Nov 21, 2018 Why do you think being a geeedy billionaire is an American thing? There’s billionaires in Europe too and in general philanthropy is much more common in the U.S than Europe isn’t it And also god I wish being a nurse or teacher paid millions
Nov 21, 2018 pretty simple more money gives you more freedom to do what you want. Sometimes i think people just like constantly improving & making more money give the feeling of winning. if your happy writing a novel & being a good person good for you.
Nov 21, 2018 I wish too! i'm not saying being a greedy billionaire is an american thing, i'm talking about the posts here. I may be wrong obviously but I don't feel like it's viewed as such a "cool" or important (or due to "ambition"?) thing here in europe
Nov 21, 2018 i'm not sure how to respond to this... "writing a novel" was just an example, there are plenty of things you can honorably do. but saying that "earning billions" and "writing novels" are equal activies (whatever makes people happy!) is a weird stance to me, because one is indecent (because some people are starving, and no it's not because they're lazy or unambitious) and the other can be great and not self-centered. also one is often made at the expense of other people and is based on greediness, while the other is based on imagination and actual work... (once again, pardon my poor english)
Nov 21, 2018 Where did I say that. How is making billions indecent? For all we know they are giving millions back to charities.
Nov 21, 2018 I'm not saying this hasn't happened—but I'd legitimately like to see some examples of this being true.
Nov 21, 2018 lol yikes. Sure, we can try and take steps to combat climate change. The earth still goes through natural cycles regardless. And I’m for funding space programs, but you realize if our climate gets so bad to where humans are risking extinction, only the elites get the space ship ride to get off of earth. They aren’t going to be able to haul millions of people. One day the sun will explode and all of the inner planets including mars will be destroyed. I think we need to figure out wormholes, which scientists are working on with the large hadron collider. That’s really the only way to realistically leave this planet, since it’d take light years to end up in a different solar system, we need to find another earth like planet in that mean time then focus on advancing technology to eventually being able to reach that planet to save the human race. And with wormholes, it’d then be a realistic expectation.
Nov 21, 2018 people should be able to earn as much money as possible. putting a cap on earnings is r-----ed
Nov 21, 2018 So you don’t think it’s worth it for people who make an unfathomably large amount of money to have a slightly less unfathomably large amount of money and have their earnings taxed higher and reallocated toward the overall betterment and improvement of society/humanity?
Nov 21, 2018 Ugh.... There is a difference between earth going through its natural cycles & climate change. I’m for funding space programs regardless of climate change. I don’t think space travel is a viable solution to our current climate problem, however, i think it’s a great goal to try to reach for the advancement of our species.
Nov 21, 2018 So where does that scale to be an affordable alternative for victims of an inhospitable earth and not just an escape route for the wealthy to escape the planet they're cooking for profit? This started because you said it would become affordable lol. For whatever reason a highway speed rail system doesn't exist, Musk's alternatives won't address anything but the inconvenience of the rich. We don't need to let billionaires exist so they'll make a subway/bullet train.
Nov 21, 2018 This is getting silly. I never said that Elon was going to fly the entire population to mars, nor should the entire population want to flee. IF he’s able to accomplish his roadmap, then the starting price would be $100k. Depending on your definition of “affordable”, then that might already be — especially if you’re in fact looking at the ticket price as an immediate flee to a sustainable planet to preserve your own life. This also assumes that the worst case scenario hits us and that somehow that worst case sceneario is in the next 10 years. Else, this talk is all just a jumping point and you’re not extrapolating figures and growth into the future. ...and it’s not just the rich who are destroying this planet. Sounds like you’re pinning that on the wealthy who are all going to use their earth-destroying methods for profit to leave everyone behind in the dust. What’s the alternative to getting funding? Strip everyone of their money to distribute evenly and wait for the government to build it? Cmon.
Nov 21, 2018 Lol, Elon Musk is not establishing a Mars colony in the next 10 years. Read the latest IPCC report. Tens of millions will be affected if we don't curb our emissions soon. Actually, yes, the fossil fuel industry, cargo shipping industry, automobile industry, etc are all immensely wealthy and take most of the responsibility for cooking the earth. Exxon has known about CO2 emissions contributing to climate change since the 1960s. All of these rich executives and companies have spent hundreds of millions on think tanks to legitimize climate science and obscure the overwhelming consensus. For somebody sucking off a guy for building rockets that explode half the time, you seem to have forgotten the publicly funded programs here and in Russia that put people up there first. Also, the countries with lots of high speed rail are all funded publicly from what I can tell. So, yeah, get a clue.
Nov 21, 2018 United for a Fair Economy breaks down the Forbes list using a baseball analogy. It says 35 percent of the list was born in the “batter’s box,” with a lower-middle class or middle-class background. That includes people like Larry Ellison of Oracle , who was born in a lower-middle class part of Chicago. It also includes Harold Hamm, a one-time gas-station attendant who built an oil and gas empire. The report says 22 percent of the list were born on first base: they came from a comfortable but not rich background and might have received some start-up capital from a family member. This group includes Mark Zuckerberg and hedge funder Louis Bacon, who started Moore Capital Management with help from a small inheritence. Only 11.5 percent were born on second base, the report says. Second base is defined as people who inherited a medium sized company or more than $1 million or got “substantial” start-up capital from a business or family member. (Read more: Millionaire Parents Say Kids Are Not Fit to Inherit) This group includes Donald Trump, who built on his father’s real-estate business, and Donald Schneider who inherited the Schneider International trucking company. The report says 7 percent were born on third base, inheriting more than $50 million in wealth or a big company. The report includes Charles Koch and Charles Butt on third base. The report says 21 percent were born on home plate, inheriting enough money to make the list. The home-basers include Forrest Mars Jr. and Bill Marriott. The report listed 3.25 percent as “undetermined,” meaning there was insufficient information on their financial background. https://www.cnbc.com/id/49167533 So roughly 1/3rd of billionaires actually "earned" their wealth, and that's only if you buy into how one earns in capitalism as being legitimate. I, for instance, don't consider rent seeking or labor exploitation as legitimate.
