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Barry Ritholtz

Hurting the Rich Won't Help the Poor

Effective government would do more good than a huge wealth transfer.

There's only so much he can do. — There's only so much he can do.
Photographer: Luiz Rampelotto/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

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September 28, 2015, 3:15 PM UTC

Today’s column might anger some people on the right and the left. Try not to react emotionally. Instead consider this as a way to point out some obvious truths to your ideological opposites.

Take a look at the Robin Hood Index chart below. It shows the effect of confiscating all of the wealth of each country’s wealthiest individual and redistributing it to the poorest 15 percent of the nation’s population: