The feral rich – how can we help them? – John Minto

Posted on January 30, 2013 by admin in John Minto, Mana Blog

After my last post “This is why they are called the filthy rich” I thought an article from the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of New Internationalist magazine (a very worthwhile read if you don’t get it) would be appreciated.

Remember the earnings of just the 100 richest people in the world last year would be enough to lift everyone on the planet out of extreme poverty four times over.

The magazine identifies these “undeserving rich” as a menace to the community and suggests 10 ways we could help them.

  1. Gang culture – break up their vicious criminal gangs (our Business Roundtable?…) by arresting their ringleaders and locking them up.
  2. Parenting – provide parenting classes to teach social values and respect for others that they can pass on to their children.
  3. Housing – move them out of their overvalued ghettos in the centres of the world’s capitals. Turn over the properties that they own, but barely occupy, to public use and social housing.
  4. Crime and rehab – crack down on repeated climate crime offenders by confiscating their luxury cars and private jets. Rehabilitate persistent offenders by teaching them how to walk and use public transport.
  5. Employment – wean the workshy off the benefits of unearned profits. Break trust fund dependence. Get underserving recipients on to work experience schemes.
  6. Anti-social behaviour – use “tough love” to deal with those who engage in risky behaviour; who gamble, cheat and deceive, and then expect the public to bail them out of trouble. Ground them, tag them and ban them from using the internet to vandalise the global economy.
  7. Profligacy – target contraception towards problem families with morbidly obese carbon footprints fuelled by irresponsible lifestyles.
  8. Vandalism – Get them to clean up after themselves
  9. Social conscience – teach them to start paying their own way. Lesson No 1 – Pay your tax.
  10. Restorative Justice – get overpaid execs who helped themselves to bonuses from bailed-out banks and businesses to face the victims of their crimes and repay the money they owe.

This is useful advice also for us to help the 150 richest New Zealanders (which includes Prime Minister John Key) who had an increase in wealth of $7 billion in 2010.

Any starters?