What is the point of billionaires?

[flobadob]

What is the point of the world having individuals amassing billions and billions of unused money when there are so many people living in poverty? Could there not be a cut off point of even one hundred million dollars or the equivalent which any individual would be allowed to keep and the rest to help humanity?

[naomi24]

Wealth creates wealth because it creates industry. If all the money in the world were shared out equally, it wouldn’t be long before we would once again have the rich and the poor with us, because some would use it to their benefit and some would very quickly squander it. Personal advancement is the ‘nature’ of human nature, and that’s why communism can never work. I doubt very much that those who resent the rich would stick to their philosophy of equality if they won the Euro lottery. The word ‘jealousy’ springs to mind.

[rowanwitch]

If I was as rich as Abramovich I'd buy Chelsea from him.. and get on the phone to Jose so fast the the line would catch fire... And I'd buy Messi.... Or I'd buy Man United and wreck it... then I'd look at setting up a foundation where any kid who wanted to belong to a sports organisation could apply for grants for fees, kit etc...

I'd also

[beso]

The wealth of billionaires is not sitting around as unused cash. It is invested as capital in productive businesses.

The capitalist system works because people are willing to risk their capital by investing in projects that produce a return. Systems that demand the wealth should be evenly spread have never worked because the incentive to risk capital and work for the success of ventures is lost.

Giving everyone the same squanders the potential by placing most of the capital in the hands of the inept resulting in a spiralling collapse of the economy.

Mao set back the development of China for decades though his populist stupidity. Few so inept have ever attained the heights of power achieved by him.

The folly of Marxist philosophy is obvious across the planet. He advocated a "cashless, classless society" and that is exactly what those who followed it got. No cash and no class.

[ludwig]

// Giving everyone the same squanders the potential by placing most of the capital in the hands of the inept resulting in a spiralling collapse of the economy. //

You mean as opposed to the system we operate at the moment which placed most of the capital in the hands of the inept resulting in a spiralling collapse of the economy ? ;o)

[beso]

Most of the capital is not in the hands of the inept. A relatively small number of miscreants have worked out how to garner a sizeable share of the capital and squirrel it away for themselves, or at least cook up schemes to do so.

If the capital was truly even spread the economy would be profoundly and permanently trashed.