Ask Lemmy

It depends on the billionaire.

in the (translated) Words of Knorkator:

The world doesn't need billionaires imagine how beautiful it would be without you! Empathy and reason instead of greed and scam fresh air, green forests, clean seas.

The world doesn't need billionaires and we will even achieve this without guns: No, we won't kill you and we won't imprison you, on the opposite: you will be millionaires!

Their an abomination. An exploitation of a system that values exponential growth more than inherent human values. In a world where public infrastructure is collapsing and there's homeless people on tbe street, individuals should not be able to amass such absurd wealth only for their own self enrichment.

Leeches. Fuck em.

Abolish with prejudice

I want to be one and buy land and develop a village and live on a mansion on a hill overlooking it. Not for profit or anything, make the houses affordable (maybe rent them out and then sell it to the tenants after a certain time, factoring paid rent as a discount?) for nice people. Just have myself a wee community and LARP as a 17th century lord (the nice kind)

Wealth tax that goes directly to funding a billionaire audit program. It should create a self-perpetuating cycle that means IRS audits for all of them every year.

In terms of scale, from the person at the top making xxx times the person at the bottom, they've likely always been around.

"Robber Baron" is the ye olde term.

Google tells me John D. Rockefeller peaked at around $1.4 billion in 1937. 1.5% of US GDP.

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47167

The average wage in 1937 was $890 a year.

https://time.com/archive/6760420/personnel-above-average/

So Rockefeller, at his death, had amassed as much wealth as 1,573,034 average people would earn in a year.

In order to hit 1.5% of current US GDP (27.36 trillion), Bezos or Musk would have to hit 410.4 billion. That's how wealthy Rockefeller was.

1.2 Musks. 2 Bezoses.

I support billionaire behaviour fully

I have no problems with billionaires, in a society where everyone's a millionaire.

A society that allows for such wealth disparity to happen is deeply corrupt. Anyone who not only participates in that society, but voluntarily becomes the cause of such disparity is irreparably morally bankrupt. They are a burden on society, contributing millions of times less than what they take.

I think it’s fair; hold no grudge. Happy to go into the reasons if anyone’s curious.

Conflicted. I'll give you my top 4 considerations.

• Pro 1: The reason a lot of these folks become billionaires is because they are able to sell an idea and execute on it. I think that's admirable. I think it's aspirational. I think that is part of the human condition.
• Pro 2: Additionally, they're billionaires because society made them billionaires. Often, they founded a company (or got in on the ground floor), then issued stock to investors. More and more investor's piled on. It's a bit like winning the lottery, only that you (the aspirational billionaire) have some effect in the outcome. Again, I think this is part of the human condition. Civilizations, tribes, companies, whatever you call them, for some bizarre reason that I personally don't quite grasp, prefer to have a leader, or at least will defer to one.
• Con 1: Many people can be millionaires. It's not easy, but with the right vision, gumption, financial know-how, time and a bit of luck, someone pursuing this effort can do so. But, it takes a certain kind of person to be a 100+ millionaire or even billionaire. I think we have enough historical evidence of the type I'm describing - greedy, predatory, manipulative, aggressive, sociopathic. These traits can flourish in business, but I don't think that these are traits that we should encourage in society as a whole. It gives me some gratitude that, for every 1 megalomaniacal billionaire in the world, there were 1000s of lookalikes who flailed.
• Con 2: Rent-seeking behavior and loot dragons. Nothing pisses me off more than a self-entitled dumbass whose entire being is resting on the laurels of a family legacy. I think once the great person's first generation passes, that most of their remaining horde should be returned for the public good. While I do think a certain amount should be endowed to the next generation so that they are equipped to pursue their own marvel, I do think society resources made these people and society should be able to take them back.

This is a bait folks!