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> Along the same lines, Bill Gates owns 242,000 acres of farm land. What for? I don’t know. The point of freedom is that it doesn't matter why he wants it, he'

> Along the same lines, Bill Gates owns 242,000 acres of farm land. What for? I don’t know. The point of freedom is that it doesn't matter why he wants it, he's free to buy it if the owner chooses to sell it. There's a chilling implication in your stance that people should need approval for basic freedoms like buying land. That's how you end up with a dictatorship.

yunohn 5y ago
> approval for basic freedoms like buying land. That's how you end up with a dictatorship. That escalated quickly. Nobody argued you need approval to buy land. We’re talking about purchasing thousands of acres of land, and exerting that kind of influence. This is exactly a temporarily embarrassed millionaire example - you wanna buy yourself some investment properties, so you’re sitting here arguing on behalf of the richest man on earth.
akudha 5y ago
That is not at all what I am implying. When you buy that much amount of land, which is a basic human necessity, at minimum the public needs to know what the plans are for those lands, right? If someone buys 5 acres of land, that is a different story, nobody cares. The scale is what making the difference here. Let me ask you another question - recently (2019 I think), Bill bought 14,500 acres of land for 171M in a single deal. 171M is pocket change for Bill. According to your logic, he can continue to buy farmlands across the country (because "freedom") with nobody asking any questions. What happens if he ends up owning half (or 75% or whatever) of all available farmlands? You want one single man to control your food supply? He can buy all the Ferraris/Picassos/megayachts etc on the planet, that would make zero difference to anyone (except maybe other billionaires). It is when he starts buying water sources, land etc it becomes a problem. It has nothing to do with dictatorship.
- deleted 5y ago
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- silicon2401 5y ago
  Who decides where the line is drawn for scale?
  - yunohn 5y ago
    Dude, this is not some weird fine line slippery slope situation. Normal people don’t often buy 269,000 of acres of land, only influential people like Bill Gates can.
    - Teever 5y ago
      The claim is that Bill Gates has bought too much farm land. If someone is making that claim surely they can clarify exactly what too much is and why. How do you expect anyone to take this suggestion seriously? How do you expect actual policy to be set without clearly defined boundaries of acceptable behaviour?
      - yunohn 5y ago
        It’s a lot like the famous “I’ll know it when I see it” concept. Also none of us here are lawmakers… But hey, you seem very sure of yourself. Do you think there is any amount you consider too much?
        Teever 5y ago
        To be clear here you're advocating for a law that forbids the private ownership of an unspecified quantity of property. How do you intend for this law to be enforced? Will every single private transaction be subject to scrutiny by some sort of administrative panel that takes into account the current holdings of the prospective buyer? It's curious to me that there is such a visceral opposition to Bill Gates owning some farm land in a place neither of us have ever heard of when he has so much more direct power over all of us through Microsoft. I don't think that there is a specific quantity of stuff that is too much stuff for one person to own. I think that there are issues with wealth concentration but I don't think it's absolute. The issue isn't that one person owns a lot of stuff the issue is that one person owns a lot of stuff while most other people own nearly nothing or are in debt.
- TimSchumann 5y ago
  I don’t think you realize how small 14,500 acres is. Also, that’s nearly 12k per acre for every acre, even the ones you can’t farm. That’s a very good price, hard pressed to find a farmer who wouldn’t sell for that.

yunohn 5y ago

> approval for basic freedoms like buying land. That's how you end up with a dictatorship. That escalated quickly. Nobody argued you need approval to buy land. We’re talking about purchasing thousands of acres of land, and exerting that kind of influence. This is exactly a temporarily embarrassed millionaire example - you wanna buy yourself some investment properties, so you’re sitting here arguing on behalf of the richest man on earth.

akudha 5y ago

That is not at all what I am implying. When you buy that much amount of land, which is a basic human necessity, at minimum the public needs to know what the plans are for those lands, right? If someone buys 5 acres of land, that is a different story, nobody cares. The scale is what making the difference here. Let me ask you another question - recently (2019 I think), Bill bought 14,500 acres of land for 171M in a single deal. 171M is pocket change for Bill. According to your logic, he can continue to buy farmlands across the country (because "freedom") with nobody asking any questions. What happens if he ends up owning half (or 75% or whatever) of all available farmlands? You want one single man to control your food supply? He can buy all the Ferraris/Picassos/megayachts etc on the planet, that would make zero difference to anyone (except maybe other billionaires). It is when he starts buying water sources, land etc it becomes a problem. It has nothing to do with dictatorship.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
silicon2401 5y ago
Who decides where the line is drawn for scale?
- yunohn 5y ago
  Dude, this is not some weird fine line slippery slope situation. Normal people don’t often buy 269,000 of acres of land, only influential people like Bill Gates can.
  - Teever 5y ago
    The claim is that Bill Gates has bought too much farm land. If someone is making that claim surely they can clarify exactly what too much is and why. How do you expect anyone to take this suggestion seriously? How do you expect actual policy to be set without clearly defined boundaries of acceptable behaviour?
    - yunohn 5y ago
      It’s a lot like the famous “I’ll know it when I see it” concept. Also none of us here are lawmakers… But hey, you seem very sure of yourself. Do you think there is any amount you consider too much?
      - Teever 5y ago
        To be clear here you're advocating for a law that forbids the private ownership of an unspecified quantity of property. How do you intend for this law to be enforced? Will every single private transaction be subject to scrutiny by some sort of administrative panel that takes into account the current holdings of the prospective buyer? It's curious to me that there is such a visceral opposition to Bill Gates owning some farm land in a place neither of us have ever heard of when he has so much more direct power over all of us through Microsoft. I don't think that there is a specific quantity of stuff that is too much stuff for one person to own. I think that there are issues with wealth concentration but I don't think it's absolute. The issue isn't that one person owns a lot of stuff the issue is that one person owns a lot of stuff while most other people own nearly nothing or are in debt.
TimSchumann 5y ago
I don’t think you realize how small 14,500 acres is. Also, that’s nearly 12k per acre for every acre, even the ones you can’t farm. That’s a very good price, hard pressed to find a farmer who wouldn’t sell for that.