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Let’s Stop Bashing Billionaires — They Are Making Our Lives Better
In a 2013 study, Steven Kaplan and Joshua Rauh explored the backgrounds of Forbes 400 members over the years to see whether wealth was self-made or inherited. They found that the share who were self-made rose from 40% in 1982 to 69% by 2011.
There is no such thing as "self-made" and that is the problem, the mythology surrounding the idea of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps," which is physically impossible: https://huffingtonpost.com/entry/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-nonsense_us_5b1ed024e4b0bbb7a0e037d4 It discounts the thousands of people, many of whom are public employees--teachers, police, firemen, soldiers, builders of roads and bridges, etc. not to mention rank and file employees--who helped make that billionaire's dreams possible. Those billionaires have the means to pay more in taxes-- and the smartest among them recognize that--to give back to the society that produced them and not through the charity of their choice--which is too often a tax dodge or a charity that could be something actually detrimental to society--but through publicly financing that society via greater taxation.
Not to mention the fact that some of the companies the "self-made" billionaires created have not benefited people but have been extraordinarily detrimental to them. The fact that the author mentions Palantir as one of the beneficial ones is laughable: https://bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/
Billionaires: "The rest of you owe me as much as I can possibly extract from you. Then I will buy the government and make it work for me. Screw the rest of you. If you're not as good at exploiting everything and everyone the way I am, it's not my fault." And the only thing missing is a conscience, there. "Riches are the savings of many in the hands of one." --- Eugene Debs.
Neither does it help at all when government seeks to divest itself of its own responsibilities. The truth is that at the present moment, it's every man for himself. There is no longer any sort of authority to which we can appeal for justice, particularly economic justice. We'll always have wealthy people. There will always be poor people. The middle class has been hollowed-out. The plutocrats OWN the System. So, unless you're among the wealthy, expect nothing but more of the same drudgery, working for a living that keeps you just a step from penury. Ethical societies do not forget about the needs of PEOPLE, like the USA these days.
Perhaps you guys are misguided. I'm pretty sure that billionaires must be making our lives much better, easier and fairer, or Ted wouldn't have said that. I'll get back to you in a while when I figure out how they are doing all that.
Perhaps you guys are misguided. I'm pretty sure that billionaires must have made our lives much better, easier and fairer, or Ted wouldn't have said that. I'll get back to you in a while when I figure out how they are doing all that.
I have a dream. That one day all the worthless non billionaires will die. Then we will have one billionaire wash another billionaires ass with oil, then wipe it with silver foil, right after all the golden eggs have been laid, while sitting on a commode studded with diamonds. I have a dream.
Oh the vision. Forget my present life, even my after life is to die for.
Comments
Not to mention the fact that some of the companies the "self-made" billionaires created have not benefited people but have been extraordinarily detrimental to them. The fact that the author mentions Palantir as one of the beneficial ones is laughable:
https://bloomberg.com/features/2018-palantir-peter-thiel/
Neither does it help at all when government seeks to divest itself of its own responsibilities. The truth is that at the present moment, it's every man for himself. There is no longer any sort of authority to which we can appeal for justice, particularly economic justice. We'll always have wealthy people. There will always be poor people. The middle class has been hollowed-out. The plutocrats OWN the System. So, unless you're among the wealthy, expect nothing but more of the same drudgery, working for a living that keeps you just a step from penury. Ethical societies do not forget about the needs of PEOPLE, like the USA these days.
Oh the vision. Forget my present life, even my after life is to die for.