All That Glitters Is Not Necessarily Golden

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. -  Last year, Forbes World's Billionaire List had a record ranking of 164 billionaires...that's billion-with-a-b...

At UNBC this evening, an award-winning Canadian journalist will be discussing her claims that this incredible growth in the number of 'super-rich' is bankrupting society, on many levels.

In her book, "The Trouble with Billionaires: Why Too Much Money at the Top is Bad for Everyone", Linda McQuaig teamed up with a tax law professor to look at the rise of the incredibly rich over the past 30-years and examine the implications for the rest of us-less-than-billionaires.

The book gives a simple example to underscore the size of the bank accounts being talked about:  'Imagine this: you are given a dollar for every second.  At that rate, after one minute, you would have 60-dollars.  After 12 days, you would be a millionaire.  But how long would it take to become a billionaire?  Well, at that rate it would take almost 32-years.'

McQuaig brings together research, she says, shows how such concentrated economic power is robbing us of our health, impoverishing our democracy and, in 2008, mirrored the extreme inequality of 1929 -- and both years resulted in devastating Wall Street crashes.

The author also examines why philanthropy isn't all it's cracked up to be and she says a fairer system of taxation is needed.  McQuaig's talk tonight is open to the public.  It's at 7pm in UNBC's Weldwood Theatre.

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