Is it evil to be a billionaire?

Started by GSOgymrat, November 20, 2021, 12:08:10 AM

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GSOgymrat


aitm

Without watching the video, I say no. However, I believe it is morally repugnant to remain a billionaire.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

GodFree

In and of itself, one's net worth would not make one "evil"
(by the way.....DUH...)
Life-long atheist, (freethinker, agnostic, never believed also apply)

Mr.Obvious

Without having seen the clip  i will say that i've always been fond of the saying: The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.
And i would say that inaction when you have the opportunity for action is a choice in and by itseld. And if said choice allows 'evil', to continue then that is where your allignment falls.
Which is all without touching on the cost and suffering we know is inflicted on the world and its peoples, that gathering such wealth entails.

But i'll go one further. By said logic, i define myself as evil. I am no billionaire. But the iphone and ipad i bought for the gf are not free of blood. Every airplane flight to a holiday destination i have taken has been a willing forestfire that I deemed less worthy than my own fun. I prefer to go out to dinner from time to time rather than donate the excess cash to a good cause. I spend my lazy sunday afternoons playing games rather than helping out in a soup kitchen.

I think it is human nature. Were someone less fortunate have been in my place, they would probably act and live in a similar way to how i do now.
But yes, i concider myself evil, because my lifestyle and my choices cause for a nett loss in the world.
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.

aitm

Quote from: GodFree on November 21, 2021, 12:50:00 AM
In and of itself, one's net worth would not make one "evil"
(by the way.....DUH...)
I would suggest “net worth” is a subjective value. Is monetary wealth less important than say….personal property? If I have the only fire extinguisher and as it is mine I am free to use it as I wish. So if I walk past your unconscious body in your burning car without using my personal wealth to help you am I evil? Of course not….
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Cassia

It is ethically wrong to use your money to influence elected politicians and to evade taxes. We can vote in people who will stop all this political donation bullshit and raise the marginal rates on the super wealthy. It's wasn't rocket science to earlier generations but for now the US voting block is a headless chicken.

Hydra009

For comparison, a million seconds is about a week and a half.  A billion seconds is about 32 years.  HUGE difference.

And something else to keep in mind:  a person wealthy enough to buy anything is a person wealthy enough to buy our democracy.

Dark Lightning

Don't have to be wealthy enough to buy anything, to buy a politician, sad to say. Some of those people will vote how you want based on a fractured ideology.

GSOgymrat

Could Elon Musk end world hunger with $6 billion? 5 questions, answered

This is an interesting article on how solving world hunger is more complicated than putting people into space. Elon Musk tweeted that he might be willing to donate $6 billion to hunger relief if the United Nations can prove it can solve world hunger “right now.” Musk's safe bet means he clearly understands the obstacles involved in world hunger.

There is enough food on Earth to feed everyone. Millions are going hungry not because of a global inability to grow enough food, although this could change as climate-related disasters, such as extreme heat, droughts, floods, and storms, diminish agricultural productivity. These climate change impacts will increase if society does not act quickly enough.

Today, hunger is a result of conflict, poor infrastructure, inequality, and poverty. For instance, after years of conflict in Yemen, over 5 million people are on the brink of famine. And as the Syrian conflict reaches its 10-year mark, 12.4 million people â€" over 60 percent of the population there â€" are struggling to get enough to eat. ...

The WFP says it needs an additional $6.6 billion beyond its annual budget to alleviate world hunger today. At least, in theory, the richest people on Earth could easily afford to accomplish this feat year after year. The wealthiest one percent of Americans alone held a combined net worth of $34.2 trillion in 2020.

Even if the rich were to pony up, it takes more than money to solve hunger. Infrastructure is organized by governments, increasing equality often requires mass civil movements, and policy change and reducing conflict require intergovernmental diplomacy. ...

Hydra009

Quote from: GSOgymrat on November 23, 2021, 08:53:58 AMThis is an interesting article on how solving world hunger is more complicated than putting people into space. Elon Musk tweeted that he might be willing to donate $6 billion to hunger relief if the United Nations can prove it can solve world hunger “right now.” Musk's safe bet means he clearly understands the obstacles involved in world hunger.
Or he's lying and is just  shitposting (literally, as he admitted pretty recently) on Twitter for attention.

GSOgymrat

Quote from: Hydra009 on November 23, 2021, 07:30:22 PM
Or he's lying and is just  shitposting (literally, as he admitted pretty recently) on Twitter for attention.

He's salty because of the billionaires tax.

Hydra009

#11
Quote from: GSOgymrat on November 23, 2021, 08:25:58 PMHe's salty because of the billionaires tax.
Pretty much.  You don't get that rich by being generous.  And you certainly don't give it away on a whim to win an argument on the internet.

FreethinkingSceptic

Quote from: GSOgymrat on November 20, 2021, 12:08:10 AM
People should not be allowed to be billionaires.

https://youtu.be/1BSFyrxzZ4s
Didn't watch the video since it's obviously comical. The assertion that "people shouldn't be allowed to be billionaires" has no practical application whatsoever. (The US GDP is over 20 Trillion dollars - what does that make it?)

Not to mention that billionaires can do a lot more good than people of comparatively fewer assets. People with little money wouldn't be able to fund things like sciences, arts, philanthropic causes, and so on.

Cassia

Not to mention that billionaires can do a lot more good than people of comparatively fewer assets. People with little money wouldn't be able to fund things like sciences, arts, philanthropic causes, and so on.
Wins the most misguided Russian bot style statement of the day. Billionaires shut down the US factories that paid good wages (thanks Jack Welch) and now the biggest companies are conduits for funneling Chinese communist party goods into Walmart and Amazon warehouses (thanks Bezos). In the meantime, they are busy manipulating food, removing every bit of fiber and nutrition from sugar laden supermarket shelves (thanks big sugar) resulting in an obese population that is disproportionately devasted by the pandemic and a host of other health issues (and of course we have no universal healthcare). As they fight any attempts at curtailing climate change, they live off of rotating loans so to avoid paying taxes, yet they have government officials at their fingertips since they funded all of their campaigns. And since schools get hardly any funding we can raise an under educated public who are clueless on science and love jesus. Perfect. Thank you, billionaires for taking 90% of the wealth off the table so that you can ride in a penis shaped idiotic "spaceship" to nowhere and decide how and when this shitshow will end badly.

FreethinkingSceptic

Quote from: Cassia on December 19, 2021, 09:30:57 AM
Billionaires shut down the US factories that paid good wages (thanks Jack Welch) and now the biggest companies are conduits for funneling Chinese communist party goods into Walmart and Amazon warehouses (thanks Bezos).
Oh Lord, that's a big correlation causation fallacy. The fact that they're "billionaires" is irrelevant to those assertions - even if we take those assertions for granted to begin with. Obviously Jeff Bezos and Amazon have created new jobs which wouldn't have previously existed.

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In the meantime, they are busy manipulating food, removing every bit of fiber and nutrition from sugar laden supermarket shelves (thanks big sugar) resulting in an obese population that is disproportionately devasted by the pandemic and a host of other health issues (and of course we have no universal healthcare).
Right, the onus is on people to follow their doctor's advice and not eat that kind of food in excess or become obese. That's better than filing frivolous lawsuits and claim someone held a gun to you're head and forced you to gorge on that kind of food on a daily basis. Plus I'm sure there are billionaires who have funded plenty of "healthy foods".

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As they fight any attempts at curtailing climate change, they live off of rotating loans so to avoid paying taxes, yet they have government officials at their fingertips since they funded all of their campaigns.
Some of the biggest funders of climate alarmism are billionaires. The myth that "no billionaires pay taxes", or that "only billionaires" could find legal tax loopholes is absurd.

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And since schools get hardly any funding we can raise an under educated public who are clueless on science and love jesus.
Oh my God, this can't be serious. First of all, teaching a little bit of outdated scientism by rote indoctrination is a very small and insignificant element of learning or "education".

Second of all, what passes for "education' at the bare minimum of what's legally required, or necessary to graduate K-12 or complete an SAT is barely just 1 step above the law of the jungle, which is why the average person never learns to read above and beyond the 6th grade level.

"Billionaires" have little to do with this - they're not wizards who could just waive a magic wand and somehow instantly transform a person who never learned how to read past the 6th grade into an Einstein (especially when what you're conflating with "education" isn't even designed to do that to begin with). And anything above that would require a significant investment on the part of the person attempting to learn things.

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Perfect. Thank you, billionaires for taking 90% of the wealth off the table
Poor understanding of how "wealth" works, or what it even is in practice. All financial transitions are just negotiations, and ultimately "wealth" doesn't exist outside of pure abstraction, beyond what someone is electively willing to pay for something. If a person wanted to, they could sell a rocket ship for $1, or sell a Pokemon card for $1,000,000 - no body's stopping them from doing it, and "wealth" isn't some kind of magical trinket that "makes" a person exchange their goods and services if they don't want to for any number of reasons.

[quote[
so that you can ride in a penis shaped idiotic "spaceship" to nowhere and decide how and when this shitshow will end badly.[/color]
[/quote]
Okay so you're against funding of space travel? Maybe someone could make a case against that, but it's rather unusual.