5 ms·

Jeff Kinney has a net worth of $70 million. Dan Brown has a net worth of $160 million. Rowling is no longer a billionaire after giving hundreds of millions to c

Jeff Kinney has a net worth of $70 million. Dan Brown has a net worth of $160 million. Rowling is no longer a billionaire after giving hundreds of millions to charity. Patrick Mahomes' net worth is $30 million. Jordan is a raging homophobe who refuses to tip waiters and a billionaire, and almost all of it came from conning kids and teenagers into wasting their money on overpriced shoes. I believe my point stands.

DisjointedHunt 5y ago
You're on HN so i assume you work in big tech. Big tech has been associated with many "evils" in society. By your logic, you should be stood up against a wall. Sometimes i wonder how intelligent people in tech can reasonably make some of the arguments that they do and then i come across arguments such as these in the wild and cringe some more.
- krainboltgreene 5y ago
  How does it feel to know you're making the same fallacious arguments as capitalists from the 1920's? "Through a warped lens the worker is equally as bad as the exploiter, hmm! Better not think critically of the exploiter or you could be next!" Good lord.
- Causality1 5y ago
  I work in agriculture, actually. By your logic, you should be stood up against a wall. How so? My argument is that it's unlikely for an individual to accumulate and hold a certain level of wealth without being a jerk. What does that have to do with middle-class tech workers?
  - caeril 5y ago
    Not the OP, but I'm guessing the larger point is that if you're pulling $400k writing adware/spyware/analytics, you're at least complicit in oligarchs concentrating their power, control, and ownership of your personal data. Should you (not you, dear poster, but the hypothetical FAANG employee) be put against the wall? no. But you also have no right to complain about inequality or encroachments on freedom or privacy if you're actively working to aid those ends. You either quit, or you shut up. Those are the options.
    - malcolmgreaves 5y ago
      Yes because getting a salary of 0.04% of a billionaire's net worth means that you're equally culpable. Never mind if, say, you're doing it so you can provide for your parents or extended family that lives near the poverty line... Please don't equate working in a system with not also simulatenously wanting the system to drastically change.
      - caeril 5y ago
        All I'm saying is that if you're doing logistics accounting for gas canisters in 1943 Germany in order to "provide for your parents", that's fine, I get it. But you're not in a moral position to complain about the atrocities going on at Birkenau. You've made your choice that your parents' comfort is more important than some people's lives. You do your job, and maybe you do it with a heavy sense of personal shame. But you don't get to publicly bloviate about how horrible the machine is whilst you're actively working to help it function.
        Causality1 5y ago
        Ok, so other people who do different things from me would be hypocrites if they tried to make the same points I'm making. That's entirely true, such as the idiotic moral posturing of Google employees who throw tantrums at the idea of taking money from the DoD while also doing their best to figure out who's pregnant before they themselves know it. I just don't see how it's a relevant response to my position on billionaires.
  - DisjointedHunt 5y ago
    Unless youve written every single line of code in whatever industry you’re in on your own, I assure you, you’re using derived work of the companies in Faang or their devices or tools. Your position on “Billionaires” is idiotic since it classifies people into a cohort that you deem must all be guilty purely by a measure of their wealth. I’m making the point that if I were to classify you similarly with no regard for your individual contributions to society or how you choose to live your life, but instead by your association with companies I deem “evil”, you will protest the unfairness as you have. So thank you for making my point for me, I’m glad you see the irony in how your viewpoint shifts when you’re on the receiving end of similar “judgement through grouping”
skinnymuch 5y ago
Patrick Mahomes has a net worth greater than $30M. Those random net worth sites aren’t exactly scientific.
credit_guy 5y ago
Yes, Jeff Kinney's net worth is $70 MM because the internet says so. I guess then, if I ever become a billionaire, the first thing I should do is to put out there on the internet that my net worth is only $70 MM.

DisjointedHunt 5y ago

You're on HN so i assume you work in big tech. Big tech has been associated with many "evils" in society. By your logic, you should be stood up against a wall. Sometimes i wonder how intelligent people in tech can reasonably make some of the arguments that they do and then i come across arguments such as these in the wild and cringe some more.

krainboltgreene 5y ago
How does it feel to know you're making the same fallacious arguments as capitalists from the 1920's? "Through a warped lens the worker is equally as bad as the exploiter, hmm! Better not think critically of the exploiter or you could be next!" Good lord.
Causality1 5y ago
I work in agriculture, actually. By your logic, you should be stood up against a wall. How so? My argument is that it's unlikely for an individual to accumulate and hold a certain level of wealth without being a jerk. What does that have to do with middle-class tech workers?
- caeril 5y ago
  Not the OP, but I'm guessing the larger point is that if you're pulling $400k writing adware/spyware/analytics, you're at least complicit in oligarchs concentrating their power, control, and ownership of your personal data. Should you (not you, dear poster, but the hypothetical FAANG employee) be put against the wall? no. But you also have no right to complain about inequality or encroachments on freedom or privacy if you're actively working to aid those ends. You either quit, or you shut up. Those are the options.
  - malcolmgreaves 5y ago
    Yes because getting a salary of 0.04% of a billionaire's net worth means that you're equally culpable. Never mind if, say, you're doing it so you can provide for your parents or extended family that lives near the poverty line... Please don't equate working in a system with not also simulatenously wanting the system to drastically change.
    - caeril 5y ago
      All I'm saying is that if you're doing logistics accounting for gas canisters in 1943 Germany in order to "provide for your parents", that's fine, I get it. But you're not in a moral position to complain about the atrocities going on at Birkenau. You've made your choice that your parents' comfort is more important than some people's lives. You do your job, and maybe you do it with a heavy sense of personal shame. But you don't get to publicly bloviate about how horrible the machine is whilst you're actively working to help it function.
      - Causality1 5y ago
        Ok, so other people who do different things from me would be hypocrites if they tried to make the same points I'm making. That's entirely true, such as the idiotic moral posturing of Google employees who throw tantrums at the idea of taking money from the DoD while also doing their best to figure out who's pregnant before they themselves know it. I just don't see how it's a relevant response to my position on billionaires.
- DisjointedHunt 5y ago
  Unless youve written every single line of code in whatever industry you’re in on your own, I assure you, you’re using derived work of the companies in Faang or their devices or tools. Your position on “Billionaires” is idiotic since it classifies people into a cohort that you deem must all be guilty purely by a measure of their wealth. I’m making the point that if I were to classify you similarly with no regard for your individual contributions to society or how you choose to live your life, but instead by your association with companies I deem “evil”, you will protest the unfairness as you have. So thank you for making my point for me, I’m glad you see the irony in how your viewpoint shifts when you’re on the receiving end of similar “judgement through grouping”

skinnymuch 5y ago

Patrick Mahomes has a net worth greater than $30M. Those random net worth sites aren’t exactly scientific.

credit_guy 5y ago

Yes, Jeff Kinney's net worth is $70 MM because the internet says so. I guess then, if I ever become a billionaire, the first thing I should do is to put out there on the internet that my net worth is only $70 MM.