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People shouldn't be allowed to be too tall either. No one deserves to be 6'3 when the average height is 5'7. The extralegal advantages that come with such heigh

People shouldn't be allowed to be too tall either. No one deserves to be 6'3 when the average height is 5'7. The extralegal advantages that come with such height are considerable and worth correcting.

kevingadd 6y ago
Aside from the fact that Elon was born into a wealthy family (which is vaguely like having tall genes, I guess?), he can discard his massive wealth at any moment with considerable ease compared to the task of somehow reducing your height from 6'3" to 5'7". He actively chose to accumulate wealth and hold onto it, there are plenty of successful businessmen who aren't billionaires or aspiring billionaires. Are you really going to pick height as a comparison point for being a billionaire? Did tall people take their height from short people? Is height taxed?
brandonr49 6y ago
I think this is a fantastic analogy, except instead of 5'7 and 6'3 it's 5'7 and 50,000' tall. You bet society would start to have some pretty interesting laws if there were a bunch of people running around that were ten thousand times the size of the median person. It would be agreed that people of this size, while capable of incredible things, present a significant problem for the general population and they consume A LOT of resources. Certainly the population would prefer if they were only 1000 feet tall, after all, it's impossible to maintain perspective if your head is in the clouds, far from the median person.
- fragmede 6y ago
  https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/ https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/ is a great visualization of just how wealthy one particular billionaire is. We're all closer to being millionaires than Jeff Bezos.
  - ntumlin 6y ago
    > We're all closer to being millionaires than Jeff Bezos. This is true in terms of orders of magnitude, but gets hilariously true when looking at the absolute numbers. The difference in wealth of a homeless person and a (barely) millionaire is about a million ($1,000,000). The difference in wealth of that millionaire and Jeff Bezos is about a Jeff Bezos ($138,999,000,000).
  - dmitrygr 6y ago
    That website rubs me the wrong way in so many ways - the premise of "what could we do with X% of $what_someone_who_is_not_me_owns" with no concern for the owner, and "no person deserves this much wealth" with no concern given to the very important question of: Who can judge what anyone "Deserves"?
    - bennyelv 6y ago
      The premise of your objection to it is that there is nothing of a higher moral status than protecting ownership of property. Why is that more important than any other moral axiom?
      - dmitrygr 6y ago
        No problem. I suggest we start with yours. Please mail me all your property. For all you know, I "need" it more.
    - jacobush 6y ago
      They can keep their wealth because the rest of us protects it, often with our blood. (Military and police, for a start, but that’s just scratching the surface.)

kevingadd 6y ago

Aside from the fact that Elon was born into a wealthy family (which is vaguely like having tall genes, I guess?), he can discard his massive wealth at any moment with considerable ease compared to the task of somehow reducing your height from 6'3" to 5'7". He actively chose to accumulate wealth and hold onto it, there are plenty of successful businessmen who aren't billionaires or aspiring billionaires. Are you really going to pick height as a comparison point for being a billionaire? Did tall people take their height from short people? Is height taxed?

brandonr49 6y ago

I think this is a fantastic analogy, except instead of 5'7 and 6'3 it's 5'7 and 50,000' tall. You bet society would start to have some pretty interesting laws if there were a bunch of people running around that were ten thousand times the size of the median person. It would be agreed that people of this size, while capable of incredible things, present a significant problem for the general population and they consume A LOT of resources. Certainly the population would prefer if they were only 1000 feet tall, after all, it's impossible to maintain perspective if your head is in the clouds, far from the median person.

fragmede 6y ago
https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/ https://mkorostoff.github.io/1-pixel-wealth/ is a great visualization of just how wealthy one particular billionaire is. We're all closer to being millionaires than Jeff Bezos.
- ntumlin 6y ago
  > We're all closer to being millionaires than Jeff Bezos. This is true in terms of orders of magnitude, but gets hilariously true when looking at the absolute numbers. The difference in wealth of a homeless person and a (barely) millionaire is about a million ($1,000,000). The difference in wealth of that millionaire and Jeff Bezos is about a Jeff Bezos ($138,999,000,000).
- dmitrygr 6y ago
  That website rubs me the wrong way in so many ways - the premise of "what could we do with X% of $what_someone_who_is_not_me_owns" with no concern for the owner, and "no person deserves this much wealth" with no concern given to the very important question of: Who can judge what anyone "Deserves"?
  - bennyelv 6y ago
    The premise of your objection to it is that there is nothing of a higher moral status than protecting ownership of property. Why is that more important than any other moral axiom?
    - dmitrygr 6y ago
      No problem. I suggest we start with yours. Please mail me all your property. For all you know, I "need" it more.
  - jacobush 6y ago
    They can keep their wealth because the rest of us protects it, often with our blood. (Military and police, for a start, but that’s just scratching the surface.)