why is everyone harping on this, I'm slamming the unfair systems that allow billionaires to exist in the first place, not the billionaires themselves.
Yeah it sure looks like a lot of you guys are going to great lengths to let Headhumpy's point go over your head.
There would only be half as much shit clogging this forum if people bothered to actually read what others write instead of just glossing over it and inferring their point from there.
That particular line was kind of a brainfart given the context, I apologize for that.
What I was trying to say though, is that the system whereupon a small group of people in society are the ones with power and affecting change has been the norm throughout human history. This is not a new thing. Sometimes the only way to have change or progress in a field is when you have an individual with the power and wealth to force it to happen.
I get your main point, and I agree. i don't like that these systems have allowed Bezos and Branson and other assholes to have inordinate power.
However, and this is a strong however;
This is a vast improvement over any historical period of our history and we can continue to push it further. This isn't optimal, and we shouldn't settle for it, but I don't think we should be worried about billionaires doing good things, when they could be doing bad things. At the very least, I'd say we exist somewhere on an upwards trend of the ability of the average person to chase these kinds of experiences. Historically, it's always been hard to get money to pursue things like this, with the abundance of wealth that exists in those hands, it makes sense, however unfortunate it is, that this is how things are at the moment.
People who aren't rich are paying for it. The reason he has this wealth is because he's found ways to pay people less than their work is worth.
Democratic control of the wealth extracted from his workers for his workers.
This is in spite of capitalism. Imagine the greatness that could be achieved if your brain could be free to work on what it wants to rather than what it's forced to. The same can be said of life-saving drugs that are held back by our system like glybera which the company that makes it decided to sell at $1000000 a dose meaning that people with LPLD have a cure for their condition but no access to it. Dr. Michael Hayden, John Kastelein, Dr. Colin Ross, and their team made a great invention and if they themselves owned it it wouldn't be that way.
Even with a Good Billionaire we're relying on luck and a coincidental collision of profitability&virtue or relying on a single person to decide that something is worth developing. We don't want messiahs breaking out of a bad system we want good coming out of a system where we have a say.
Further viewing on billionaires: Elon Musk | Philosophy Tube
That's fair, and I appreciate you engaging my actual points. I agree, things are definitely better now than they ever were, especially compared to bygone eras of feudal lords, kings and emperors, and near-invincible global trading companies like the East India Company. However what we have now is far from perfect and I don't think there's anything wrong with criticising the existing power structures.
We shouldn't be worried about billionaires doing good things, and indeed that's not what I'm against. What I was complaining about in my initial post is people seeing these deeds, and thus thinking that billionaires existing is justifiable, because it's not. That some ultra-wealthy people are good is not an argument for letting people get ultra-wealthy in the first place. There's no contradiction between wanting ultra-wealthy people to put their money to good use, and at the same time deploring the concentration of power that this implies.
How is being a billionaire unjustifiable? If you get there by playing by the rules, how do you argue that? Now you're just arguing for redistribution of wealth, which is a bad road to go down.
I just don't agree with your second statement. I'm all for regulation of business and promoting worker rights, but I don't think that invalidates the existence of ultra wealthy people. There is no system in which a small percentage of people don't live on top of the rest of the population. The best I believe we can do is make a situation with the least amount of suffering for the lower class, and with the most opportunity to rise above your class.
Ooh two pages of people discussing this ocean anomoly? NOPE just arguing about rich peole.
It's definitely not an asteroid strike or something like that. It's definitely cool looking though.
https://www.amazingplacesonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Great-Blue-Hole-Belize1.jpg
The formation of these things isn't much the mystery. It's moreso just mapping the big fucker. Though this thing has obviously drawn a ton of scuba attention for years, so It'll be curious to see just how deep they go in the thing.
ITT headhumpy jealous of rich people
if that's all you got from my posts then I feel sorry for you
Yes, I know that. It's what I was trying to say. This has been the norm throughout history and has slowly become democratized. Like HumanAbyss said, the situation is not optimal and should be improved, but it's still better than what it used to be and complaining that our current society is somehow worse than previous ones because of capitalism.
To be fair, that's all you've really given us with your posts. Perhaps give us more than "I don't like billionaires doing things the government should do. We should prevent large personal wealth to prevent people from having the power to do good individually."
I think he's more refering to how the rich have successfully captured political control for the most part and through media have convinced enough people that making the lives of the rich better is better for all of us.
we're not quite to the point where these sorts of projects are passed over by governments because they can't afford it but we're not that far off if we continue on the same trajectory of lowering taxes for the rich, rewarding corporate and large money donors and allowing unchecked spending to reward the politicians.
Parasites have convinced themselves to the masses that they are necessary, that they are the only sources of ambition. that if we didn't have people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk that we would go back to our hermit shell and stop exploring the world. These people however, are just living out the fantasies and playing the motions of what used to be amazing public projects that sought to further our understanding of the universe. Those weren't the ambitions of one rich man, they were the ambitions of nations and the world over.
I'd say that our ambitions died a long time ago, and ironically, those who are left with those ambitions to change things are being blamed for our current lack.
Would you like a billionaire to explore your hole instead
Many people got there by gaming the rules.
If the rules allow for such an enormously distorted distribution of wealth and thus power, then maybe something needs to change.
3) If any and all advancement is left in the hands of a relative few, what guarantee is there that any advancement will be made at all? Should we just be grateful that it's possible to become so ludicrously rich?
Honestly, Richard is pretty cool.
His company has an office here that I work for and it's one of the best places to work for in this country.
We even have a ping pong table, my last job I was forbidden from leaving during break time, I could only order food...
You're ignoring the main point about why your idea of wealth redistribution is dangerous and why your idea to cap people's income levels is a terrible one.
Not to mention, can you draw any support for your claims in the instance of this article?
I don't think killing off the idea of billionaires will make the government pick up the slack. You're both focusing your disdain in the wrong places.
How can you possibly claim that any human being on this planet deserves to earn tens of thousands of times more than a person who breaks their back spending most of their life doing menial, unrewarding work and being paid minimum wage for it?
Until everyone is a millionaire, being a billionaire will continue to be the result of accruing undeserved wealth.
If it's as simple as you are making it out to be, anyone should be able to become a billionaire. That's not the case, obviously. These are rare breeds of people who are capable of building these industries.
Not to mention, someone who spends their life doing "menial, unrewarding work" is likely unskilled. That's not really at all comparable here.
Saying that a billionaire is underserved is a dangerous statement to make. Unless you can prove that it was a result of some illegal gain, I would say that it's wholly untrue.
Go direct your anger towards the government for proper tax reform that makes different income levels pay taxes equally. Not towards people who make more money than you arbitrarily deem necessary.
Not everyone is a billionaire because the way the system is set up favours the bigger fishes. You're bound to reach a balance state where only a few end up with such massive riches. That has nothing to do with skills.
There are heaps of people just as or more skilled than those billionaires, yet not nearly as successful financially, because they didn't have as much luck or as important a headstart as those billionaires did.
Similarly, someone can be unskilled because they were dealt a shit hand in life and couldn't afford to develop marketable skills. Or someone can be pretty skilled in a field that's not very profitable. Neither deserve tens of thousands less than those billionaires.
Your point would only stand if every children were raised in similar conditions. We don't live in such a society, and so your assumption, the popular belief that billionaires got there through sheer skill alone, and thus completely deserve their situation, is extreme simplification. Believing that all there is to getting rich is being skilled, and that conversely struggling to get by means you're less deserving, now that's dangerous thinking.
Seeing reality for what it is and acknowledging that billionaires' skill only account for a small part of what got them there isn't, and I don't see why it would be.
Yeah, fuck frontiers of exploration
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