The claim is disingenuous. To adequately feed to world's poor requires increasing economic production, which requires an investment of capital. It also requires, importantly, spreading an economic system that can support such investment and production. In other words, it requires the spread of free trade, of capitalism. Taking the 'wealth' of the rich and giving it to the poor will neither invest capital in future production nor spread free trade. Thus, it would momentarily change the balance of wealth, to no long term benefit.

There's also a number of dangers associated with it. First, it would massively rearrange the balance of money, and thus cause massive inflation in poor countries. This would completely undercut any benefit received from spreading the wealth.

Second, by merely giving them money, you encourage dependency. Giving such vast sums of money will not encourage them to become independent.

Further, the 'wealth' that the claim is based on is not actually wealth at all. It's fiat currency - it's debt. The wealth of the rich is illusory, a complete fabrication to enable them to maintain a dominant social and economic position. It is a tool of dominance, not a factor of production. To alleviate the want of the poor requires providing them actual goods. Transferring fiat currency will not do that. Again, only production and a social structure geared towards production can help them. And these are the very things that no government or humanitarian agency is interested in spreading. They are too absorbed in their anti-market, anti-capitalist ideologies to recognize the need for productive social arrangements.

I would also point out that if all it takes to alleviate world poverty is $240 billion, which is of course a total lie, then the rich countries could print that much and send it too them. TARP was $700 billion; the stimulus was over $1 trillion; Europe has increased its own currency supply by trillions; the Fed adds tens of billions to the supply every month.

This is a simplistic, leftist, and manipulative lie.

You want to help the poor, here's what you do:

a) Decrease the power of Western governments and corporations by (i) ending government involvement in the economy, (ii) destroying all corporations by undermining their legal framework.

b) Don't "buy American". Buy whatever is cheapest and of the highest quality, according to your needs and wants. This will have the corollary effect of increasing American production, contrary to rightest propaganda.

c) Establish a hard, gold based currency. This will prevent the monetary enslavement of poor countries.

d) Open free trade agreements with every country in the world, even tyrannies. Remove all international trade barriers.

Do that, and our problems will resolve themselves in a matter of decades.