If you’re wealth is in stock that have voting rights and you founded the company, getting rid of the stock is risky as it reduces your control over the company. In that case, if you sell you stock to lower your wealth, a bad faith actor could come in and depose you. If you’re a “good millionaire” then this could then have the effect of lowering your charitable giving potential.
Stocks are essentially people putting bets on you and your company. Most billionaires don’t just become billionaires by themselves…the public anoints them.
And I think the public should be able to rescind that if the person does more public harm than good.
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.
Final Fantasy 1 - It wasn’t the first RPG, but it pretty much defined the series. It still has tons of playability, I revisit it more or less every 5 years. I still have yet to beat Warmech, and only have encountered him a handful of times.
But most of all, it’s the game that saved Squaresoft. If it had failed, we would have missed out on so many great games, including ones also mentioned in this post.
Runners up have to be Donkey Kong, which brought us Mario, which in turn restored vitality into the at home console game industry, and Double Dragon, which brought us PVP and Co-op combat.
Honorable mention would have to be that Simpsons arcade game where Marge can fight with the vacuum cleaner and TMNT 2 - Two classic, very difficult, drain your change jar games. I’d throw Mega man 2 into that mix as well.
I used it the other day to redact names from a spreadsheet. It got 90% of them, saving me about 90 minutes of work. It has helped clean up anomalies in databases (typos, inconsistencies in standardized data sets, capitalization errors, etc). It also helped me spruce up our RFP templates by adding definitions for standard terminology in our industry (which I revised where needed, but it helped to have a foundation to build from).
As mentioned in a different post, I use it for DND storylines, poems, silly work jokes and prompts to help make up bed time stories.
My wife uses it to help proofread her papers and make recommendations on how to improve them.
I use it more often now than google search. If it’s a topic important enough that I want to verify, then I’ll do a deeper dive into articles or Wikipedia, which is exactly what I did before AI.
So yea, it’s like the personal assistant that I otherwise didn't have.
I’m not right leaning, but I live in a right leaning area, and I think most all of us could stand a bit of time back in nature. So here’s what I would consider.
A hunting or fishing license and classes
A long weekend camping in the woods
A trip to a national park
Boat license lessons
A craft class at a local Uni, like welding or pottery. They’re usually pretty cheap and a lot of fun
A rafting trip
Not knowing him at all nor what he likes, perhaps a guitar and guitar lessons. That’s something I truly enjoyed in my late teens/early 20s. Or tickets to a music show or comedian he likes.
I stand corrected. My memory served me incorrectly.
Nevertheless, they are more prepared now and the MAGA party holds more of the power compared to last time. It’s a bit like putting the foxes in charge of the henhouse - I suppose we’ll have to see where those that remain of the former GOP are willing to push back.
You are giving examples in history and changing the dates to the first Trump presidency, which is somewhat confusing.
Those things certainly didn't happen because the GOP did not have a majority in the legislature. I agree that it is unlikely that these will occur during this term as well, given that the majority in the house will be very small, but I assure you there will be bills passed that will continue to strip away power from the legislature and grant those powers to the executive. There will also be interpretations of the law that will disenfranchise the citizens and/or will have repercussions for years to come.
There are few places where I agree with Rand Paul, but the abolishment of “Homeland Security” is one of them. We got this shit because of 9/11. It greatly expanded the power and control of government over our lives and we weakened our constitutional rights (e.g. illegal search and seizure) because of it.
I completely understand that weak cybersecurity is a threat, but we already have the Department of Defense, Department of National Intelligence and Department of State covering it, so there is already built in redundancy, why do we need DHHS doing it too?
Capitalism has served me well and, I think if you have a particularly strong work ethic, then the American model can serve you well, up to a certain extent.
BUT, I am not a sycophant. I have seen the dark underbelly of the American model, how certain vampires at the top of companies will maximize profits at the expense of literally everything else - contractually locking in customers and then raising rates on them to the point where they can barely afford it (they’d call that “equilibrium “). Firing good long-time employees because new fresh blood is cheaper, damned if it makes everyone else’s life harder, including that person who gave their life to the company. Predating on the meek, desperate, or just those who don’t think like them, in spite of what it may do to the relationship long term (fuck any sort of commitment or customer relationship at all because it can’t accurately be monetized).
These people chase money above all else. They’re loot dragons. The only relationships they have are those that either think like them or those they can manipulate and control.
So no, don’t chase the American model, but perhaps borrow from some of its most useful tenets. There are good motivated people in the flesh, but the structure is rotten at its core.
You had the perfect word to fit in there and instead you went with “gone”!? Come on man!