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This is what normal people do. The real question is why certain wealthy people think they need to throw away the money that they extract from consumers and empl
by code_duck 15y ago
This is what normal people do. The real question is why certain wealthy people think they need to throw away the money that they extract from consumers and employees on things like cocaine, vacation houses and prostitutes.
- jherdman 15y agoTheir motivations, quite simply, are different than yours.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- code_duck 15y agoIt's not about my motivations - I'm commenting about the question the article asks. This guy should not be held up as abnormal in some way - people like Larry Ellison should. While quite common, obsession with material wealth and the drive to acquire it beyond reason is a perverse state, not healthy or natural.
- danneu 15y agoI'd actually consider obsession with acquisition and consumption part of the human state.
- forensic 15y agoWhat evidence do you base this on? People who make it their life's work to study human beings generally believe that humans are motivated by the drives to acquire, to bond, to defend, and to learn. The drive to acquire is fundamental to all animals. Getting stuff is therefore one of the prime meanings of life. What do you spend your money on?
- pavel_lishin 15y agoWhy do you consider that "throwing away money"? What if I happen to enjoy cocaine and prostitutes?
- code_duck 15y agoI hope that people will do something more constructive with the resources they extract from others labor, that's all. Drugs and prostitution serve the purpose of transient sensory gratification, and do not build anything. Of course, money is not real and it does not disappear when it is spent. What is real is the resources and labor extracted at the expense of others to provide and procure these services. Most likely, my examples could be improved and aren't worth discussing in particular. I'm taking exception to lavish spending and resource allotment which does not even make the person spending the money happy, yet is done at the expense of others who have real needs that are going unmet. I do think an act like spending $200,000 on a bottle of wine at a restaurant just for the heck of it, while the purchaser might have hundreds of employees for whom 200k would be a life changing relief, can be seen as sociopathic.
- seabee 15y agoWould it be any better if it was the result if their own labour rather than 'extracted from others'? You are getting into an argument about how people should use the resources that they have been rewarded with. This is difficult, because reducing the rewards punish the responsible, and conditional rewards are difficult to implement if the sources of that reward are heterogeneous or disorganized, such as the consumers of mass-produced goods. Not to say it can't be done, but it's not as simple as sprinkling magic social responsibility dust onto capitalism.
- code_duck 15y agoIt is the fruits of their own labor. I agree this is a very large topic, and it's not really possible to discuss it here without spending all day composing. It's more about personal responsibility and ethics than an economic system.
- 15y ago
- ScottBurson 15y ago"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds [women] and fast cars; the rest I just squandered." -- George Best That quote always gives me a giggle. If nothing else it serves to remind me that everyone has their own priorities.