also the climate, war, natural disaster and dictatorships but still

The thing about billionaires it that they could just stop. It's not a skin colour, it's not an ethnicity or even a religion.
If they wanted to they could redistribute the wealth. They could use their power to close the political doors they exploit.
Wouldn't even have to check themselves out, wouldn't even have to adopt some monastic lifestyle. But they would rather live in a world where they have lifetimes of obscene luxury at the expense of others. At a certain point you have to ask if causing suffering is part of their fun.
- Anyone that would stop would've done so well before they got to the point of obscene wealth. Billionaires can only stop hypothetically - the only way to get them to actually stop is through force.
  
  Yeah its essentially a mental illness once they get to the billionaire stage.
  
  I'm willing to allow that someone could have a change of heart after acquiring wealth, or can control of such wealth through inheritance.
  I don't really care how such a realignment of thinking is achieved though. Be it force, visitation by three spirits, whatever. I guess my point is that as they have the capability to change but don't, which should inform our actions.
- Not if there's a bigger billionaire.
- https://youtu.be/VJFZodY9jp0

Yes, billionaires could end poverty. But they never did and never will.

They're not wrong. They could all choose to take dirt naps

There is a finite amount of wealth....
Billionaires have to take it from everyone else to accumulate it. And then taking that money out of circulation hurts but so does them "investing" because it drives the price of everything up.
Especially for stuff like real estate where they make money buying but also investing in mortgage debt. The wealthy are incentiviced to drive prices skyhigh, but it's unsustainable and huge crashes become more and more frequent. Everytime people get squeezed and some loss everything, and the wealthy gobble up even more.
As Trevor Moore once said:
It's purely business
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMHCw3RqulY
- No, it's not a zero-sum game.
  That being said, they do exploit us.
  
  they turn it into a zero sum game by forcing it to be. it's really perverse…
  
  They can print more dollars causing inflation...
  But the wealth it represents is finite.
  It is literally impossible to "create" wealth because someone has to pay.
  Even finding a pound of gold in your backyard, for you to exchange that for money, someone has to pay you that money.
  All you did by finding a pound of good was reduce the price of gold by a negligible amount.
  So like I said:
  There is a finite amount of wealth…
- There is a finite amount of wealth....
  I wonder about that, actually. I think it's quite likely that there is a literally finite amount of wealth, but a functionally infinite amount of wealth; that there is no actual scarcity. Our world produces enough to shelter, feed, and hydrate each of the eight billion humans on the planet. We have to throw away food, waste water, and leave perfectly livable homes empty in order to maintain the illusion of scarcity, all so that billionaires can maintain their hoards.
  
  there is a literally finite amount of wealth, but a functionally infinite amount of wealth;
  I think the distinction is currency/wealth.
  What I'm saying is:
  there is a literally finite amount of wealth, but a functionally infinite amount of currency
  People not understanding the difference and inflation is what has allowed billionaires to accumulate so much. If you had 50k saved for retirement, you'd notice if one day you had 45k, but everyone just accepts it when that 50k has the purchasing power of 45k.
  Inflation is needed to prop up our economic system, if it wasn't for that people wouldn't be driven to invest in stocks for retirement, and while the commoners make some money over inflation rates. Crashes like what is happening now routinely wipes that out.
  The whole thing is a game of three card Monty, people are distracted by everything moving around and they don't realize it's not a game of skill, it's a grift.
  The dealer may loose sometimes, and a person who knows when to walk away may make some money.
  But at the end of every day the dealer leaves with more money than they showed up with.