Except this is completely backwards in a true Orwellian fashion. It is not the wealthiest, who are gaining most from society, it is society, who is gaining most from the wealthiest.
What is society gaining from all of the bums living on the dole or all of the homeless?
How much is society gaining from one single billionaire?
Of course the society turns it upside down and sideways, insisting that the billionaires are not paying some magic fair share, the reality is that if all billionaires were to disappear today, tomorrow this society would descent into poverty that hasn't been seen for hundreds of years.
9 comments
While it is true that you often need capital to drive things (Can't open a shop without purchasing the things to put in the shop, run an auto repair place without the tools, etc) the people being complained about have diminishing returns for their hoarding wealth like lame flabby dragons.
When the companies price gouge they are actively hurting society as a whole, and while sure, some of the money may circulate in the economy, they are increasingly just keeping it. Buying a luxury yacht will help some people, sure, but not all that many people. And going through shell companies and trying hard to avoid paying taxes to line your pockets actively hurts society.
And then we have to look at "why" there are all the homeless. Is it because greedy assholes pushed drugs they knew were addictive and lied to doctors and happily ruined countless lives to cement their billionaire status? Were they deceived by wealthy firms into going for a bad housing deal and lost everything? Was their store put out of business by a shady corporation that exploits people?
Being wealthy isn't bad, by itself. What you do to attain it often makes billionaires terrible people.
There are many things simply wrong about this if you are NOT completely sold on capitalism as the best system humanity could ever come up with, but even in its context this is wrong. It’s not the billionaire who generates workforce (no matter how often they whine about their alleged workload and “responsibilities” being the reason for their insane wealth accumulation), that’s the workers. It’s not the billionaire who has the unique, inborn ability to invest, or run and build a corporation, anybody with a certain amount of capital could do that. In fact, the “one billionaire ruling over the workers of his company” model has its alternatives (holacratic organization for example). If every single billionaire were to die right now, and we would take on the mammoth task of redistributing their wealth and capital among all of us, I bet the world would actually be a better place in the end. If they just died, pretty much nothing would change, they are not astonishing masterminds who keep the world going, but instead are often born rich already (with our system nearly impossible to lose wealth once you have enough of it) and influential in the worst possible ways (see their influence when it comes to climate change for example).
The wealthy gain a huge amount from society because most of their wealth doesn’t exist without a strong society. Stocks and bonds don’t exist, cash and currency doesn’t exist, investing is largely gone. Hoarding resources and food is hard and they have to hire bodyguards.
“How much is society gaining from one single billionaire?”
Fucking none. Business after business was closed to preserve capital. NOTHING stayed open to lose profits but provide jobs during a time of need. Billy O’nares cut losses and preserved their hoards. And took PPP money to buy back stock.
The more profit that was threatened, though, the more clearly we saw how the rich take care of themselves.
@Tilver #186602
Forgot that one big reason there’s a sudden spike of homeless people in North America is the very billionaires mentioned here buying up property so they can hoard it, driving up the prices of every living space beyond the means of the majority of people. And they’re doing it because they think they can cash out on it in the future…
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
To post a comment, you'll need to Sign in or Register . Making an account also allows you to claim credit for submitting quotes, and to vote on quotes and comments. You don't even need to give us your email address.
