What can we do about the filthy stinking rich?

What can we do about the filthy stinking rich?

It’s really scary to think that 90% of the world’s wealth is in the hands of something like 8% of the population. If ever there was a recipe for revolution this is it. Just look at the turnout of protesters at the latest G20 summit in London carrying banners saying ‘Bankers rhyme with #ankers’ and ‘Stop the greed.’

The fact is that nobody likes the rich. And it’s their own fault. They drive around in cars worth more than most people’s houses. They have holiday homes on exotic islands worth more than most people’s life earnings, and sail yachts that cost more than the GDP of some small countries. And how about that Russian billionaire who has spent over 56 million dollars on two trips to the moon? And talking about the moon, do you know that they trained a scientist, at the cost of millions of dollars, to go to the moon in a space ship that cost billions of dollars, so that he could test the absorbency of baby’s nappies in outer space? What a load of waste!

And so we can blatantly expose the rich for what they are: a bunch of selfish greedy bastards who spend their time trampling all over the poor in their extra large carbon-soled jackboots.

What can we do about them? Well, I have a suggestion that might level the playing field. Something I call RATS, which stands for ‘Rich Asset Time Share’. It’s really quite simple. All assets, monetary or materialistic, must be shared with the poor. So if your bank manager buys a new Jaguar, the six people with the lowest bank balance at his branch get to use the car for one day a week, leaving the bank manager the use of the car on Sundays to go to church where he can confirm that ‘he should neither a lender nor borrower be’.

And if any institution should practice what they preach, it’s religion. The Vatican is one of the richest states in the world and yet the Pope on his latest visit to Africa donated no money to help alleviate the poverty, and instead chose to discourage the use of condoms, which in turn will result in the very cause of poverty in the first place.

So come to think of it: a simpler way would be to tax the living hell out of the rich, and ban all tax havens. To achieve this we would have to get rid of cash in all its forms so that drug dealing, money-laundering and any sort of robberies involving money would become pointless, leading to the ultimate cashless society. That would be the answer. And don’t tell me that it would take away the rich person’s motivation, because greed is not that easily blunted.

So there you have it. Problem solved. A libertine society in which ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’ could be practiced instead of ‘Jealousy, Envy, and Greed.’ The French philosopher Rousseau first said this before the French Revolution. And we all know what happened then.

Let’s hope that RATS is instigated as soon as possible, so that our ruling rich learn to lose their money before their heads.