During the inevitable 'did you watch Live 8 / Madonna has had work done / Coldplay were a letdown' conversation rehash at work yesterday, this totally cynical guy came up with the following gem about the attempt at poverty eradication:
My uncle, god rest his soul, told me this: if you took all the money in the world, bunched it together, and divided it up equally among everyone, within 30 seconds you'd have 100 people with billions and a billion people with hundreds, because people who don't know what to do with money give it to someone else or frit it away.
Now, I don't know this guy's uncle, or whether he actually did enter a parallel universe to try out this experiment and place such a definite time frame on the projected outcome, but this kind of cynical 'people is stoopid' thinking really rubs me the wrong way.
Essentially, he taking a valid point and twisting it to the end of saying that poverty will never be eradicated and that people currently in poverty should just accept their lot in life.
Sure, capitalism is ultimately self-defeating and sure, it relies on there being haves and have-nots, but it really got my goat that this man in his suit and tie feels entitled to make that call. I'm sure he feels better about not giving to charity or supporting as revolutionary an initiative as live 8 as a result.
Two minutes later, he's convincing us to go in on a work ticket for the European Lotto.
Pssssh.
This is a 
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