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............

What Would You Give Away?

There are some conversations that I repeat at least twice a year with whoever will listen. 

What if I won the lotto?  Pay off the house, go on a big holiday, buy a Lambourghini?  How will we manage to retain our friendships now we're so damned wealthy?  Should we give handouts to our friends, take them on holiday, just throw a massive party, pay just their medical expenses?  Then they'd owe you wouldn't they?  Which friends would we choose to come on our handout train?  Awkward. 

It is a taxing enough issue that I will happily enter this conversation with whoever'll listen over and over again.

Oh, and the questions go on.  What percentage would you give to charity?  Would you only give to charity if you won more than the money to cover your debts?  This is serious stuff that takes up at least 2 hours of conversion and contemplation each year of my non-Lotto winning life.

Some people (who I'm not personally acquainted with) are confronted with what percentage to give to charity regularly in their "I-can-buy-you-I can-buy-your-whole-town" lives.  Lotto winners in this equation (well Australian Lotto winners, not Euro Millions jackpot winners) are small fry in comparison to the hundreds of billionaires that seem to be doing just a little bit better than I am.

Many good doers, not do-gooders, might allocate 5% or more of their income to charity.  They haven't made a million dollars this year and maybe not even in the last 5 years. Just decent people who are doing their little bit for people who haven't got the health, lifestyle and security they do.

Then there's these confounded billionaires who need to have other billionaires to remind them not to be so scabby.  1% of a billion dollars, pounds, or even cents is mean.  All managed by their accountant so they can get the right tax breaks and won't need to think too much about those revolting "less fortunate" that are doing little to help them get richer. Greedy bastards.

So the question has now changed, if you were a billionaire, how much would you give to charity?  Surely if you have a conscience, you wouldn't need to be bloody-well reminded to give a decent percentage to others who need it.

Maybe you've never given money to others before and need a framework to encourage you to stop being so mean.  If The Giving Pledge is any indication, if you're a billionaire then 50% of a shitload should ease your conscience somewhat.

The one thing I learnt from The Richest Man In Babylon is that if you've got a little bit of money, you need to get that money to work for you. Or something like that.  People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, used their money and the influence it brings, to work for them by asking a lot more than tokenism from their fellow moneybags.  They started the idea of The Giving Pledge by encouraging a short list of billionaires to 'sit down, decide how much money they and their progeny need, and figure out what to do with the rest of it'.  They wanted to give heaps of money to charity; why do it with just their own money?  Conscience is further eased.  We're feeling more comfortable now.

Sure beats door knocking for a squillion $2 tax deductible donations.

With this kind of wealth, simply the people signed to The Giving Pledge could own us, our town, well almost our whole bloomin' country.  That's a further responsibility with more questions.

Now you've decided that 50% is the percentage, who do you give it to?

See my next post for why you could do worse than model yourself on Bill and Melinda Gates.