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What's to love about billionaires? Trying to be the richest corpses in the cemetery?
When our - and billionaire's - lives end, it won't matter how much money we've accumulated. All that will matter is what we did with our lives. And that requires no money.
All of life in existence around us in nature and universe has inherent value independent of money. Only foolish man has a need to create inventions to create personal worth and value.
Why are you assuming that all super rich folks spend money on only themselves? One of our investors belongs to a group that uses their wealth (this investor made boatloads of money in the oil industry) to go to other countries and make lives better. They build schools, treat water, vaccinate children and provide clothing, food and shelter. They also run charities in the US that provide mentors, private tutoring and classroom enrichment to inner city schools.
This group makes it clear that they are greedy, because they want to help as many people as they can. It is their only goal. Sometimes "doing something with our life" does require money.
I'll buy that line after mega rich will find a way to amass those riches without relying on wage slavery and financial parasitism until then expropriation of the expropriated is not theft. But I as said before, taxing the rich is not ideal since owning class is an order magnitude more organized than the proles, you tax them today they'll organize and push those taxes back sooner or later, and not just taxes. In the course of the post New Deal reconquista owning class pushed IQ and guts of the proles in the gutter with no hope for it to come back any soon. You have to read workers newspapers and magazines from 100 years ago to appreciate all around degradation of American proles.
Sorry, you don't get to change the meaning of words simply because it doesn't fit your narrative.
If you take property not belonging to you BY FORCE, it is theft.
They did not steal anyone's property to make it their own. Their workers worked for an agreed upon wage, and were not held as slaves to do the work.
Why are you assuming that all super rich folks spend money on only themselves? One of our investors belongs to a group that uses their wealth (this investor made boatloads of money in the oil industry) to go to other countries and make lives better. They build schools, treat water, vaccinate children and provide clothing, food and shelter. They also run charities in the US that provide mentors, private tutoring and classroom enrichment to inner city schools.
This group makes it clear that they are greedy, because they want to help as many people as they can. It is their only goal. Sometimes "doing something with our life" does require money.
Because, deep down, there is a desperate narrative at work in these people. Based on the posts I've read on this thread, it seems to go sort of like this:
"I am incredibly smart and talented. So why don't I have the kind of success that those people over there have? I am obviously smarter than they are, so there is something wrong here. They must have taken shortcuts. They must be bad people. If they are bad people, then they have become wealthy through immoral means. Therefore it is up to me and my preening intellect, as an arbiter of what is good and valuable in our world, to strip those undeserving people of their unearned wealth.
"I don't care if they worked hard and navigated their companies to the tops of their respective industries, because any idiot can do that. I don't care how much they sacrificed, because people who work around the clock in pursuit of their dreams are chumps. I don't care if they hired people and paid them a good wage. Whatever they made, they did so by dishonest means, unlike me. They obviously don't deserve it because I don't have as much money as they do.
"So I will use terms such as slavery to characterize them, even though it is a completely dishonest way to describe them. I will dehumanize them into lazy stereotypes and assume that all they care about is filthy lucre. Why? Because in order for me to have more money, I have to take money from them, and that means stripping them of their humanity. The means justify the ends after all. I can't wait to smirk at that darned Todd at our 20th class reunion, Mr. Most-Likely-To-Succeed and National Merit Scholar. Him and his Audi convertible and gorgeous wife (Who turned me down for Senior Prom, the uppity cow) and nice house and vacations in Italy. Him and those precious little articles about him in Bloomberg and Fortune that make me want to vomit.
Yeah, that Todd. I'll love it when people like me take people like him down a peg. I'll fix his little red wagon. Right after I get off my shift as the assistant manager at Arbys. I'm still ticked off that I was passed over for promotion to Manager. That Juanita must have slept with someone to get the job over me. I'm going to get even with her, too."
I mean, need a clue about the mentality of the article's author? Look no further than the photograph he uses: A large yacht. You can almost hear the envy crackle through every syllable. It's almost as if he says, "Yeah. That guy's having way too much fun in life. He's having more fun than me. I have a moral duty to keep him from having fun." Like some half-pint Puritan or something.
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 02-14-2019 at 10:43 AM..
Sorry, you don't get to change the meaning of words simply because it doesn't fit your narrative.
If you take property not belonging to you BY FORCE, it is theft.
They did not steal anyone's property to make it their own. Their workers worked for an agreed upon wage, and were not held as slaves to do the work.
Econ 101 has a long bloody history, we were born at the time when much of the bloody work was done and top parasites can extract our time and health without holding a gun to our heads (but deadly force is just around the corner, the wage of noncompliance is still death), it is just that we do much of thework, slave overseers used to do, ourselves and label that "freedom".
Econ 101 evolves towards more abstract, impersonal, mindcontrolling means of extracting life from the proles (it is never about money, it is all about stealing life from those at the bottom and converting that into wealth flowing to the top) but foundation remains the same - denying survival means to the unwanted or noncompliant. Thus talk about "agreed upon" needs elaboration. Free people do not agree upon highly unequal exchanges of anything. Show me unequal exchanges and I'll point at the coercive forces behind those exchanges, simple.
Just because current members of the ruling/owning class did not do much bloody work themselves to set up Econ 101 every penny they own is a child of multifaceted theft going back for hundreds if not thousands years. Human parasitic ladder has evolved a great deal, but if you scratch a tiny bit of the luster and it is the same rotting flesh wrapped in new layers of rationalization.
Last edited by RememberMee; 02-15-2019 at 09:45 AM..
Econ 101 has a long bloody history, we were born at the time when much of the bloody work was done and top parasites can extract our time and health without holding a gun to our heads (but deadly force is just around the corner, the wage of noncompliance is still death), it is just that we do much of thework, slave overseers used to do, ourselves and label that "freedom".
Econ 101 evolves towards more abstract, impersonal, mindcontrolling means of extracting life from the proles (it is never about money, it is all about stealing life from those at the bottom and converting that into wealth flowing to the top) but foundation remains the same - denying survival means to the unwanted or noncompliant. Thus talk about "agreed upon" needs elaboration. Free people do not agree upon highly unequal exchanges of anything. Show me unequal exchanges and I'll point at the coercive forces behind those exchanges, simple.
Just because current members of the ruling/owning class did not do much bloody work themselves to set up Econ 101 every penny they own is a child of multifaceted theft going back for hundreds if not thousands years. Human parasitic ladder has evolved a great deal, but if you scratch a tiny bit of the luster and it is the same rotting flesh wrapped in new layers of rationalization.
This gets funnier by the minute. What exactly do you do to earn money?
Tell me what's funny exactly? It is not about me, I make general remarks, it is "funny" just because you never looked at the subject at this angle.
Classic avoidance. Trust me, I've looked at this from every angle. I think you're the closed-minded one, seething in your weird and incoherent resentments.
Drive a car? It takes a massive company with legions employees to assemble it, with parts coming from a host of other suppliers, companies with their own set of employees. It rolled off the assembly line, was driven onto a car carrier, and driven by someone's employee to the car lot, where more employees parked it, washed it, and sold it to you.
Drive that car on a road? Unless the government shanghais forced labor, it takes a company with employees to build it with equipment created by another company with its own employees.
That computer you keep banging out these bizarre screeds in your mother's pine-paneled basement? It takes a company with employees to make it. The components were created out of materials that were mined by employees of a mining company, trucked by employees of another company to factories (With employees) that created the components, and then shipped to the assembly plant where its employees assembled it, tested it, boxed it, and shipped it to the store where more employees stocked it and put it on a shelf where you found it and took it to a cash register where another employee took your money. Unless you've learned to code your own internet browser, a company with employees created the software that allowed you to come to this website and rant.
The clothes on your back? Unless you grew the cotton, spun the thread, and operated the loom, it took a company with employees to make it.
Did you barter for that shirt with a buddy who made it? If not, your mother bought it at a store, which required a retail space with employees to stock the shelves with items that came from factories with employees and delivered by trucks driven by truck drivers employed by someone.
All of these were powered by electricity that came from power generating stations that were built and operated by companies with employees, delivered on power lines that were erected and maintained by companies with employees, and brought into your home by companies with employees.
Unless you grow your own food, the meal you'll eat tonight was cultivated on a farm that has employees, delivered by employees to a central distribution point manned by employees of someone else, loaded on trucks driven by employees of someone else, taken to a grocery store where they are unpacked by store employees and put on the shelves so you can take your choice of food to a cash register where yet another employee can ring it up and you can pay. I assume you pay for food rather than smuggle it out under your coat.
Do I need to go on? I personally think you're trolling us, because no one could possibly be this absolutely clueless about the degree of organization it takes to create even the basics you need to get around in life. So unless you've coded your brower, built your own computer from junk parts, and are swaddled in animal skins while eating whatever you killed for dinner, using electricity provided by your homebuilt hydroelectric generator in your backyard, then you are being a bit hypocritical. You are benefiting from the current economy and its organization while simultaneously decrying it.
I mean, hey, if you don't want to participate in the economy, then hie thyself to either a remote Pacific island or some Alaskan backwater where you can hunt your own food, build your own shelter, and generally be completely self reliant. Then you can send in your posts either by passenger pigeon or a note jammed into a bottle. Then I'll actually begin taking you seriously.
Classic avoidance. Trust me, I've looked at this from every angle. I think you're the closed-minded one, seething in your weird and incoherent resentments.
Drive a car? It takes a massive company with legions employees to assemble it, with parts coming from a host of other suppliers, companies with their own set of employees. It rolled off the assembly line, was driven onto a car carrier, and driven by someone's employee to the car lot, where more employees parked it, washed it, and sold it to you.
Drive that car on a road? Unless the government shanghais forced labor, it takes a company with employees to build it with equipment created by another company with its own employees.
That computer you keep banging out these bizarre screeds in your mother's pine-paneled basement? It takes a company with employees to make it. The components were created out of materials that were mined by employees of a mining company, trucked by employees of another company to factories (With employees) that created the components, and then shipped to the assembly plant where its employees assembled it, tested it, boxed it, and shipped it to the store where more employees stocked it and put it on a shelf where you found it and took it to a cash register where another employee took your money. Unless you've learned to code your own internet browser, a company with employees created the software that allowed you to come to this website and rant.
The clothes on your back? Unless you grew the cotton, spun the thread, and operated the loom, it took a company with employees to make it.
Did you barter for that shirt with a buddy who made it? If not, your mother bought it at a store, which required a retail space with employees to stock the shelves with items that came from factories with employees and delivered by trucks driven by truck drivers employed by someone.
All of these were powered by electricity that came from power generating stations that were built and operated by companies with employees, delivered on power lines that were erected and maintained by companies with employees, and brought into your home by companies with employees.
Unless you grow your own food, the meal you'll eat tonight was cultivated on a farm that has employees, delivered by employees to a central distribution point manned by employees of someone else, loaded on trucks driven by employees of someone else, taken to a grocery store where they are unpacked by store employees and put on the shelves so you can take your choice of food to a cash register where yet another employee can ring it up and you can pay. I assume you pay for food rather than smuggle it out under your coat.
Do I need to go on? I personally think you're trolling us, because no one could possibly be this absolutely clueless about the degree of organization it takes to create even the basics you need to get around in life. So unless you've coded your brower, built your own computer from junk parts, and are swaddled in animal skins while eating whatever you killed for dinner, using electricity provided by your homebuilt hydroelectric generator in your backyard, then you are being a bit hypocritical. You are benefiting from the current economy and its organization while simultaneously decrying it.
I mean, hey, if you don't want to participate in the economy, then hie thyself to either a remote Pacific island or some Alaskan backwater where you can hunt your own food, build your own shelter, and generally be completely self reliant. Then you can send in your posts either by passenger pigeon or a note jammed into a bottle. Then I'll actually begin taking you seriously.
What does economic specialization have to do with what I said? You do not imagine specialized economy without unequal exchange. It takes more than specialization to achieve unequal exchange of time and health between individuals within an organization and society as a whole and that something did not change much since the days they crusified slaves along Appian Way. You take grossly unequal exchange as a constant of nature, it is not. Also, complex specialized economy is not out there to serve my needs, in the human scheme of things economy and goods are just tools to peacefully +/- settle the issue of unequal exchange of life, health, space etc. within a group. It is a game of parasitic chairs. Life/health/share of space of losers is ultimate prize. Whatever good comes from the game if any is a byproduct not an objective of the game. You inviting me to step back in time is disingenuous rhetoric, not participation is neither realistic nor legal option for a non suicidal person nowadays. Besides I do not know what time frame I should step in. Establishing and defending parasitic relationships with natural world and your own kind seems to provide the bulk of human purpose and meaning for thousands of years.
What does economic specialization have to do with what I said? You do not imagine specialized economy without unequal exchange. It takes more than specialization to achieve unequal exchange of time and health between individuals within an organization and society as a whole and that something did not change much since the days they crusified slaves along Appian Way. You take grossly unequal exchange as a constant of nature, it is not. Also, complex specialized economy is not out there to serve my needs, in the human scheme of things economy and goods are just tools to peacefully +/- settle the issue of unequal exchange of life, health, space etc. within a group. It is a game of parasitic chairs. Life/health/share of space of losers is ultimate prize. Whatever good comes from the game if any is a byproduct not an objective of the game. You inviting me to step back in time is disingenuous rhetoric, not participation is neither realistic nor legal option for a non suicidal person nowadays. Besides I do not know what time frame I should step in. Establishing and defending parasitic relationships with natural world and your own kind seems to provide the bulk of human purpose and meaning for thousands of years.
What does economic specialization have to do with what I said? You do not imagine specialized economy without unequal exchange. It takes more than specialization to achieve unequal exchange of time and health between individuals within an organization and society as a whole and that something did not change much since the days they crusified slaves along Appian Way. You take grossly unequal exchange as a constant of nature, it is not. Also, complex specialized economy is not out there to serve my needs, in the human scheme of things economy and goods are just tools to peacefully +/- settle the issue of unequal exchange of life, health, space etc. within a group. It is a game of parasitic chairs. Life/health/share of space of losers is ultimate prize. Whatever good comes from the game if any is a byproduct not an objective of the game. You inviting me to step back in time is disingenuous rhetoric, not participation is neither realistic nor legal option for a non suicidal person nowadays. Besides I do not know what time frame I should step in. Establishing and defending parasitic relationships with natural world and your own kind seems to provide the bulk of human purpose and meaning for thousands of years.
ROTFL!!
Tell us all about this “unequal exchange.” Tell us how someone sells their labor for $10/hour when it is “actually” worth $100/hour. And make sure you tell us which of the crackpot Marxist theorists you’re paraphrasing.
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