I think there’s about 8-10% too many of them. To make things fair, we should remove an equal portion of each (starting from the top).

Honestly, I try not to think about them. It's an inherently selfish and self-serving class and they've got enough money to pay people to think about them, so I'm not going to do it for free.

I under stand the human desire to compete in wealth as a [genitalia] measuring contest, but there should probably be a cap somewhere...

Maybe a cap at somewhere between 500K and $10Mil, I'm not sure where, but someone else fancy enough to write laws should maybe figure it out... cuz any amount higher kinda make no sense.

Oh and redistribute the excess as a UBI that everyone would get.

I don't like the bandwagon of "kill billionaires". Like why need to kill when we can just seize excess funds that they don't need and redistribute, everyone can just chill.

They need to regularly take a shit, like everybody else. They just use more expensive toilet paper I suppose.

It depends on the billionaire.

If anything, I have ever so slightly less problems with billionaires like Gabe Newell (Valve ceo) since he's doing something constructive (proton/steam deck) that, while it does absolutely help line his pockets, is still helpful to people who play games.

Though on a moral level I personally feel not allowed to like him because he's a billionaire. That sentiment is spread across all billionaires for me. Either way, in general I don't like them because 99.9999999% of all billionaires do as much as possible to fuck over literally everyone else.

I feel like there are billionaires in the world who manage to be rich without damaging society (or being the society).

If there's one example then there's no excuse for all the others to behave the way they do..

If all billionaires are the same then it's past time to question why we have to put up with them

Medium rare with a little bit of butter and thyme.

Not good

Seems logical if there was a law that the average worker had to be paid a percentage of what the top people get paid. I thought that Japan had something like this.

I'm always thinking about how bad humans are when thinking about numbers rationally. Of course we understand what a "billion" is, we know how many 0's it has and can do basic mathematical operations on it. But how much is it really? One of my favorite analogies for putting it in perspective is seconds.

A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. A trillion seconds is … 31,688 years.

The analogy already breaks down, because while most people could understand 12 days and a lot of adults can understand 31 years for having lived it (some even twice or more!), 31,688 years is completely incomprehensible again. How many human generations is that? All of recorded human history is only like 5,000 years. It’s utterly, mind-numbingly insane. No trillionaires, ever! No billionaires!!!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/business/elon-musk-richest-person-trillionaire/index.html

This was published on September 17th of this year, after most of the nonsense of Twitter and utter things. He’s still on track, by 2027 no less.

In terms of scale, from the person at the top making xxx times the person at the bottom, they've likely always been around.

"Robber Baron" is the ye olde term.

Google tells me John D. Rockefeller peaked at around $1.4 billion in 1937. 1.5% of US GDP.

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47167

The average wage in 1937 was $890 a year.

https://time.com/archive/6760420/personnel-above-average/

So Rockefeller, at his death, had amassed as much wealth as 1,573,034 average people would earn in a year.

In order to hit 1.5% of current US GDP (27.36 trillion), Bezos or Musk would have to hit 410.4 billion. That's how wealthy Rockefeller was.

1.2 Musks. 2 Bezoses.

The easiest way to identify enemies of freedom and liberty. Count their net worth.

Same as that guys from yesterday. I would prefer a guillotine, but You gotta work with whatcha got.

Fuck 'em all to death.

Don't know them, don't care about them.

Too much power

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.

Is this a joke topic?

Wealth tax that goes directly to funding a billionaire audit program. It should create a self-perpetuating cycle that means IRS audits for all of them every year.

I have no problems with billionaires, in a society where everyone's a millionaire.

A society that allows for such wealth disparity to happen is deeply corrupt. Anyone who not only participates in that society, but voluntarily becomes the cause of such disparity is irreparably morally bankrupt. They are a burden on society, contributing millions of times less than what they take.

Abolish with prejudice

I support billionaire behaviour fully

in the (translated) Words of Knorkator:

The world doesn't need billionaires imagine how beautiful it would be without you! Empathy and reason instead of greed and scam fresh air, green forests, clean seas.

The world doesn't need billionaires and we will even achieve this without guns: No, we won't kill you and we won't imprison you, on the opposite: you will be millionaires!

Their an abomination. An exploitation of a system that values exponential growth more than inherent human values. In a world where public infrastructure is collapsing and there's homeless people on tbe street, individuals should not be able to amass such absurd wealth only for their own self enrichment.

Leeches. Fuck em.