Billionaire Tax - The Infomercial

Late at night is a fabulous time to sell workout equipment people don't have the space for and will eventually use as a clothes horse.  Is it the late hour?  The senses are weakened given the quiet of the night and absence of reason that has been sucked out into the night air.

Perhaps the infomercial technique has its success in the extreme length of their "programmes".  Telling us the same information over and over again in 10 different ways and with testimonials from 30 gorgeous "everyday people" is a brainwashing many can't resist.  The credit card is out sooner than you can say "4 easy payments" and the deal's done.

What about convincing people, just a small group of people, to put their "4 easy payments" to something that really counts.  As mentioned in my earlier post, the Giving Pledge by the super-mega rich would qualify as something that really counts.

The Giving Pledge is not a product to be bought, it's a promise.  A very public promise for sure.  A promise from an individual. A broken promise at this scale is a broken reputation and not one readily fixed in a lifetime.

The promises of various countries to support the poor, the sick, the dying, the war-ravaged and those without hope have fallen short.  Local factors, global markets, and a litany of reasons excuse these countries from truly following through.  Whilst countries are looking after their own, no face is lost through reneging.

What to do?  Do what you've always done (seek government pledges), get what you've always got (priority of local population over international aid).

UN top man Ban Ki-moon says "innovative financing" is required and perhaps we can look to the 1,226 billionaires in the world (as of 2012).  Can 1,226 billionaires really make a difference?

The United Nations announced recently that they believe that this group as a whole could be pushed through international taxation to make an extraordinary difference to the plight of the poor.

How extraordinary?  Try 1% of $4.6 trillion.  Thats $46 billion annually that could feed the hungry and support those in the most dire of circumstances.

A sliver of this elite group's wealth represents more than the GDP of many countries.

The World Food Programme says that hunger is one of the world's most solvable problems.  With some innovation and co-operation of a small amount of people, amazing things can happen.

I do understand the reticence.  Putting money into countries ravaged by war, famine and particularly corruption, the super rich may believe it's good money after bad.

Convincing millions of people in the world to eat McDonalds or buy an Ab Circle-Pro seems to be an easy task.  Convincing a small group of 1,226 people to make a huge, life saving decision is another thing.  International wealth taxation is going to be a hard sell and unless their informercials are billionaire-tastic, it will be a long way off.

What if 4 billion people gave $10 annually? 

I can do that, and then some.  From small seeds............