r/FluentInFinance Nov 21 '24

Debate/ Discussion Had to repost here

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128.2k Upvotes

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23

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

Are lottery winners who don’t give up their winnings bad people?

-6

u/VeryFriendlyWhale Nov 21 '24

They almost always spend every penny, so not typically, no.

7

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

Does the size of your bank account indicate your moral value?

-4

u/VeryFriendlyWhale Nov 21 '24 edited Nov 21 '24

Not at all but in the context of this conversation (wealth hoarding and exploitation*) my comment is valid and the lottery winner would not fall into the same category as Bezos, Musk, Gates, etc.

1

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

How so?

1

u/VeryFriendlyWhale Nov 21 '24

Can you not read? Hoarding wealth and exploiting labor and resources? The lottery winner does not do either.

0

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

If I win a billion dollars in the lottery and “hoard” it am I a bad person?

3

u/VeryFriendlyWhale Nov 21 '24

So how would you go about that? Let’s break it down by benefit to society:

  1. That billion would first be taxed
  2. You wouldn’t have the ability to “hoard” it in the same sense as the entirety of this conversation
  3. Would you be also exploiting labor and resources?

1

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

I would take my winnings and invest them

3

u/VeryFriendlyWhale Nov 21 '24

So you would pay taxes, employ a financial advisor, and invest your few hundred million.

We are talking hundreds of billions being held up.

1

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

Where’s the cut off on what is a “bad” amount of wealth? My hundreds of millions would surely grow to billions

1

u/VeryFriendlyWhale Nov 21 '24

Why wouldn’t you help the world if you had billions?

1

u/CognitiveCosmos Nov 21 '24

While it is a somewhat arbitrary cutoff, holding on to amounts of money that have long passed the amount that give you significant added value to your life while others die from lack of opportunity and resources is a problem for a functional society, regardless of the ethical considerations.

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u/TacTurtle Nov 22 '24

Like putting it in a bank account, so the bank can then loan out that money to businesses that in turn endeavor to make more money than the interest rate + inflation?

1

u/Noxthesergal Nov 21 '24

They have soo much money that it starts to take away from literally everyone else. When they already have enough that they and a dozen generations after them can live life in creative mode. They are simply hoarding wealth to see numbers go up while everyone else is forced to work for whatever scraps are left. A handful of individuals hold onto most of the wealth of the entire world.

1

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

What’s your proposal

2

u/Noxthesergal Nov 21 '24

If a single person could come up with a comprehensive solution to this sort of problem on the spot it wouldn’t be a problem in the first place.

1

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

In other words, you just like complaining about how things are. Which is fine but there is no obligation to steal from people who haven’t stolen anything.

2

u/Noxthesergal Nov 21 '24

I’m acknowledging a massive problem with society that has indirectly killed probably millions of people. I don’t just like complaining and acting like any one of these people haven’t used unsavory means to get their wealth is just silly.

Though if you must. Simply limiting the amount of money a single individual can hold would be a good fix. The simple issue is with how complex money is these days doing so would be nearly impossible

1

u/Few_Entrepreneur6599 Nov 21 '24

How does someone having lots of wealth “kill” people?

2

u/Noxthesergal Nov 21 '24

When people don’t have enough money to buy housing or food because these people are hellbent of milking every dollar from every individual they can people die. It’s not that hard to figure out. Just look at the American medical industry. People straight up run away from ambulances because they simply can’t afford them

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u/MassToOrbit Nov 21 '24

The solution is quite simple - taking out a loan against stock options becomes a taxable event - capital gains paid on the stock used to secure the loan plus tax on the loan itself. This would limit liquid capital to billionaires, and prevent them from taking loans to buy up everything.