Charlie StrossYou're naive. Poverty is relative: the very wealthy WANT the vast majority to be poor because it justifies their assumption of personal superiority. If they only wanted "poor" to mean "have one euro less in their wallet", that'd be tolerable: but it seems to be necessary for their egos to see starvation, misery, and death on all sides.
Sam 
@cstross @nathanael @ploum Also, I think they genuinely believe poor people are lesser beings. They know the world is heading towards a big crunch. They want to be standing in the ashes. The poor demand resources. The poor could rise up and present a threat — there are so many more of them. I wish I could believe the email meant "how do we tackle poverty," but that's not what they said.
People who want to alleviate poverty don't talk about putting explosive collars on a private security team.
cyocum@ravenbait @cstross @nathanael @ploum I grew up poor in the USA. Poverty there is framed as a moral condition by the entire society in the USA. You are lesser because you are poor and, in some cases, not considered human. I speak in general terms so exceptions, etc. Many give to charity to feel morally superior to the poor. It's brutal and pervasive so getting to "how do we get rid of poor people" is not surprising in the least.
Dean L. Surkin@26aafa19 There is a teaching in Judaism about charitable giving - a hierarchy: lowest level, the donor gives openly to the donee; next the donee is anonymous; next the donor is anonymous; and highest level, both are anonymous. The highest level is supposed to eliminate that feeling of moral superiority you mention.
Darwin Woodka