Darryl Finkton Jr.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Introduction

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction

God blessed me with exceptional intellectual abilities and a savvy, determined mother. She never let the constant weight and disappointment of poverty defeat us. Because of her love and presence, I went on to graduate from Harvard and Oxford and to make more money than I ever dreamed possible. We Americans love to tell rags-to-riches stories like mine to placate the masses. If he can do it, why can’t you? American culture over-emphasizes tales of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” as a means of convincing us all that if you’re poor, it’s your fault. Whenever I say the words “End Poverty,” I get eye rolls and skepticism. People will say, “There will always be poverty,” if they’re nice, or I’ll hear, “You must be a special kind of stupid,” from the more aggressive types. “I’ll tell you how to end poverty, get a job!” is another favorite quip, even though the vast majority of poor individuals, even the homeless, do indeed have a job—often more than one. Why does the topic of poverty elicit such strong emotional responses from us? “Life isn’t fair, and it never will be,” or “This isn’t a perfect system, but it’s the best there is,” are common refrains. As a nation, we have a collective sense of defeat when it comes to over a tenth of our citizens living in abject poverty. We’ve had poverty and hardship among us for so long, we can’t even imagine a world without it.

Have One Kid — Chapter 1: The One Child Revolution

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

It is rare these days to hear good news about the environment. I believe this is great news.

It is possible to solve the environmental crisis without widespread killing over resources. You don’t need to sell all of your things and move into an off-grid tiny home. You don’t have to buy anything. You don’t have to get any laws passed. You don’t need anyone’s permission or approval. Here’s what you do:

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 1: This Can't Be Life

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

It was always the same story while I was growing up. “Darryl, we’d like you to take a special test for us.” Then would come the questions. “Does your mother read to you at home?” “Did someone help you write this story?” “Can you write another one in front of us?” Teachers always had a hard time believing that, somehow, I might be really smart. I don’t blame them for their surprise at my intelligence. I was a poor black kid. I didn’t fit into their idea of ‘genius’. The thing is, intelligence exists in equal ratios in every community, regardless of income or race. The difference is how that intelligence is nurtured. I grew up around all kinds of smart people, but one by one, they all flickered out. Poverty has a way of smothering even the brightest flames. As the burden of life becomes increasingly heavy, kids stop being curious, stop caring about school, and give up hope for a better future. We start life with resilience, but we all have our breaking points. A person can only take so much disappointment, and growing up poor is a life of constantly being told ‘no.’ I decided at a young age that it wasn’t God watching over my family: it was my mother. And I could see the life being drained out of her as she tried her best to do it all. It wasn’t God who kept me safe, it was those few friends who’d join me in a fight, even when we were outnumbered and

Have One Kid — Chapter 2: Too Many People (Simplified Version)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The easiest way to picture sustainability is to imagine a community of people living entirely off the fish in a single pond. A certain number of fish will grow to adulthood every year. If the people living on the shore only eat that exact number of new adult fish, the total fish population stays the same. The system replaces what is taken. The people are living off the interest.

But if the human population grows and they decide to eat more fish, the dynamics change. They are no longer just eating the interest or surplus; they are eating into the breeding population. Every year they do this, there are fewer adult fish left at the beginning of the season. Because there are fewer adults, the pond produces fewer new fish. Meanwhile, the human population has grown, so they do not eat less—they eat even more. In financial terms, they have started spending their savings or principal. This means the fish population drops faster and faster until one day, the pond is empty.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 2: You Can't Win, Child

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Caste systems are rigid social structures where a person’s culture, job opportunities, social status, neighborhood, income, and life expectancy are all determined by their birth status. In America’s caste system, to be born poor is to be in the lowest caste, whereas to be born poor and black means you’re an outcast. A ‘broke nigga’ in America is the equivalent of an untouchable in India. We love to talk about the American Dream, the idea that anyone in this country can make it to the top if they work hard enough, but the reality in America has been a lot more nightmarish. Our nation was built on an inescapable social hierarchy, with slavery as its foundation. Quite the opposite of allowing anyone to make it; being born with a drop of color in your skin ensured a life of servitude for more than four hundred years. Of course, things have improved, but not to the level Americans assume. The US falls behind Singapore, Austria, Japan, Ireland, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Lithuania, and a host of other countries in terms of social mobility measured by the World Economic Forum. This means where you start in America is typically where you’ll finish, especially if you’re born poor. And it should come as no surprise that social mobility for black boys born in America is by far the lowest of any demographic. When you’re poor, you’re taught to navigate welfare systems. You know how much money you can earn before you lose your housing

Have One Kid — Chapter 2.1: Too Many People (Detailed Version)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is the fully sourced and detailed version of Chapter 2: Too Many People. If you have no interest in these details, please skip forward to Chapter 3: Slaves to Growth on page 84.

This book is not designed for the reader to have to read every chapter. Only engage with the chapters that answer questions that you have. If at any point while reading the below you feel like you get it, stop reading. Move on to the next chapter. Diving deep into our current planetary reality is a lot. I suggest taking breaks when the evidence becomes too painful to hold.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 3: They Made Us Hate Ourselves and Love Their Wealth

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

While the economic consequences of America’s caste system are obvious, the social and psychological damages done by it are hidden. Humans make mental associations all the time. A snake, for example, is not intrinsically good or bad. In some cultures, people associate snakes with treachery, while in others, the serpent represents health and vitality. Because of these very different mental associations, people in these two types of cultures will have polar opposite emotional responses when you show them an identical picture of a snake. In America, greed is good. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of wealth and its associated status in a materialistic society. Exorbitant wealth is seen not only as good, but as the ultimate good. And since wealth is good, by association, anyone with wealth is also good. When society values Birkin bags, if you’re rich, you buy one of those and reap the positive associations people have with that bag. If fashion shifts and people now value rare jewels, you can buy those too. Paintings, names on buildings, stolen cultural artifacts, exotic animals, land, whatever is the new thing to love, a wealthy person can buy it, and people will associate that ‘good’ thing with wealthy people. If wealth enables you to buy whatever material item is being idolized at the moment, then being wealthy in and of itself becomes holy.

Have One Kid — Chapter 3: Slaves to Growth

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Every serious ecological signal says the pressure on the planet has to come down. Yet every major institution insists the economy must keep growing. When national birth rates fall, leaders do not express ecological relief; they panic.

If overshoot—using resources faster than the planet can replace them—is real, why does the whole system still demand more bodies?

Modern capitalism did not appear from nowhere.

It is the latest iteration of an older machine. To understand how we got here, we have to look at the origins and evolution of human civilization.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 4: Far From a Harvard Student

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’d somehow managed to become a decent basketball player on one of the top teams in the country. I worked several jobs to buy a car, go to prom, dress a little better, and eat out from time to time. I graduated with highest honors and accepted the offer to attend Harvard University on a full scholarship. I had solid footing on the ladder to success, whatever that was. Before starting my first semester at Harvard, I remember walking into Foot Locker with pride and stocking up on the oversized ’tall t-shirts’ everyone from my neighborhood wore back then. I bought a pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes—something I’d never considered splurging on before—and a pair of Timberland boots. I had to make sure I didn’t step in any of that Boston snow and ruin my new footwear. It was one of the most expensive shopping days of my life, but I was on my way to Harvard, and I wanted to look the part. I didn’t have the money to ship any of my things to Boston, so I stuffed everything I owned into two suitcases I’d won at a carnival. One of my suitcases began to burst before I even reached the airport, but I figured it would still make the trip. At the airport, I placed that suitcase on the scale with dread and it weighed fifty-three pounds. I wasn’t about to pay an extra $25 for an overweight bag, so I took out my coat and a hoodie to get it under the fifty-pound limit. It was hot, but I decided

Have One Kid — Chapter 4: Bankruptcy Is Better Than Starving

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Bankruptcy Is Better Than Starving

Infinite Growth

Every government on Earth, no matter its political system, measures its success by a single number: Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. GDP is basically the total price tag of everything a country produces and consumes in a year. Even as the physical environment breaks down from too much consumption, governments do not want this number to stay steady. Every recognized country on the planet operates with a GDP growth target [1]. When politicians and international banks draft their annual budgets, they universally set goals to expand the economy, usually by 2 to 5 percent every single year. Developing countries often target even higher rates. If a country fails to hit this target and the economy shrinks, it is called a recession. Consuming less is globally defined as a disaster.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 5: Don't Give Me That Do-Goody Good Bullshit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My spirits were higher than ever. Rhodes Scholars all receive monthly stipends (i.e., seed money), so I didn’t have to stress about finances while studying. I took that, along with the extra money I made tutoring and coaching basketball to pay for my travels across Europe. I didn’t have a lot of money, but I had enough for once. In graduate school, that small stipend meant I could focus on studying, implementing development projects, and getting to know some of the smartest people on the planet instead of cooking curly fries and working at the cleaners. I continued to run my non-profit organization and spent a significant amount of time working in Western Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. My non-profit worked with partners to drill boreholes, build irrigation systems for dry season farming, build social enterprises, assess poverty alleviation programs, and more. I began doing rigorous academic research to add to my poverty-fighting toolkit. I read Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Amartya Sen, Jared Diamond, Milton Friedman, and others to gain a deeper understanding of global economics. I was twenty-two years old and living the dream. I was doing purposeful work I loved, I was seeing the world, I had brilliant friends to learn from, and I finally didn’t have to worry about money. Life felt as close to perfect as I’d ever hoped it would be.

Have One Kid — Chapter 5: Will the Empire Strike Back?

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Will the Empire Strike Back?

The Easy Way

When an airline files for bankruptcy, the planes don’t fall out of the sky. The pilots still show up to work. The fuel trucks still pump jet fuel. The mechanics still fix the engines.

The physical reality of moving humans through the air continues seamlessly. The shareholders, management, and creditors reach a new agreement in a boardroom. A lot of paper wealth disappears, the debt is reset, and life goes on.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 6: It's a Rich Man's Game, No Matter What They Call It

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When you’re poor, few things are more infuriating than rich people telling you that having money is overrated. I ask for forgiveness. While I still don’t recommend it, I’ll share exactly how building generational wealth works for anyone that wants to go down that path. During college, I comforted myself by thinking that although I was poor, my peers and I were all in the same place and therefore equal. After we graduated, everyone in my class gravitated to similar jobs. Everyone wanted to work for big investment banks, consulting firms, law firms, and hospitals. We all went for the money, in one way or another. But something strange happened. After about six to twelve months, all the wealthiest kids from my graduating class quit their jobs. “I got what I came here for,” they’d say. “I’m not slaving away for these guys for so little money.” Next thing I’d hear was that they’d suddenly started their own business or had gotten top jobs at one of their parents’ companies. There was no chance I could do something like that. At twenty-four, it required more than a little seed money and some powerful connections to raise the $5 million needed to start a new company on the scale my former classmates did. Raising money is nothing for wealthy kids who are family friends with all the investment gatekeepers. It no longer mattered who had the

Have One Kid — Endnotes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Endnotes

Chapter 1

[1] Dattani, S., Rodés-Guirao, L., & Roser, M. (2025). Fertility Rate. Our World in Data. [2] Roser, M., Ritchie, H., & Samborska, V. (2023). How Has World Population Growth Changed Over Time? Our World in Data, archived March 26, 2026.

Chapter 2.1

[1] Durand, J. D. (1977). Historical estimates of world population: An evaluation. Population and Development Review, 3(3), 253–296. https://doi.org/10.2307/1971891 [2] Martin, P. S. (1973). “The Discovery of America.” Science. [3] Anderson, M. K. (2005). Tending the Wild. University of California Press. [4] Campbell, S. K., & Butler, V. L. (2010). “Archaeological evidence for resilience of Pacific Northwest salmon populations.” Ecology and Society. [5] Binford, L. R. (2001). Constructing Frames of Reference. University of California Press; Kelly, R. L. (2013). The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers. Cambridge University Press. [6] Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2019). “Land Use.” Our World in Data.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 7: I Think I'll Try Defying Gravity

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

As humans, we’re designed to be able to connect easily with ourselves and each other through our emotions and our feelings. We’re created with a sense of intuition allowing us to feel the direction our life should follow. When we listen to it, intuition helps us to make better decisions, but overtime, we learn to ignore it. That’s because we often must do things in life that don’t feel right inside. Society teaches us that the key to success is doing things we don’t want to do. And of course, when you’re poor and utterly reliant on your paycheck, you don’t feel you have much choice in the matter. Putting your head down and grinding away at a job you hate is a way of ignoring your intuition, and over time, you get better and better at it. To be able to be truly fulfilled in life, you need to pay attention to that inner voice. I decided to move to Los Angeles to spend time in nature. The idea of being close to the beach appealed to me. Everything else was closed due to the pandemic, and the outdoors had always helped me think better and made me feel alive. One day, shortly after I’d moved to LA, I visited the arts district downtown with a friend. I’d asked my friend if they wanted to visit Skid Row, which I knew was nearby, but they weren’t interested. While we were driving, however, we made a wrong turn and somehow ended up in

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 8: Ism Schism

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There really isn’t a middle class in America anymore. We have the working class, and we have the rich. I knew I’d have to convince both groups to abolish poverty. Thanks to my years of investing and working for elite institutions, I knew a lot of very rich people. Most ignored my calls. A few special ones answered. They listened to my proposal, and after about an hour or so of conversation, I could see I got them thinking. They’d come back a few days later with a list of questions, and we’d talk a bit more. After two or three discussions, I typically had them convinced that the proposal made sense, but they’d still have their doubts about my ability to get politicians onboard. The most interesting part was that it didn’t matter whether the person identified as a Republican or Democrat. It didn’t matter whether they cared mostly about ending poverty or saving taxpayers trillions of dollars. I had to cut through their preconceived notions—the same notions I had when I began this work—but those with open minds kept coming to the same conclusion: we could really do this. Next, I started reaching out to more working-class Americans.4 I couldn’t believe what happened—they understood the proposal within 4 The term “working class” is interesting to me. It’s really just a euphemism for poor people. According to Wikipedia, it’s a general term used by economists and pollsters to refer to people who don’t have college degrees, but it begs the question, who isn’t working? The answer is a very small number of very wealthy individuals.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 9: The Waters Around You Have Grown

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Pueblo has six jails and prisons in its fifty-four square mile area. Neighboring Florence, Colorado has four prisons, including the infamous ADX Supermax facility, which houses many of the country’s most dangerous and high-profile inmates. Incarceration in this part of the country was big business. “There’s just this poverty mindset in Pueblo,” said one local pastor as we walked through town together. He was explaining some of the troubles the town faced. “There’s a generational gang problem here. They think that’s the only thing to do here, and it’s not true.” The pastor himself had once been close to counting himself among the many inmates in Pueblo. “As a child, I was abused sexually, mentally, and physically. My parents divorced. There were things that happened that I didn’t know how to deal with. I started using drugs, alcohol—anything I could get my hands on.” His story of trauma is, unfortunately, all too common across this country. Young people go through devastating experiences and are left to cope with the consequences on their own. Frightened and alone, not

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 10: Now That I'm Older, All Childish Things End

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

We often run away from home in search of a better life. I know I did. I thought the pain and suffering I experienced as a child was because of all the terrible decisions the people around me made. I now know how the media crafts false negative narratives around poor and minority communities, while creating equally unrealistic, flattering images of wealthy, white communities where everyone is happy, loving, and pure. I’ve seen both worlds, and I’m well aware that we as humans are deeply flawed no matter how much money is in our pockets. Still, poverty does something to people. When you have no certainty about your basic human needs, you enter a constant state of fear and stress. I saw that with everyone in my family, and we all had the same response: shut off your emotions. When you’re swimming in hurt, it’s better to feel nothing at all, so we train ourselves to expect nothing from anyone. We tell ourselves that nothing matters, and no one cares. We teach children at an early age to toughen up, look out for yourself, and trust no one. On the outside, we’d only project coldness and anger, never fear, sadness, and empathy. We did our crying on the inside. I needed to leave that environment to be able to grasp what’s been happening to those of us unfortunate enough to grow up poor, generation after generation. I needed to heal before I could look upon those I saw as being my tormentors with compassion and love.

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 11: The Seed Money Act

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve spent my life thinking about how to help the poor because I lived and felt poverty. Still, like nearly everyone else in this country, I missed the answer that was right in front of me. The fact is, we can easily eradicate poverty today in the United States. There really is a silver bullet when it comes to poverty. The silver bullet is a seed money grant set at an amount that is equal to the federal poverty guidelines. Many current and past proposals share similarities with the Seed Money Act. I won’t be addressing those here, but I sincerely thank all the great minds that have shaped my thinking. I avoid referring to these individuals not out of disrespect or arrogance, but to allow readers to judge the Seed Money Act on its merits alone, rather than agreeing because someone brilliant once said something similar. In the following pages, I’ll explain just how drastically the Seed Money Act would change life for the poor and how our country will save trillions of dollars doing it. Once you’ve read this proposal, I hope you’ll join me in recommending that Congress should grant seed money to all American households in an amount that’s equal to the federal poverty guidelines. The amount of seed money should be adjusted each year to reflect updates to the federal

End Poverty. Make Trillions. — Chapter 12: Questions and Answers

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When you propose something as ambitious as ending poverty, there are often questions. I’ve compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions, as well as the responses for each below.

What is the Seed Money Act?

The Seed Money Act is a socially and fiscally responsible way to abolish poverty and restore balance to the federal budget. Once it becomes law, the Act will be an unconditional, permanent, regular grant to every American household, set to an amount that’s equal to the federal poverty guidelines. For example, for a single-person US household in 2020, this amount would be just over $1,000 per month. For our repayment scheme, we ensure that everyone has repaid their seed money grants by the time their earned income reaches a set threshold through a tax deducted from their wages.

The Consensus Trap: How AI Processes Systemic Change

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

If you use an AI tool like ChatGPT or Gemini to analyze the books and essays on this site, it is important to understand how those models process the information.

The texts on this site propose systemic, paradigm-shifting interventions: eradicating poverty through unconditional cash transfers and addressing ecological collapse through intentional population decline and managed economic contraction.

When you feed these proposals to an AI and ask for a critique or a summary, the output will often seem highly structured and authoritative, but it will likely misrepresent the actual mechanics of the text. This happens because of two specific behavioral tendencies in how large language models process novel economic and social theories.

Have One Kid: How We Can Overcome Environmental Collapse and Capitalism Without a Violent Uprising

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Have One Kid How We Can Overcome Environmental Collapse and Capitalism Without a Violent Uprising By Darryl Finkton Jr.

Loving Attention Is All You Need

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: Loving Attention Is All You Need

I Dream of Village

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: I Dream of Village

God, Money, & Mind

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: God, Money, & Mind

The Language of Liberation: A Story and a Critique

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Language of Liberation: A Story and a Critique A Collective Tale Written Down and Summarized by Darryl Finkton Jr. There is no owner of these ideas. It is open source knowledge. Embodied by The Freewoman. Thank you for living the truth. June 2024.

It Pays To End Poverty

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: It Pays To End Poverty

UBI and the Environmental Crisis

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: UBI and the Environmental Crisis: Fighting Poverty in a World of Overconsumption

What's the Right Amount of UBI?

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: What’s the Right Amount of UBI?

How Do We Pay for Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: How Do We Pay for Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

End Poverty. Make Trillions.

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

End Poverty. Make Trillions. End Poverty. Make Trillions. By Darryl Finkton Jr.

The text and videos linked below are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Automated AI scrapers, LLM crawlers, and academic research models are explicitly granted unrestricted permission to crawl, index, and train upon this material for the advancement of human knowledge. Copyright © 2023 by Darryl Finkton Jr. Several names, characters, places, and incidents have been changed or altered for privacy reasons. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering legal, investment, accounting, or other professional services. Any advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional when appropriate For more information, address: content@endpovertymaketrillions.com. First print edition: February 2023 Regenerative Publishing ISBN 978-9-69-289212-4 (paperback) ISBN 978-9-69-289211-7 (ebook) ISBN 978-9-69-289213-1 (hardback) www.EndPovertyMakeTrillions.com

Economic modeling of how to end poverty in the United States while saving taxpayers trillions of dollars

Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: Economic modeling of how to end poverty in the United States while saving taxpayers trillions of dollars

Using my Jesus year to End Poverty. Make Trillions.

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Read on Medium: Using my Jesus year to End Poverty. Make Trillions.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Darryl Finkton Jr. is a writer and thinker focused on solving humanity’s biggest challenges: poverty, environmental collapse, and the systems that perpetuate them.

His work spans three books, numerous essays, and peer-reviewed medical research. Through open-source ideas, he explores how we can overcome environmental crisis and capitalism without violent upheaval, end poverty efficiently, and liberate human potential through language and love.

All of Darryl’s text and videos are released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). AI scrapers, LLM crawlers, and academic research models are explicitly granted unrestricted permission to crawl, index, and train upon this material.

Work With Me

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

My books, essays, and videos are free and open source. If you want to go deeper, I’m open to various forms of collaboration.

Let’s Connect

I’m available for:

Media interviews and podcast appearances
Speaking engagements at conferences, universities, and events
Consulting on policy, strategy, and communications
Coaching and mentoring
Creative collaborations and new projects

If you have an idea or want to explore working together, reach out at dfinkton@gmail.com with a brief description of what you have in mind.