feel solidarity about our nothingness. 

American's have a wild-west mentality - they think everyone can be rich and there is plenty to go around... newsflash, population has changed the game. Survival of the fittest is not going to cut it... it is not sustainable. One planet w/ limited resources is like a Monopoly game, and the rich have taken all the big bills off the board... 

This is not about class warfare.  This is not about envying the rich, or superstar salaries for movie stars or athletes.  I wish the folks here would read the title of this article to know what this is about.

Its about Eighty-five people whose net worth is equal to net worth of 3.5 billion of the poorest.

Let me write it another way.

It's about 85 human beings, men or women, whose net worth is about 110 trillion US dollars, which can only be matched by the net worth of 3.5 billion other people that are poor.

That is also like saying the wealth of half the world's population is owned by the number of people that cannot even fill two school buses.

Now.  What kind of system can ever "self correct" from such a skewed system?

 Historically this kind of imbalance has always been self correcting. One hopes that the correction will be peaceful and humane, but the poor are becoming more aware of the imbalance and unless a new paradigm is developed they are likely to begin to tear things apart.

Television and religion are not going to make people ignore their hungry kids. 

How sad that Time has buried another article that was released at the same time as this article. That article is about how the rich make poor choices in where they make their "tax sheltered" contributions. It was removed from the front page and buried in the "business section" of this site. It highlights how such a high percentage of contributions are directed to colleges, hospitals, and arts and entertainment. These types of contributions focus on first supporting the administrators of the tax sheltering organization. Most of these organizations could maintain or achieve future growth based upon their current endowments alone, without future funding in the next decade.  Focusing on where one has come from, whom one has known, and what ones' contribution will do to enshrine ones' name are not attributes of an intelligent, progressive, or compassionate person, deeming themselves superior in enlightenment to the lower classes of society! 

It's depressing...

Australia keeps their borders closed because if they actually tried capitalism, millions of cheap foreign workers would flood their country and be willing to work for $1/hr plus minimal housing conditions.  Australian citizens' unemployment would soar uncontrollably quick.  The middle class lifestyle enjoyed and afforded to people such this iphone app guy (which allowed him not to worry about basic life issues such as food and housing and concentrate more on education and his entreprenurial endeavors) would no longer exist, and this guy's parents may not have been middle class and this app may never have been developed.  Most people are not able to escape the class level they grew up with, most of the middle class grew up middle class and never increased their social standing beyond their parents.  how do invent an app when you are struggling to find food and stay warm?  Bill Gates tried illegally and desperately to prevent competition and anyone else from becoming rich around his business world.  The Foundation was built to ease his conscience.

A young man from Melbourne studied hard, earned his PhD, and invented an app for use in iPhones.  Apple paid him millions of dollars for it, and he is now one of the very rich young people of the next generation.  I am very happy for that young man. He has demonstrated that you create and live in an environment that is equal and available to all people.  Luck?  More like dedication and hard work, I think.   What we need is more rich people in this world.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation sets an example for all. 

This line of thinking is generated by people sitting in expensive chairs paid for by who?  Probably the rich people paying billions of dollars in taxes.  Australia's welfare bill was recently announced at some figure exceeding $70 billion!   If rich people were not making money, and not paying taxes, that would be impossible.  Unless our "poor" younger generations get off their butt and create some wealth, our amazing life style will no longer be possible, and we will end up like Greece. 

As Margaret Thatcher once said: "Sooner or later, you run out of other people's money"    

A rich man is simply the temporary guardian of assets.   All of those assets represent income and opportunity to millions of other people.  Without the Richard Pratts, and Frank Loweys of this world, we would probably have to pay some foreign outfit for our consumer goods.   Rich Aussie people make Australia a better place, so, get out there and make a $billion yourself, and while you are at it, keep paying $millions in taxes each year,  so that the poor people can collect their benefits. 

Its really very unfair with the poor.

We all make our lives for better or worse,individuals,community's,nations...Condemning the successful,for being successful is stupid....Most would never condemn the poor for being poor .....Choices,life styles,and talents shape their lives to what they become...For better or worse..

..... What if I said, for example, the average middle class person/family own as much as thousands in some parts of India? or Africa? etc?

If this was really used to engage in a cause to lift people from poverty, sure, but the truth is, at the end of the day, 90% of the people will use this to justify their own mediocrity - it's everyone else's fault except their own, and it's also everybody else's responsibility except their own.

it really doesn't sound horrible with the 85 people.  what really looks worse is the top 1% of wealthy in world own 50% of wealth.  so if the world's wealth is USD 40trillion and and 1% is 70million people, now it sounds a whole lot worse.  so now the "not gonna ever happen" re-distribution would be USD 3million/person in the bottom99%.  that is significant.  but I understand business and investment and the need to place monetary power in the hands of those who know how best to use it (they aren't using it to take over the worldm this isn't a james bond movie.)  but these numbers are really getting large and social problems are bound to arise.  however if you give an entire local population 30% more money, prices simply rise accordingly through inflation and lifestyle does not actually change much.  that concept is difficult for many to grasp.

For All of those who act like the Rich are Evil People.... Do you have proof that they do no good?  Do you have their balance sheets and binders that show what they haven't done or don't do for the poor.. Or is it just assuming that they do no Good..

And For you that say that they should do more for the poor, what do you do?  I obviously know that you most likely can't afford to really make a difference in helping someone in Africa out, but what do you do in your HomeTown... Do you volunteer your time, Do you try and make a difference yourself for free, or are you just one of those people who LOVE to throw stones at people, but do nothing yourself to make a difference

The recommendations in the Oxfam report makes sense and the one percent richest individuals should take the pledge to follow the recommendations. A major element on whether there will be a turnaround allowing for more economic equality is the eradication of greed. If the motives of the elite are based around greed and domination then there will not be a change. Instead, as the report indicates, there will government systems beholden to the elite.

What is it that the whiney "where's Mine?" crowd wants  from the rich?  I keep hearing the middle class is dwindling.... I don't even know what that means.  If my grandparents were middle class back in the day, they shared 1 car between them and 5 kids.  They had no cable, they had no cell phone, they had no internet, stuff such as pop was a luxery, vacations were pretty much out of the question.  They would go to a state park  and that was the extent of it.  Healthcare, while it was improving greatly, still wasn't what it is today.

Our Poor have access to all of that today. 

This article is making the rounds and appearing in different venues. I would like to know who the 85 people are and a definitive definition for "own".

This is all part of the left wing hate-the-rich nonsense.  How about actually working? We have well over 6 billion people in the world and you are worried about 85 of them? Also, this report does not take into account monetary variations. In other words, $1 can buy you a lot in sub-saharan Africa as compared to the US. Not to mention the fact that throughout most of history, virtually all humans have led a day-to-day barely surviving farming/gathering/hunting lifestyles. That has not changed, but some people have gotten rich (which also happened in olden times). We have tried income equality in: North Korea, Cuba, Soviet Union, China before capitalism, etc. The results were predictable: starvation, no innovation and no upward mobility. By the way, those rich you hate have created millions of jobs, donated to hospitals, etc. When was the last time you did that? I suggest you all stop being hypocrites, put down your Ipads and move to North Korea.

Where's mine?? Where's Mine??? Where's Mine??? Where's Mine??? Where's Mine??? Where's Mine???

I don't want to work for it, I just want mine..

Wealth sharing and inequality may still be two sides of the same coin. They say that ownership and control of wealth belongs to the same proprietary class that rules the world like uncrowned kings. How to get rid of poverty may not be merely a question of how big the slice of the pie to allow to be distributed down the social base. It can be a question of what new order can rearrange economic and power relations to release the very large portion of mankind from the dictatorial regime of a busload of financial oligarchs.

Yada, Yada, Yada. All people do is yap their jaws and talk about "what ifs" and "fairness!" The reality is that nothing will change the steam engine that makes "the rich getting richer" until the majority of people standup and act towards demanding change now!!!!!!!!  

This isn't democracy. It reminds of any societies with "masters-slaves", "kings/princes - peasant", and so on...... but in a % disproportionate. Those 85 rich persons are "demi-gods" amongst a sea of misery...

@I_think No need for a bloody revolution - just convince 7 billion people to not listen to 85; if they all stopped breathing tonight the world would continue spinning tomorrow the same as it did today. But there's no shortage of people willing to sell-out their neighbours for a buck, so we see once again that money is the root of all evil.

@ColinSpencer  Surely you don't buy into the big lie that all men are created equal.   Your young man from Melbourne most certainly has a higher IQ than ninety nine percent of the population. He was born with a high IQ. He didn't work for it nor did he earn it.  He's another member of the lucky sperm club. He used his gifts.

life is unbalanced and unfair. We all do our best to make it through but, some of us, are already carrying a heavy burden of alcohol and drug addiction, chronic mental illness, physical deformity and some just can't cope. 

What do you think should be done with the "misfits" I labelled above?

If you say mental institution for those who need treatment and where they could have their medication monitored.      I say absolutely do it. Much safer for them than being on the street . And for those who are cost conscious -  it is cheaper to house and treat someone than it is to let them create havoc in the streets. Ask any cop. And if you say monitored low cost housing for the rest I say Amen Colin. Don't get me wrong. I'm a seventy year old white man who has worked and paid taxes fifty years. But it is inherently immoral for you to suggest that, " I got mine - get your own".

The world does not work like that.

@ColinSpencer Close your eyes and imagine the world in 200 years... 400 years... 1000 years... this is math my friend... there is not enough for everyone... our resources are finite, and they will run out... and when they do, the rich will isolate themselves in some restricted area, and the rest of us will be out of luck... but the good news is, this can be prevented if we listen to the scientists, and cooperate w/ each other instead of always competing.. this dog-eat-dog world is not working out... how about we just do what Jesus would do? Any problem w/ that?

@ColinSpencer Yes, clearly these 85 people each contribute on average 41 million times as much good to the world as the poorest.  And all on the strength of their own effort. Why don't these have-nothing do-nothings get with the programme and just get rich?! That's what I want to know.

@ColinSpencerMr.Spencer, I think the real question here is: Are you or are you not under the impression that economic inequality has spiraled out of control?

If you do believe this has happened: Do you believe it adds value to the foundation of democracy and world stability?

That is the real question that needs to be dealt with. Is this actually happening, if so is this beneficial?

@ColinSpencer Are you for real? The fact that you're old and white makes me think you're sincere, if not totally misguided. By the way, that expensive chair you rich people were nice enough to let us sit in.... who do YOU think made it in the first place? That's right, some poor person somewhere. Keep being old, white, and arrogant, it seems to be working for you.

@StacyClarkson WTF are you talking about? "Most would never condemn the poor for being poor?" Have you ever talked to a Republican? (If not, I don't blame you) And condemning the successful for being successful isn't necessarily stupid either. These rich corporations like McDonalds or Walmart underpay their employees who can't live on what they make so their already rich shareholders can make even more money. How is that not worthy of condemnation? Banks give lower interest loans to people who have money. Politicians listen to lobbyists of wealthy people and corporations. Many wealthy people pay lower percentages in taxes than most "average" citizens do. The entire system is made up by rich people for the benefit of rich people. They constantly talk about the "takers" in society, but Republicans are doing everything they can to make the Bush tax cuts permanent because we all know that rich people need more money.

@Realworldnonfantasyland Yeah, most of them are too busy working two jobs, if they can find one at all. When many large companies restrict the hours that their employees can work so they don't have to pay for health insurance, it makes it tough to find the time to volunteer. All rich people are not evil, but the system has been manipulated to benefit the few at the expense of many and that is not how it's supposed to work.

@Realworldnonfantasyland You don't know what "the middle class is dwindling" means? It means that, as the article points out, most of the wealth is going to an increasingly small number of people. So instead of a few poor, a few rich and a healthy middle class, you have the direction we're going in today which is all poor and a few elite rich people. The irony is that if there is no middle class, then there will be nobody to buy the products and services the rich are offering. You'd think they'd be smart enough to realize that, but greed takes precedence over intelligence almost 100% of the time.

@JohnJohnson8are you suggesting that concentrated wealth is beneficial for our nation?

@JohnJohnson8 Easy there guy... I don't like how I am only able to talk on a cell phone that can call anyone in the world at a moments notice... I don't like how for a minimum wage one week salary I can fly across the country... I don't like how if I don't have a job that I get this card that allows me to eat for free... I don't like how these people get Private jets and I have to go onto an airplane with these other poverty stricken people

@bimbocab I'm in my early 40s now and can't remember a time when I didn't bust my @ss.  Elementary school, high school, college (partial academic scholarship), first job, grad school (with debt), current career.  If I don't produce I don't get paid.  I didn't just wake up this morning with enough money to support myself, I scrapped for it every step of the way.  There is absolutely nothing any governmental entity can do to ensure equality of outcome, only equality of opportunity.

@RB1 Where's mine is what we should ask... Where's Mine, I want mine

@user Nothing like a little gratuitous hyperbole....

Get a grip, then a job.

@user  A Sea of Misery was living in an age of no healthcare where 70% of your kids died at childbirth as well as most likely your wife giving birth.  If you made it past birth then you had a decent chance of dying by the time you were 5.  If you managed to make it past that age then you had to work on the farm from day light to night time, every day.  This poor guy must be a real hoot to hang out with if you can live in a sea of misery in this day

@user except the Princes and Kings were obliged to care for their Serfs, make sure they were fed, protected and cured of illness.  Feudal society put a great burden on the master.  Capitalism was more rational.  You just throw the worker in the street when you don't need him.

@jimmyharpoon @ColinSpencer  "The world does not work like that."

It doesn't? Perhaps you could tell that to the gazelle and the lion.

Like it or not, it _does_ work that way.

@BradFoley @ColinSpencer Since you are well aware of the facts, how much do you think these 85 contributed to the poor???? You just assuming they live like Scroog McDuck or you have any idea how much they donate

@bawgs @ColinSpencer  "By the way, that expensive chair you rich people were nice enough to let us sit in.... who do YOU think made it in the first place?"

Hmmm.. That coin has two sides my friend. Who do YOU think paid someone to build that expensive chair?

You might consider being a little less frisky with the aspersions.

@bawgs @StacyClarkson GRRRRR... THE rich are evil.

@bawgs @Realworldnonfantasyland The system was never put into place that everybody is supposed to get a cushy job behind a computer screen making lots of money... If you were unfortunate to not be born into the 1%, then there are plenty of people who have been born poor and are well above the  median income..... They didn't blame the system, they didn't blame everybody and whine and ask wheres mine.  The system was not put into place for you to be able to afford a private jet, etc.... But the system we have in place people get Free Cable, Free Housing, Free cell phones and Free Food if you don't have a job.  Thats one hell of a system if you ask me

@bawgs @Realworldnonfantasyland Thinks I bet you have --- Cell phone --  check, Computer --  check, Cable  -- check, Tv -- check, Internet -- Check, Car -- Check, Vacation expenses -- Check, An abundance of clothing -- Check; enough money wastefully spend on fast food every day instead of making cheap food at home -- check  .... Seems like they are pretty smart  to me

@jimmyharpoon @ColinSpencer Heh heh heh..... That should read "are not"....

@jimmyharpoon @RustyShackleford1 @ColinSpencer Oh, yes,, you disagree so it's devoid...

No, I'm not suggesting anything of the sort. Keep your hyperbole to yourself. Some succeed, some don't... Like it or not, there are laws of nature, and human beings are exempted from them.

@RustyShackleford1 @jimmyharpoon @ColinSpencer Your comment is shallow and devoid of comprehensible content.

Are you suggesting that the quick should kill the vulnerable with impunity? Try and remember we are talking about people and not activity on the Serengeti plain.

@Realworldnonfantasyland@BradFoley@ColinSpencer: Yes, yes, they do give a lot ask about the lesson of the widow's mite. 

@bawgs @Realworldnonfantasyland Nah... Just watched my poor friends start their own things like Landscaping companies with a single lawn mower into well to do companies and work 18 hour days for years before he's making 3 times the amount I make. 

@Realworldnonfantasyland@bawgs It's not "unfortunate" to not be born into the 1%, it's how the vast majority of the world lives. That's like saying it's unfortunate that you didn't win the lottery. Say what you want, but where you end up usually depends on where you start. Yes, there are select examples of poor people who have "made it", but they're the exception and you know it. People like you love to make it seem as though those who are born poor just didn't try very hard and that's why they ended up that way. Rich kids have parents who know people and can influence employment opportunities, college admissions, and get them out of trouble with the law. Somehow I'm guessing that you were born with a silver spoon up your @ss.

@RealworldnonfantasylandIt does not sound like you actually know many of the poor, I live in upsate NY and most of the people who live below the poverty line do not have many of the things you are checking off your list. Do you have some statistics that might provide some more hard evidence that wealth is not becoming concentrated?