What do you think of extraterrestrial capitalism driven by the obscenely rich? (unemployment, interview)

[scully2010]

I just read an interesting opinion piece in the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/04/o...apitalism.html that talks about how Elon Musk and other mega billionaires are fueling a strain of extraterrestrial capitalism "where stock prices are driven less by earnings than by fantasies from science fiction."

According to the article: "Metaverse, the term, comes from a 1992 science fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, but the idea is much older. There’s a version of it, the holodeck, in Star Trek, a TV show that Mr. Bezos was obsessed with as a kid; last month, he sent William Shatner, the actor who played Captain Kirk in the original series, into space. Billionaires, having read stories of world-building as boys, are now rich enough, as men, to build worlds. The rest of us are trapped in them."

Muskism is considered a negative in sci-fi, if you, ahem, take it down to its meta version, capitalism, and look at it in the books and original material that Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have professed to be fans of. The article states, "Muskism, an extravagant form of capitalism, is inspired by stories that indict … capitalism. At Amazon Studios, Mr. Bezos tried to make a TV adaptation of the Culture space opera series, by the Scottish writer Iain Banks ('a huge personal favorite'); Mr. Zuckerberg put a volume of it on a list of books he thinks everyone should read; and Mr. Musk once tweeted, 'If you must know, I am a utopian anarchist of the kind best described by Iain Banks.'

But Banks was an avowed socialist. And, in an interview in 2010, three years before his death, he described the protagonists of the Culture series as 'hippy commies with hyper-weapons and a deep distrust of both Marketolatry and Greedism.'"

Regardless, these men have taken capitalism to the extreme and they're creating a world that we have to live in. The opinion piece is quite interesting. I'm curious what you think about what these techno billionaires are doing to us.

[TMSRetired]

Well someone needs to inform the NYT that stock prices are inflated because of the Fed, not those "rich guys".
The Fed pumped $9 trillion into the stock market last year and $3 trillion this year up through June (current figure not available yet).

That is $12 trillion dollars buying stocks to keep the stock market "inflated" over the past 1.5 years by our own government.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Imagined, and conjured denominations assigned electronically as the value/worth is how bidding has been done for decades now. Happened with housing/RE leading up to the GFC.

No one ever has that amount of money. They just type the magic keyboard, sign the magic documents, and viola, there is that amount. That is the Finance Industry for you.

Some people think it is okay to do that because they say the economy will stall, or there will be "financial crisis", or 1800s style panics, or unemployment, such and such.

[NJ Brazen_3133]

Originally Posted by TMSRetired

Well someone needs to inform the NYT that stock prices are inflated because of the Fed, not those "rich guys".
The Fed pumped $9 trillion into the stock market last year and $3 trillion this year up through June (current figure not available yet).

That is $12 trillion dollars buying stocks to keep the stock market "inflated" over the past 1.5 years by our own government.

Yeh cuz there is absolutely no relationship between the Fed, and "rich guys" as you type. Remember guys like Henry Paulson, or Ben Bernanke, and a bunch of other players including this younger looking fellow. I forget the names. Those guys did not know each other sure or the heads of the big banks like GS etc etc.

[Axxlrod]

As an owner of Tesla, FB, and Amazon stock, I have no problem with this.