An extra $428 per person for the poorest 3.5 billion people would be a tremendous boost to the world's economy.

On the other hand, if the $1.5 trillion expropriation was invested at, say, 5 percent it would be a perpetual gain of $21.40 a year to each person in the poor half. Good, and prudent. But wait: it is a gain of only about half of 1 percent per year of the $4000 of present-day annual income per person, and less and less as the poor countries grow towards the blade of the hockey stick. We can’t make the poor much better off by taking wealth or income from the rich.