Ellie82 has a good point. The resources spent on wars, security, suppression and violence are more than enough to solve world poverty.
As far as food is concerned, it has been my understanding that the world's annual food production is more than adequate to feed every man, woman, and child on the planet. This sort of removes any excuses we have for allowing anyone to starve.
To encourage people to spend their money and resources in a peaceful manner, consistent with solving poverty, we need a monetary and economic system that equitably distributes wealth amongst the world's population. Wealth is created by labor, acting on natural resources. If sufficient natural resources are freely available to all people, then all people who are able and willing to work can produce enough wealth to feed, house, and care for themselves and their families. However, natural resources such as land, minerals, and so on are monopolized by private parties who demand tribute before granting other access to those resources. This forces people to either pay increasing amounts of their wealth to the land owners or move to less productive land. To fix this problem, all land and natural resources must be returned to communal control, leased to the highest/best bidders and the profits distributed to the whole community.
Besides land, minerals, water and other natural resources, people living in a community derive benefits due to the community. These benefits must be equally shared. Someone whose economic, trading, and financial prowess allows them to turn their small business into a monopoly gains an unfair advantage over their fellow citizens. Although people should receive and retain the fruits of their labors, this person's extra benefit from monopolizing an essential community industry must be taken from him and distributed to the community. Either by direct take-over, mandatory splitting into smaller, competing companies, or by taxation. In this way all monopolies and near monopolies must be returned to small, private, competing organizations or turned into community owned and operated businesses whose profits are immediately distributed to the community.
Before I finish, I must also add the issue of money. Money is essential to modern commerce. But it is created by private bankers, out of thin air, who then charge interest. The bankers did not work for the interest, yet they demand it in payment. Further, because money is created and destroyed by private interests, those interests can cause inflation and deflation. This allows them to transfer wealth from the community to themselves. Due to its importance and how money must be standardized and trusted by the community, it must be placed under community control and any profits must be distributed equally to all community members.
In summary, there is property which should be private and property that should be public. The community must own, control, and receive all revenue from public property while individuals can own, control, and receive revenue from private property. Personal possessions such as clothing, TVs, computers, cars, even houses should be privately owned. But natural resources such as the land under those houses, lakes, rivers, stream, and oceans must be communally owned public property. Further communally owned property must include any businesses that operate best as a monopoly like telephone lines, cable lines, electrical distribution, water and sewer. And last, it is very important that the means of trade - money - be issued by a community controlled organization whose sole interest is the good of the community. Proper division of property and the profits derived from that property will provide the poorest people with food and shelter while the richest will get they way through their own labor and education - not through non-labor extraction of other people's wealth (ie: Rent, interest, tribute, dividends).
As far as food is concerned, it has been my understanding that the world's annual food production is more than adequate to feed every man, woman, and child on the planet. This sort of removes any excuses we have for allowing anyone to starve.
To encourage people to spend their money and resources in a peaceful manner, consistent with solving poverty, we need a monetary and economic system that equitably distributes wealth amongst the world's population. Wealth is created by labor, acting on natural resources. If sufficient natural resources are freely available to all people, then all people who are able and willing to work can produce enough wealth to feed, house, and care for themselves and their families. However, natural resources such as land, minerals, and so on are monopolized by private parties who demand tribute before granting other access to those resources. This forces people to either pay increasing amounts of their wealth to the land owners or move to less productive land. To fix this problem, all land and natural resources must be returned to communal control, leased to the highest/best bidders and the profits distributed to the whole community.
Besides land, minerals, water and other natural resources, people living in a community derive benefits due to the community. These benefits must be equally shared. Someone whose economic, trading, and financial prowess allows them to turn their small business into a monopoly gains an unfair advantage over their fellow citizens. Although people should receive and retain the fruits of their labors, this person's extra benefit from monopolizing an essential community industry must be taken from him and distributed to the community. Either by direct take-over, mandatory splitting into smaller, competing companies, or by taxation. In this way all monopolies and near monopolies must be returned to small, private, competing organizations or turned into community owned and operated businesses whose profits are immediately distributed to the community.
Before I finish, I must also add the issue of money. Money is essential to modern commerce. But it is created by private bankers, out of thin air, who then charge interest. The bankers did not work for the interest, yet they demand it in payment. Further, because money is created and destroyed by private interests, those interests can cause inflation and deflation. This allows them to transfer wealth from the community to themselves. Due to its importance and how money must be standardized and trusted by the community, it must be placed under community control and any profits must be distributed equally to all community members.
In summary, there is property which should be private and property that should be public. The community must own, control, and receive all revenue from public property while individuals can own, control, and receive revenue from private property. Personal possessions such as clothing, TVs, computers, cars, even houses should be privately owned. But natural resources such as the land under those houses, lakes, rivers, stream, and oceans must be communally owned public property. Further communally owned property must include any businesses that operate best as a monopoly like telephone lines, cable lines, electrical distribution, water and sewer. And last, it is very important that the means of trade - money - be issued by a community controlled organization whose sole interest is the good of the community. Proper division of property and the profits derived from that property will provide the poorest people with food and shelter while the richest will get they way through their own labor and education - not through non-labor extraction of other people's wealth (ie: Rent, interest, tribute, dividends).
