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This shouldn't be surprising to anyone. Billionaires are billionaires because of the extreme disproportionate gains by the few at the expense of thousands/mill
by oulu2006 7y ago
This shouldn't be surprising to anyone.
Billionaires are billionaires because of the extreme disproportionate gains by the few at the expense of thousands/millions.
They're used to seeing the many slave away for their interests.
Not seeing that happening now is throwing their view of proper world order into chaos and they're not used to be back in a position without control.
- cairo_x 7y agoThat is the what lies at the rotten heart of capitalism. I mean, people say a lot of horseshit about what capitalism is or isn't ("I'm a capitalist because I'm for making money and profits.", etc), or creating a fake context where the only alternative is ownership by the state. But at the end of the day it's about the worker employer relationship, period, end of story.
- WalterBright 7y agoAny person or group in the US can start a worker cooperative and run it as they see fit.
- scotty79 7y agoAre they competitive if they don't exploit their workers like companies do?
- WalterBright 7y agoThe idea is to pay the workers out of the profits that would otherwise go to the business owner. This doesn't increase the cost structure of the operation. There's nothing non-capitalist or non-free-market about a worker collective. There are no laws against it. Nobody will try to stop you. You don't need a change in the government. What are you waiting for?
- scotty79 7y agoCompany owner can always ditch burnt out workers which is efficient for the company. I'm assuming it's not that easy in workers collective?
- WalterBright 7y agoThe workers can run the collective as they please.
- scotty79 7y agoNo they can't because they have their individual self-preservation instincts that they can't disregard. Company owner can do that with ease.
- kazinator 7y agoNo labor laws apply to worker co-operatives? That's surprising.
- WalterBright 7y agoSince labor laws are meant to protect workers, what are you concerned about?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- justchilly 7y agoIts not a zero sum game. Many billionaires - including the ones referenced in the article - got that way by executing on ideas/products that improve society. Think of all the ways companies created by billionaires progressed our quality of life (yes even Bezos, Larry/Sergy, Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg, not to mention industries like food, pharma, agriculture, construction, transportation). The way we get to version of society where everyone can have a high quality of life (with socialism, UBI or whatever mechanism necessary) is to first let the current system create these efficiencies.
- siquick 7y agoBut the thing they all share in common is that at some point, they either have screwed over people or acted against the best interests of the general public.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoEveryone having a high quality of life is inefficient, market-wise. Creating efficiencies involves taking away quality of life for many, and turning it into profits for the few.
- scotty79 7y agoBillionaires also know that work does some damage to the workers. So working during pandemic is not qualitative difference for them, just quantitative.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoYup. You can almost imagine the pandemic being interpreted as worker churn rate going up on some spreadsheet.