• @slumlordthanatos@lemmy.world
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    2221 hours ago

    I mean, the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos could end world hunger with a snap of their bony fingers, and they’re not doing it, despite the fact that they would still be wealthy beyond comprehension if they did.

    We’re asking them to do the bare minimum and utilize their wealth in a responsible manner, and they’re not even doing that much.

    • @kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      613 hours ago

      the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos could end world hunger with a snap of their bony fingers, and they’re not doing it, despite the fact that they would still be wealthy beyond comprehension if they did.

      I’m reminded of this line Citizen Kane:

      You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in… sixty years”.

    • ObjectivityIncarnate
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      012 hours ago

      I mean, the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos could end world hunger with a snap of their bony fingers

      Bullshit.

      World hunger, which has in fact decreased drastically over the past century, is not a problem that money can solve, because cost is not the reason it persists where it does.

      One major issue: food donations to poor areas tend to be hoarded and distributed unequally by the most powerful people in those poor areas.

      So we’re one sentence in, and already we need to fundamentally understand local political dynamics and either use force to ensure equal distribution, or to change local leadership structures. This is already out of control.

      You can’t just throw money at the problem and expect it to just be solved. There are real underlying societal and infrastructure issues in a lot of impoverished countries that need to be solved in order for hunger to be solved. You could ship a billion tons of food to a single starving region and there would still be millions of starving people.

      Additionally, simply handing out food would kill the domestic food industry (because who would buy food when billionaires are giving it away for free) and would make the country even more problematic.

      You should know what you’re taking about when you make ridiculous claims like this.

      • @smiletolerantly
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        810 hours ago

        You can’t just throw money at the problem and expect it to just be solved. There are real underlying societal and infrastructure issues in a lot of impoverished countries that need to be solved in order for hunger to be solved. You could ship a billion tons of food to a single starving region and there would still be millions of starving people.

        That’s a strawman. No-one said “they should just, like, buy enough food to feed the hungry”.

        When people say it would cost x to solve world hunger, they are talking about those “underlying societal and infrastructure issues”.

        So, yes. Everything can be solved with money. You can hire people to “fundamentally understand local political dynamics”, invest in research, pay to fund the programs that will enable impoverished regions to develop the means to build the infrastructure to feed themselves.

        Additionally, simply handing out food would kill the domestic food industry (because who would buy food when billionaires are giving it away for free) and would make the country even more problematic.

        Just because this is the idea you have in mind for how to solve hunger, and it is, as you rightly stated, a fucking stupid idea, doesn’t make it the only idea.