<story><title>Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/20/oxfam-85-richest-people-half-of-the-world</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>awjr</author><text>I have no issue with the rich, however I&amp;#x27;m guessing &amp;#x27;most&amp;#x27; of the super-rich have achieved this through acute business acumen.&lt;p&gt;However &amp;#x27;acute business acumen&amp;#x27; can translate into squeezing maximum profits out of a business. Justification for this practice can be found everywhere. Particular &amp;quot;legal requirement&amp;quot; to maximise profits for shareholders.&lt;p&gt;No value is put on social responsibility.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>marvin</author><text>The problem starts when &amp;quot;acute business acumen&amp;quot; involves active participation in political processes in order to gain special advantages or avoid duties which are placed on other members of society. In spite of being a Norwegian, I agree with the capitalistic premise that economic inequality isn&amp;#x27;t in itself a symptom of a problem. But when the richest minority avoids taxes thanks to legal loopholes, lobbies with politicians to get useful laws enacted or gains special contracts with the government to the detriment of others, there is a very big problem.&lt;p&gt;In fact, this is corruption, which is in many of these cases endemic. We like to believe that the educated world has a level playing field, but this is far from the case. The tech world isn&amp;#x27;t representative for the world at large when it comes to being fair in this respect. (And even the tech world is &lt;i&gt;far&lt;/i&gt; from innocent in this regard - e.g. Google et.al.&amp;#x27;s smart dodging of taxation by keeping assets overseas. This practice is legal, but it is exactly the kind of problem where the richest are given an unfair advantage due to their wealth).</text></comment>
<story><title>Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world</title><url>http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/20/oxfam-85-richest-people-half-of-the-world</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>awjr</author><text>I have no issue with the rich, however I&amp;#x27;m guessing &amp;#x27;most&amp;#x27; of the super-rich have achieved this through acute business acumen.&lt;p&gt;However &amp;#x27;acute business acumen&amp;#x27; can translate into squeezing maximum profits out of a business. Justification for this practice can be found everywhere. Particular &amp;quot;legal requirement&amp;quot; to maximise profits for shareholders.&lt;p&gt;No value is put on social responsibility.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>melling</author><text>I guess you&amp;#x27;ve probably missed Bill Gates and Warren Buffet talking about the sperm lottery?  If they were born in the slums of Brazil, for example, they probably would not be successful.&lt;p&gt;There are 7 billion people on the planet and the article cherry picks the poorest 3.5 billion. I imagine that there is little opportunity at that level.  I doubt if anyone in the United States is on that list.</text></comment>