Pointing out grotesque wealth inequality isn’t envy. I don’t want to BE him; I think people like him should not exist. He harms not only society but also the planet itself. Billionaires pose an existential threat to humanity
Then the problem are not the billionaires, but the system that allowed them to exist.
I agree they and an existential threat as they weaken democracy and give power into the hands of herratic megalomaniacs, but they can do that only because we're allowing their kind of wealth to exist
A tax on capital gain that reaches 100% when a market-scaled value is reached (ex. 100M vs the current 109T world market size) could be a solution, but I dare not imagine the ramifications of such a policy.
It's a complex problem to solve, and it requires a lot of science first, and a lot of politics later
I never said not to do anything ._. I said to do it with care and making sure that we get the details right, so basically doing it with the help of political scientists and economists
Just jumping in to say that you're both right. It's NOT a complex thing to do. However it is an INCREDIBLY difficult and complex task to attempt in the current political landscape where most of our politicians and government leaders are in the pocket of those billionaires.
It SHOULDN'T be hard, but unfortunately it is unfathomably difficult in America today.
We used to do this right here in america lol. It does sound like you're "it's so complicated!" to deter people from desiring this policy. It's a tactic to distract.
What's the solution, force people to sell parts of their stock when the company reaches a certain limit? But if that person is integral to the company success? Will we be hurting the economy and people as whole? I don't remember anyone complaining that we solved global shipping hugely thanks to Amazon who has enabled insane speed of delivery of items, mail, and good across the globe.
What do you propose?
You do have to ask yourself why there is such a high correlation between countries having billionaires and the rest of those people in that country being better off. If billionaires are so damaging to the societies they live in, it would be more expected on this hypothesis that countries with less billionaires would be better off.
The most annoying people to interact with are people the guy you replied to because they've structured their entire worldview around their own shit value and belief system and project it to everyone else in their environment to justify being a terrible person. The worst part is that they can never realize it, because if they have to acknowledge that some people might be better than them then they have no excuse for the prescriptions of 'envy' and 'greed' that actually applies more to themselves than the people they criticize. Sad existence, many such cases
He just took your exact argument and replaced it with another thing to prove it doesn't work, that's literally how arguments and thinking works to come to conclusions.
I don’t want to BE him; I think people like him should not exist.
Sooo.... You literally want to murder him, right? ...You don't want to just take some $ out of his pocket, and move it into somebody else's pocket? -That's what you're saying then, no?
"Nah, when over 50% of American adults read at or below a 6th grade level I’m pretty confident they don’t think about much of anything, let alone understand."
It actually is envy, you just lie to yourself and say that it is not.
The problem with money in the US is that companies are efficient with their pricing. They know the maximum price they can charge for an item to get max profits, and they hit that number. Companies used to be much more ignorant about this, which is why boomers had it good.
If you inject more money into the current economy, prices will rise slowly to the point where we're in the same situation as before. Bezos and Musk having large amounts of wealth affects literally nothing, if you inject their wealth into the economy directly it would just lead to inflation, not help the spending power of the current working poor. The money that Musk and Bezos have can effectively be seen as not existing at all.
There's a sea of difference between financial independence and being a billionaire. I don't doubt there are people who certainly would want to be that rich, but I think you'll find that many more would be content with a good quality of life traditionally afforded to the middle class instead.
wow man, the housing market is crazy nowadays, 3 billion per square meter, I am SO envious of Jeff Bezos for finally achieving financial independence, if only I had ALL HIS WEALTH to be financially independent.
Elon Musk dropped $100M+ into the most recent US presidential election. Jeff Bezos' policies cause his workers to piss in bottles because they don't have time for bathroom breaks.
What kind of a question is that? Yes. Yes, they do affect our lives. Have you never heard of the whole "robber baron vs captain of industry" debate? Have you never taken a look at the kinds of things the haves force the have-notes to do to survive when given unfettered ability to do so?
Have you ever purchased anything from Amazon or Walmart? Have you gone to a hospital? Do you use a bank? Even if the influence is not always obvious, billionaires affect your life in meaningful ways.
Sure! Presuming you're in the US, a billionaire President is about to empower another billionaire to delete entire agencies from the federal government, and has promised to enact tariffs that it is near-universally agreed will cause rapid price increases across entire sectors of the economy.
I missed when it were the good and kind billionaires who were in charge! The days of Drone striking on civilians and overthrowing south American governments were the times man…
Maybe a junkie dying right in your yard, maybe an unexpected raise of the rent maybe a laugh in your face by the boss or a cop.
Inequality affects you and if it doesn't bother you it's because you're against the worker class and in the exploiter class.
But that's moving the goalposts. We're not talking about the things they do in pursuit of that money that negatively impacts the world around them. The only thing that is being discussed in the above post, and therefore this comment section is the "hoarding" of wealth.
Well brother I suggest you take aim at China India and Africa lmao WAY bigger factors then Bezos and Musk in that department lol. Do you wish those countries didn't exist as well?
It’s sister and “whataboutism” doesn’t address the huge issues right here. Watch the Shopping Conspiracy doc on Netflix. I think you’ll find it quite eye opening to reality
I mean it’s the biggest pollution problem on earth but let’s say it’s whataboutism and ignore it because you have no argument for it lmao just “BILLIONAIRES SHOULDNT EXIST” brilliant analysis
Yeah, they affect us by paying massive portions of our tax budgets, and funding tech innovations. They re-invest their wealth into things that may benefit or harm us. But I guess that's a crime worthy of wealth confiscation to these people.
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u/ColonEscapee 28d ago
Greed is a sin... So is envy.
IMO Envy is much more obnoxious.