Should There Still Be Billionaires?

Absolutely not. I saw a post the other day that showed how much they should be taxed. It was like if you taxed Elon Musk 6.6B that would still leave him with over 200B

That. Is. Disgusting.

I agree it is disgusting that a few have so many and then there is a lot with basically nothing, problem is money does bring with it progress for the human race and how would you stop people from amassing wealth?

Some people are extremely lucky landing on their feet with jobs as most people are on minimum wage and live paycheck to paycheck but if you have earned it honestly then why not

No, it is nonsensical that any one person should have so much wealth that they could never spend especially while there is such poverty

Whilst it is awful that there is still a massive wealth divide, if that person has worked hard for their money then I don't debrudge them. Plus there are plenty of billionaires who donate money to causes to help support those in need.

If they have worked for it then why not?

We don't have many billionaires compared to most countries, Germany, France etc have a lot more and this is indicative of our failure to compete in the world. We are only a small country and we have a high value currency and very high costs i.e. minimum wage etc. We haven't focused on industry and the economy and now have horrific debts. The reason there are so many poor is the state of the economy and the huge level of debts that have to be serviced.

There will always be growing numbers of millionaires and billionaires due to inflation. Some of our billionaires are not British but paying tax here as its less than other countries or they feel financially the UK is more safe for their wealth. This is free money to our economy.

It's a very difficult situation but our policies should be formulated to maximise the revenue to our exchequer and its a difficult balance.

The sad fact is we seem to be playing the blame game for why people are poor in this country but it isn't that difficult to work out you just have to look at the numbers and where the money has flowed, we have a huge trading deficit, we have send huge amounts of money to the EU over the 40 odd years we were members and we have a high level of immigration for jobs many of which have their financial base elsewhere so export a huge amount of their wages. I.e. 1/3rd of doctors were born outside the UK. Just follow the money. People still seem happy to export huge amounts of their money on imports and yet complain when they face greater poverty because of the state of the economy and its debts.

Lets say a billionaire has £1.2 billion in assets/wealth that could still mean they only pay themselves £5 million a year but their accruing assets are still counted in their wealth, i.e. their company may have trebled in size over 5 years let's say and be worth a lot more. If we increase income tax by 5% on the super rich it really doesn't bring in, that much. It's like someone having a home valued £1 million at current rates but a wage of £30k a year. They are a millionaire because they have assets over £1 million but if you charged them an extra 2% a year income tax above the threshold of lets say £15k or whatever it is you only get £300 extra in tax. A lot of billionaires wealth is tied up in assets too.

Ultimately we shouldn't be looking to blame others we should look at ourselves too. If you have want to play the blame game it is the middle income people, people who have reasonable disposable income and there are so many of them in the millions that how they spend their money is the biggest factor to the economy. The poor don't have expensive foreign holidays or new cars and they spend a much higher percentage of their money on energy, rent, food etc and do far less damage to the economy.

Some inherit their wealth and others achieve it themselves. You will never rid wealth or poverty.

Thanks for all your replies!

I don't really understand the question? Let's say you create a business or service i.e. Google. It becomes extremely popular and because your 'wealth' is attached to the value of the business, you become a billionaire. What would it mean In this situation if being a 'billionaire' is no longer allowed? Would you be forced to sell your stock in the business when it reaches a certain size, give it away for free or should the government seize your assets when you reach a certain wealth?

Some people will argue higher taxes, but we don't pay taxes on 'net worth', only taxable events like income / dividends etc. So how would this work in practice?

I think if people have worked hard, they deserve everything they get.

Sometimes inheritance does help. But I would certainly donate a hell of a lot of money to where I think it should go. No one can spend that amount of money in a lifetime. I would love to be wealthy enough to be a philanthropist!

It amazes me every year how much money children in need manage to raise.