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Forums - General - 62 richest people has as much money as poorest 3.5 billion humans

MTZehvor on 18 January 2016
fatslob-:O said:
MTZehvor said:

Fair, in as far as the dictionary is concerned (at least, when it's not talking about appearance) refers to a state of some sort of competition or contest where both sides start out on equal grounds. People get upset at accusations of cheating in poker, for example, because it means one player has an unfair chance.

It's the same sort of thing here; if people don't start off at the same level, it isn't "fair," so to speak. The saying of "the world's not fair," comes into play here.

That is almost never the case in the real world so your point is moot ... 

Fair NEVER implies an equal starting state ... 

Having better or worse starting circumstances is a part of life and all of us have to deal with it in some way ...

As it pertains to contests or measuring of equality, yes, it does. For instance, people got upset at the Patriots when they were accused of deflating footballs. Why? Because it (supposedly) put them at an advantage that others teams didn't start off with. People argue that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision makes campaigning "unfair" for less wealthy candidates because they can't afford to advertise themselves as much, and are at a disadvantage from the get go. That's the issue at stake here, and that's really what fairness is all about. If you've got a different idea of what fair means, then feel free to throw it out there.

I agree that having better or worse circumstances is a part of life, but that doesn't make the concept of fairness any less valid. It just means that life isn't fair, which, coincidentially, is a commonly enough heard phrase that I think it drives the point home.



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fatslob-:O on 18 January 2016
hershel_layton said:

I'm not a Bernie-loving liberal who wants everyone to be 100% in life. I know that's impossible.

I just don't want 62 people to be as rich as 3.5 billion. That's my only problem. I've watched many documentaries on people who live on a dollar a day- truly sad for how hard life is for them

Why not ? They truly earned it for the most part ... 

This "problem" that you speak of is just another harsher part of reality ...



MTZehvor on 18 January 2016
Ljink96 said:
Sad as hell. I just realized that we spend billions of dollars on space research and people are starving on our own earth. But back on topic, the rich just get richer because they have the knowhow and their tactics, although very effective, often lack morality. Me...I don't care to be rich. A while from now it'll all be useless. But to those who earned their riches, I have nothing but good things to say about you. Economics lacks morality, this is why statistics like this don't necessarily shock me, but they sicken me.

For what it's worth, space research is arguably one of the best investments in terms of "fairness." Research from NASA has been crucial to the creation of prosthetic limbs, allowing people who are born without/lose a limb to at least be capable of doing many of the things those of us with four working limbs can do. NASA's research has also led to water purification being much cheaper and far easier, so that nearly anyone, regardless of how poor, in a developed society can have it, when originally it was limited to the upper class. Research from NASA has also benefitted food safety, hospitals, pollution levels, fire fighters, and highway safety. Space research is one of the better investments for helping all of a society. 





jigokutamago on 18 January 2016
Ljink96 said:
Sad as hell. I just realized that we spend billions of dollars on space research and people are starving on our own earth.

Interesting proposal. Perhaps we should have everyone that works for nasa become farmers.



starcraft on 18 January 2016

Moved to general discussion.



starcraft - Playing Games = FUN, Talking about Games = SERIOUS

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Ljink96 on 18 January 2016
MTZehvor said:
Ljink96 said:
Sad as hell. I just realized that we spend billions of dollars on space research and people are starving on our own earth. But back on topic, the rich just get richer because they have the knowhow and their tactics, although very effective, often lack morality. Me...I don't care to be rich. A while from now it'll all be useless. But to those who earned their riches, I have nothing but good things to say about you. Economics lacks morality, this is why statistics like this don't necessarily shock me, but they sicken me.

For what it's worth, space research is arguably one of the best investments in terms of "fairness." Research from NASA has been crucial to the creation of prosthetic limbs, allowing people who are born without/lose a limb to at least be capable of doing many of the things those of us with four working limbs can do. NASA's research has also led to water purification being much cheaper and far easier, so that nearly anyone, regardless of how poor, in a developed society can have it, when originally it was limited to the upper class. Research from NASA has also benefitted food safety, hospitals, pollution levels, fire fighters, and highway safety. Space research is one of the better investments for helping all of a society. 

Fair enough, but don't tell me those Apollo missions were worth it. Especially 13. I'm just saying, billions of dollars literally blew up during the Apollo era.





cheshirescat on 18 January 2016

Well according to that one site in another thread I'm only the 54,715th richest person in the world. I'm practically a pauper.



MTZehvor on 18 January 2016
Ljink96 said:
MTZehvor said:

For what it's worth, space research is arguably one of the best investments in terms of "fairness." Research from NASA has been crucial to the creation of prosthetic limbs, allowing people who are born without/lose a limb to at least be capable of doing many of the things those of us with four working limbs can do. NASA's research has also led to water purification being much cheaper and far easier, so that nearly anyone, regardless of how poor, in a developed society can have it, when originally it was limited to the upper class. Research from NASA has also benefitted food safety, hospitals, pollution levels, fire fighters, and highway safety. Space research is one of the better investments for helping all of a society. 

Fair enough, but don't tell me those Apollo missions were worth it. Especially 13. I'm just saying, billions of dollars literally blew up during the Apollo era.

I will tell you they were worth it, because the research that goes into developing those missions can be applied on so many different levels. Doesn't matter whether it blew up or not, the research still remains and can still be used by others. If you're looking to improve a society, the best places to invest your money are in improving space related and military technology. 



fatslob-:O on 18 January 2016
MTZehvor said:

As it pertains to contests or measuring of equality, yes, it does. For instance, people got upset at the Patriots when they were accused of deflating footballs. Why? Because it (supposedly) put them at an advantage that others teams didn't start off with. People argue that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision makes campaigning "unfair" for less wealthy candidates because they can't afford to advertise themselves as much, and are at a disadvantage from the get go. That's the issue at stake here, and that's really what fairness is all about. If you've got a different idea of what fair means, then feel free to throw it out there.

I agree that having better or worse circumstances is a part of life, but that doesn't make the concept of fairness any less valid. It just means that life isn't fair, which, coincidentially, is a commonly enough heard phrase that I think it drives the point home.

My idea of "fair" is pertaining to adhering standards or rules ... 

Life is one shitty game that involves some luck whether you like it or not ... 

You can only argue about fairness on the grounds of misconduct for a very small set of variables ... 

Nothing is ever equal in life but that doesn't mean it's not fair. The rules for it makes sense to great degree ...



S.T.A.G.E. on 18 January 2016

The richest people in the world might invest in people sometmes, but they horde an insane amount of money over generations and inflation that is created only devalues money by creating more out of nowhere.