The fact the 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion is "fantastic," according to reality TV star Kevin O'Leary.

"It's a great thing," the multi-millionaire said, "This inspires everybody. It's fantastic news, of course I applaud it... what could be wrong with this? I celebrate capitalism... If you work hard, you might be stinking rich one day."

O'Leary made the comments in January on the CBC's Lang & O'Leary Exchange. O'Leary, who calls himself "Mr. Wonderful," also stars in the Canadian show, Dragons' Den and the ABC show, Shark Tank.

His co-host on the show, Amanda Lang, who, following the left/right conceit of the show, generally takes an opposing perspective, smirked and tried to make the point that perhaps the stat shows the exact opposite -- that someone living on $1/day might not have the structural support required to pull him or herself up by his or her bootstraps.

O'Leary shot back: "Don't tell me that you want to redistribute wealth again. That's never going to happen, OK?"

Lang failed to mention that many consider the stat proof that redistribution is actually happening, but it's an upward redistribution, and is a sign of structural inequality, lack of opportunity, and non-merit-based success.

O'Leary's rags-to-riches story

O'Leary's success story began when he he sold his software publishing business, SoftKey, to Mattel in a billion-dollar deal. His mother gave him $10,000 to start that business.

Before that, according Wikipedia, he went to a private school in Montreal called St. George's School of Montreal. The "Fee Summary" for the current school year shows tuition and other fees (including a "Dining Room Fee") adding up to close to $20,000.

Following O'Leary's argument, this is a sign of money well wasted and a missed opportunity. Who knows how much harder he would have worked and how much richer he would be today if only he had lived on $1/day and scratched his way to the top without private-school support. Damn you, dining-room privileges.

Other O'Leary moments

This isn't the first time O'Leary's assumed the role of spokesperson for the one per cent.

During the Occupy movement in 2011, he called author Chris Hedges a "left-wing nutbar" during an interview on the Exchange. Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winging journalist, said later that "it will be the last time [he appears on the show]" and compared the CBC to Fox News.

CBC's ombudsman found O'Leary in violation of the public broadcaster's journalistic standards.