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There comes a point at which marginal wealth stops having any utility No there doesn't. Whatever you can't spend goes towards making sure your descendants are

There comes a point at which marginal wealth stops having any utility No there doesn't. Whatever you can't spend goes towards making sure your descendants are taken care of. Or you can donate it to the various charitable organizations of your choosing.

pjc50 7y ago
Only to the extent that the disutility to other people isn't too high. Imagine, say, the CEO of Foxconn pushing their staff to the extent that an unusually high number commit suicide, then dying and choosing to give it all to a cat charity. Are we really saying that's the best we can possibly achieve in terms of human social organisation?
orthecreedence 7y ago
Fuck that. Leave your descendants no more than 10M each and anything over goes into a social dividend. It's the "you got to be incredibly wealthy for decades and leave a fortune to your family and now you can repay the society that gave you all that wealth" tax. If we make it as easy as we do to become incredibly wealthy, we should make it just as hard to stay wealthy.
- antidesitter 7y ago
  > If we make it as easy as we do to become incredibly wealthy, we should make it just as hard to stay wealthy. What possible reason could one have for making it “hard” to stay wealthy, other than pure spite and jealousy? How does it benefit society in any way?
  - ramblerman 7y ago
    Circulating money is a good thing. Stagnant money not so much.
    - antidesitter 7y ago
      Wealthy people invest their money. It doesn’t “stagnate”.
  - orthecreedence 7y ago
    Extreme concentration of wealth is detrimental to society as a whole.
    - antidesitter 7y ago
      How exactly are you measuring “concentration of wealth”? And why do you think high values of that measure are “detrimental to society as a whole”? Take note of the difference between cause and effect.
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  Lol. If it were easy to become wealthy then we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. Besides, a social dividend implies that somebody else decides how to spend my hard-earned money. Fuck that!
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    > Lol. If it were easy to become wealthy then we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. That doesn't logically follow. I think that a great portion of what makes wealthy people wealthy is blind luck. That's not to say that Jeff Bazos isn't a great businessman or a hard worker, but I'm not convinced he's the greatest businessman there is.
Bakary 7y ago
You can also start projects that mere mortals can only dream of, and hedge your bets against amazing technology being available only to the wealthiest people in the future.

pjc50 7y ago

Only to the extent that the disutility to other people isn't too high. Imagine, say, the CEO of Foxconn pushing their staff to the extent that an unusually high number commit suicide, then dying and choosing to give it all to a cat charity. Are we really saying that's the best we can possibly achieve in terms of human social organisation?

orthecreedence 7y ago

Fuck that. Leave your descendants no more than 10M each and anything over goes into a social dividend. It's the "you got to be incredibly wealthy for decades and leave a fortune to your family and now you can repay the society that gave you all that wealth" tax. If we make it as easy as we do to become incredibly wealthy, we should make it just as hard to stay wealthy.

antidesitter 7y ago
> If we make it as easy as we do to become incredibly wealthy, we should make it just as hard to stay wealthy. What possible reason could one have for making it “hard” to stay wealthy, other than pure spite and jealousy? How does it benefit society in any way?
- ramblerman 7y ago
  Circulating money is a good thing. Stagnant money not so much.
  - antidesitter 7y ago
    Wealthy people invest their money. It doesn’t “stagnate”.
- orthecreedence 7y ago
  Extreme concentration of wealth is detrimental to society as a whole.
  - antidesitter 7y ago
    How exactly are you measuring “concentration of wealth”? And why do you think high values of that measure are “detrimental to society as a whole”? Take note of the difference between cause and effect.
stronglikedan 7y ago
Lol. If it were easy to become wealthy then we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. Besides, a social dividend implies that somebody else decides how to spend my hard-earned money. Fuck that!
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  > Lol. If it were easy to become wealthy then we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. That doesn't logically follow. I think that a great portion of what makes wealthy people wealthy is blind luck. That's not to say that Jeff Bazos isn't a great businessman or a hard worker, but I'm not convinced he's the greatest businessman there is.

Bakary 7y ago

You can also start projects that mere mortals can only dream of, and hedge your bets against amazing technology being available only to the wealthiest people in the future.