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**Chris** · 19-04-2012, 16:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Nobody's going to be as well off as you think they'll be under your equality system but I guess that doesn't fit in with your narrow perspective.

Or, to put it another way:

Quote:

The rich haven't got enough money to make the rest of us comfortable. Just look at the arithmetic

If we average out global GDP we get to a figure of about $8,000 per head, something like that. That's a tad over £5,000 each. So if we share everything around the world equally with everyone around the world then that's what each of us, at maximum, can possibly have each year.

Given that the UK government is around £700 billionish a year at present and there are 64 million of us, that means that what we can buy with our equal share of the world's resources is about 50 per cent of the government we already have.

<snip>

So truly divvying it all up amongst everyone really isn't going to work. But could we do it just among those who share these Blessed Isles with us? Sadly, no, we can't, not if we're all going to be adequately cared for. As we're told in the paper today there isn't enough money to go round just among us either.

A survey of over 2,000 adults by the insurance company found that Britons need extra pre-tax income of £7,236 a year to make them feel financially secure.

<snip>

So, there are 25 million households in the country and every one of them needs an extra £7,236 a year to feel secure. Yes, we can do this, this is what average means, we get to multiply the average by the number to give us the total. This is, that total, near enough £180 billion as makes no difference ... Where might we get £180 billion from? Well, there's the rich of course! They are the b'stards who have captured all the moolah in the first place and that's where our jacquerie is going to reclaim it from. Darn right too!

<snip>

To make all households financially secure we've got to find £180 billion, but even if we take all the cash off the top 10 per cent, all the food, ponies, labradors and croquet lawns they have, we've only got £130 billion. So we cannot in fact just redistribute the dosh that's lying around and make this the green, pleasant and equal land that some seem to want. For there just isn't enough cash to provide the standard of living everyone wants. That is, we cannot redistribute our way to wealth.

Well worth reading in full:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance...he-arithmetic/