oxjox @ oxjox @lemmy.ml

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Joined

2 yr. ago

I'm not defending anyone. I'm saying that it's disgusting to wish death upon someone else. I'm calling you out for being a horrible human for thinking such a thing.

Tell me how "by their very nature and existence" a "billionaire" bleeds people dry for every dollar they can. Just a general thought would be fine.

Then tell me how this applies to the person this entire topic is related to - the guy who was worth less than $50 million.

I know billionaires who have built hospitals, created organizations to help child cancer patients, donated millions to public schools, created organizations to get homes for the homeless; just to mention a few things.

If you want to roll with "billionaires shouldn't exist", you have to look at what we would lose if they were gone and how we would replace them. Should we tax the wealthy enough so government is run more efficiently? What agency in what level of government is going to organize the creation of the things we've lost? Does our government have the will or knowhow to create such programs? How are you going to tax "billionaires" who don't have billions of dollars of liquidity?

I hate to use the guy as an example but look at Musk. Do we need electric cars, reusable space rockets, residential batteries, satellite internet? Could someone else have done it? How long would it have taken NASA to get where SpaceX has? How do you start a car company if you don't have the collateral to back it up? Heck, even Trump built his empire on the lie that he was a billionaire (not that casinos are worthy of this conversation).

It's just incredible how few people know how money and business works.

Is this like the Boomer thing where we use one word that means one thing to describe something else?

Just FYI - he was worth about $43 million. https://blackstarnews.com/brian-thompson-net-worth/

Big time. I'm literally stocking up on things I might need to get me through the next four years.

That's not at all what I said or what I know of the situation. You are making assumptions based on your existing feelings without knowing anything of the matter. The person I know worked his ass off more than any person I've ever met.

In the industry I've worked in, I've had the opportunity to rub shoulders with celebrities, athletes, CEOs, etc. They have all been honest hard working people. Every one of them (over a hundred) had some philanthropic enterprises helping children, the sick, the homeless, animals, etc. Honestly, the wealthy people I've met in my life are the most incredible humans I've ever met. I guess that's what upsets me. I wish you could all meet one or two of them and see how you come away feeling that these people are the best hope we have at a kinder world.

That's a disgusting thing to say.

Well, I saw it more as the government is failing by allowing them all this unreasonable influence in the first place.

I'm familiar with these arguments. My general issue is that people get really invested in supporting arguments that seem reasonable on the surface without really having much knowledge of the full situation. Headlines are visceral. The nitty gritty of the story is often much more nuanced. Of course there are worse case examples and they make the headlines. Then something else seems similar and people assume they're all the same kind of story.

I just don't blame the billionaires. I don't blame the corporations. I blame the governments and indirectly the voters. Neither the corporations nor congress are going to go out of their way to reduce harm.

America has been brainwashed since the Reagan administration that capitalism is king. I'm cautiously optimistic that this is coming to an end but I don't see anything prepped to take its place. Americans are consuming more than ever before. We'll see what happens in the next administration when no one can afford anything.

The people have to be broken free of the brainwashing before they start speaking out and getting congress to change regulations. I don't think killing a CEO is going to do any good.

The problem is that they don't actually have possession of the billions of dollars. The tax only happens when they sell the stock - as taxable income.

I think I read something recently where someone proposed taxing stocks people are holding. I don't see that happening. At least not under income tax law.

Moreover, congress embraces the idea that billionaires create industry and jobs. In most cases, this is true. In a lot of cases though, these corporations get away with too much. This is because of a lack of government protections for workers and consumers.

It just seems like people keep repeating this line "there is absolutely no such thing as an ethical billionaire" without giving it any thought. Who said this and what facts do they have to back up this statement?

Companies are worth money. The value of that company increases for a thousand different reasons and what that company does with that money varies.

Some companies, like Walmart, Amazon, UHC, squeeze profit from every place they're legally (or not) allowed to to benefit the bottom line and executive pockets. Some companies are full of hard working people doing incredible things. Some companies just get lucky and they sell a shit load of stuff. \

Some billionaires are celebrities or athletes who've taken an already large sum of money and invested it for a small return. Some billionaires started with a few million, made some wise financial decisions, maybe bought real estate at the right place and time, and turned it into billions. Once you have a large amount of money, it's not hard to make it bigger.

I mean, it seems like the argument against billionaires is that no company should ever see an increase in value; that no person should ever be worth more tomorrow than they were yesterday.

Not every company makes money doing the same thing. Not every CEO is a billionaire. Not every billionaire is evil.

You can throw out every example you want about the actions of particular companies but I'd argue there are just as many, if not more, doing things somewhat decently. Just because a company is worth billions doesn't mean it's bad; just as a company making a few hundred thousand isn't necessarily good.

You're all laser focused on certain people and certain industries. Just step outside the box and get some perspective.

Also... why are we talking about billionaires when this guy was only worth $43 million?

Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime

Donating money is stupid. Investing your money in programs that help people is how most billionaires spread their wealth. If they gave it all away, they'd have no more to give. Instead, you invest the money in something that can continue to benefit people long after they're gone.

I know a billionaire who inherited a company from his relatives. By hiring the right people (well educated, very expensive upper management), he was able to increase production and distribution. He paid his entire staff very well. The value of the company increased as brand reputation increased. He invested personal money and time and worked his ass off to make a company he got for free worth even more. He then sold this company for a staggering profit. He took that money to buy another enterprise. Again, he took the skills he had and invested in hiring the right people who knew how to run a gigantic organization. This allowed him to hire more people whom he could pay even more money to return greater value.

Have you ever received a raise? Was it because your value increased or something else?

I'm probably not on the right server. I just picked it cause it was short.

I agree. What pains me the most is that it doesn't have to be this way. Why is fake news so obvious to some people while others suck it up? I can't tell you how many people I spoke with in the past year who were wholly clueless to so much about the election and what Trump or Harris were saying. The propaganda, coming from billionaires or foreign actors, is too easy for people to believe.

Cool. You think murdering people is the right way to do that or maybe better government regulation?

I love Bernie. The point he and I are making is that government is failing the people.

Then you should acknowledge that you are ignorant about who the billionaires are and what good they may be doing.

Most aren't amassing wealth on the backs of a workforce. Most are making investments for the company they own to make money. As I said, they don't have the money in their pockets. The company or the stock for the company is worth money.

Look at any sports team owning CEO. They're not all great but many are decent people who contribute to their communities. And the people working for them are making decent money. The money the team they own makes is from fans spending money on tickets, buying merchandise, and selling broadcast rights.

You think this is going to get people to think about the issue of our garbage health are system?

PFFFTLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Killing CEOs won't accomplish anything. They do what they do because the govenrment loosened regulations. You want better healthcare, you'll get more accomplished voting for a Democrat than killing CEOs. Americans don't really give a shit about anything other than the price of gas and eggs so here we are.

Dude. This event is like a page out of Batman. If you don't think this is news, I can't imagine what you think is.

I sure hope the internet isn't a reasonable indicator of how the general public feel about CEOs and billionaires. There are in fact many fantastic CEOs and billionaires who donate and focus their time and money and corporations to benefit communities. There's more than a reasonable argument that without billionaires, the planet would be suffering more.

This movement of hating on the mega wealthy is misguided. It's not like billionaires are actually hoarding wealth - they don't have billions stuffed under their bed. They own companies and stock in companies that are worth money. The money is used to create or buy other companies, to invest in other companies, to create new opportunities, to create jobs.

The Board of Directors are decreasing overhead and increasing profit margins to satisfy Wall Street's hunger. This is due to changing government regulations, mostly lead by Republicans. The Republicans want limited government, the dismantling of federal programs, an increase in private corporations, and greater opportunities for the wealthy to generate income off Wall Street speculation.

This act should be condemned and the murderer should be sent to prison.

Murdering one person isn't going to accomplish anything. Murdering all the CEOs isn't going to accomplish anything. It may feel good to you that this person's family has lost someone they love in retribution for all the families who have lost the people they love. But it's not going to prevent anyone else from dying.

Hopefully, after the crowd chills out from seething at the teeth, we can get back to discussing how fucked our health care system is. Oh, sorry - we just elected someone who explicitly says he's going to make health care worse and more expensive.

Maybe we should give a shit about our government and who we're voting for.
Maybe we should be shooting each other instead of these CEOs who present more as a symptom of the illness.

Edit: I'm going to take that back. It's clear that people are just angry about anything and everything. It doesn't matter how or why or its relevance. It's not just the internet, clearly. This is how we ended up with another Trump administration. Irrationality and fear are all that matter. Science, facts, context, intelligence, education; all passé. We are the mob standing by with pitchforks.