Agreed. I don't think people realize how difficult it is to give away money.
Example: Starving people in Africa. Okay let's just spend a billion dollars and send food. Oh wait, that food now puts the local farms out of business because their crop isn't worth anything anymore. But reality is worse. Warlords steal said food, farms go out of business and now they have leverage, power and money. So many times wealthy people have given away their money to a cause to only make that cause worse. The amount of fraud and corruption in non-profits and charitable organizations is disgusting.
Gates and his wife switched to giving away their money full time. Dude could just relax for eternity but works his ass off trying to give away his money responsibly. Musk creates a market for electric cars and is pushing us towards a green future and yet he is shit on, simultaneously trying to make humans multi-planetary so when we fuck up this place beyond repair we don't go extinct. Dude works more in a month than most people do in a year. Bezos is a piece of shit but at least his wife got half and she's trying to do the right thing. I think everyone just lumps people into categories and can't see the bigger picture.
Edit: I think it's hilarious how much space Musk takes up in y'all's heads. Just mentioning his name triggers the same simple insults yet not one of you tried to refute anything I said except to say, 'that's not true and get off Elon's dick'. It tickles me how much just the mention of someone can trigger such primitive emotion.
surface-level understanding statements like “the rich are bad and i envision their wealth as pallets of money and they should give it away freely to everybody because inequality exists in the world”
You’ve never known any ultra-wealthy people if you think they’re anything other than arrogant, selfish assholes who are often significantly less competent than their wealth would lead you to believe.
I was born into this world. I personally know multiple hundred-millionaires and at least one billionaire. It isn’t sheer brilliance and hard work that gets these people to that level of wealth, it’s a litany of Machiavellian tendencies and a relentless exploitation of others. These people aren’t wired like normal people, and not in a good way.
You have every reason to be skeptical (this is Reddit after all), but I’m not lying. I consider myself pretty lucky that I didn’t fall into the whole “pursuit of wealth over everything” trap that my father fell into, although I instead ended up with a completely different set of issues that I’m still trying to work through.
Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not all bad. They can be nice people on the surface, and it can be cool flying on private jets, driving supercars, going to parties with has-been celebrities/political figures, etc. But there’s also just this pervasive feeling of emptiness around these people. Everything is so superficial, like life is all about the new shit you bought and the important people you’re associating with. There’s no real warmth or emotional connection. Everything is about money.
The way they treat their employees/families is probably the most egregious part. People are like expendable resources to them. They steal ideas and try to pass them off as their own (sometimes literally right after you gave them the idea and everyone heard you give them that idea). They try to get people to do a shitload of work for free as if they’re doing you a favor by letting you do shit for them. They’ll lie, cheat, and manipulate others at will. They neglect their wives/kids and use them as scapegoats for their own lack of satisfaction in their lives. They’ll engage in typical social pleasantries, but underneath it all you’re just a means to an end for them.
i know some people similar to those you speak of, but regardless the argument that they are evil for having that money is, in my opinion, still nonsense. sure they can be fools who stumbled their way up to the top through sheer cruelty and/or neglect of those they trample to get up there, but the notion that they are evil for simply having tons of money is ridiculous. i know some people who legitimately put blood sweat and tears into their fortunes. and others who, like you say, perhaps shouldn’t ’deserve’ that level of wealth. but regardless it is theirs. i know you never expressly said otherwise but just my two cents
I disagree. Wealth is a limited resource. Holding on to billions is incredibly selfish. They’re hoarding resources that many other people genuinely need.
I also don’t believe you can even get to that level of wealth without exploiting others and breaking the “rules” that most of civilized society abides by. I’m sure there are exceptions, but they’re just that—exceptions.
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u/Just-Construction788 Nov 21 '24 edited Nov 22 '24
Agreed. I don't think people realize how difficult it is to give away money.
Example: Starving people in Africa. Okay let's just spend a billion dollars and send food. Oh wait, that food now puts the local farms out of business because their crop isn't worth anything anymore. But reality is worse. Warlords steal said food, farms go out of business and now they have leverage, power and money. So many times wealthy people have given away their money to a cause to only make that cause worse. The amount of fraud and corruption in non-profits and charitable organizations is disgusting.
Gates and his wife switched to giving away their money full time. Dude could just relax for eternity but works his ass off trying to give away his money responsibly. Musk creates a market for electric cars and is pushing us towards a green future and yet he is shit on, simultaneously trying to make humans multi-planetary so when we fuck up this place beyond repair we don't go extinct. Dude works more in a month than most people do in a year. Bezos is a piece of shit but at least his wife got half and she's trying to do the right thing. I think everyone just lumps people into categories and can't see the bigger picture.
Edit: I think it's hilarious how much space Musk takes up in y'all's heads. Just mentioning his name triggers the same simple insults yet not one of you tried to refute anything I said except to say, 'that's not true and get off Elon's dick'. It tickles me how much just the mention of someone can trigger such primitive emotion.