5 ms·

> It's rent seeking activities and inherited wealth gained through no personal merit that are problematic and I think there's too much of that going on at the m

> It's rent seeking activities and inherited wealth gained through no personal merit that are problematic and I think there's too much of that going on at the moment. But having worked for a billionaire that worked his arse off doing fantastic work that benefited millions of people, I think the current trend that billionaire = bad is too simplistic. This. Unfortunately the atmosphere in Europe (or at least Sweden where I live) seems to be the exact opposite: nobody's upset about our own hereditary oligarchs (which put the Russian ones to shame), but they are screaming about Elon Musk...

mandmandam 4y ago
Your counterexample to a hereditary oligarch is Elon 'Parents Owned an Apartheid Emerald Mine' Musk? The Elon who used a bullshit single lane car tunnel to cynically deflect the conversation away from public transport? The Elon who has been caught censoring left wing outlets on Twitter? That Elon Musk?
- mypastself 4y ago
  You’ve made three separate claims here. I’d love to see the sources for the first two, at least.
  - simonh 4y ago
    The first is just a fact, you can check it out on his Wikipedia page. The second is a somewhat cynical take on Musk's Hyperloop idea which he didn't pursue but ironically would have been a form of public transport. Musk doesn't seem to have a problem with public transport in principle, he just thinks that currently it sucks and there are ways to make transport generally cheaper and better. Many of the projects his Boring Company is involved in are public transport.
    - mypastself 4y ago
      The Wikipedia page mentions Zambia, which was not under Apartheid to my knowledge. That’s an important distinction, and the original claim is factually incorrect. Wikipedia’s source also seems to be an interview with Errol, who claims to have had a part-stake in a mine. We don’t know how big. If someone owns some shares in Apple, saying they’re the company’s “owner” would be misleading, even if they made a good profit.
      - simonh 4y ago
        >The Wikipedia page mentions Zambia, which was not under Apartheid to my knowledge. That’s an important distinction, and the original claim is factually incorrect. Would you say that the fact it was in Zambia is actually material to the point the poster was making about him coming from a wealthy background, or was it an incidental detail?
        mypastself 4y ago
        I doubt it was incidental, because they were referring to “hereditary oligarchy”, which is different from merely having wealthy parents. It implies wielding political power and using oppressive or tyrannical tactics, as well as amassing wealth in unfair and unethical ways. That’s why the Apartheid angle seems to be the key aspect of this argument whenever I see it raised online. It’s never just, “his father made money from investments”.

mandmandam 4y ago

Your counterexample to a hereditary oligarch is Elon 'Parents Owned an Apartheid Emerald Mine' Musk? The Elon who used a bullshit single lane car tunnel to cynically deflect the conversation away from public transport? The Elon who has been caught censoring left wing outlets on Twitter? That Elon Musk?

mypastself 4y ago
You’ve made three separate claims here. I’d love to see the sources for the first two, at least.
- simonh 4y ago
  The first is just a fact, you can check it out on his Wikipedia page. The second is a somewhat cynical take on Musk's Hyperloop idea which he didn't pursue but ironically would have been a form of public transport. Musk doesn't seem to have a problem with public transport in principle, he just thinks that currently it sucks and there are ways to make transport generally cheaper and better. Many of the projects his Boring Company is involved in are public transport.
  - mypastself 4y ago
    The Wikipedia page mentions Zambia, which was not under Apartheid to my knowledge. That’s an important distinction, and the original claim is factually incorrect. Wikipedia’s source also seems to be an interview with Errol, who claims to have had a part-stake in a mine. We don’t know how big. If someone owns some shares in Apple, saying they’re the company’s “owner” would be misleading, even if they made a good profit.
    - simonh 4y ago
      >The Wikipedia page mentions Zambia, which was not under Apartheid to my knowledge. That’s an important distinction, and the original claim is factually incorrect. Would you say that the fact it was in Zambia is actually material to the point the poster was making about him coming from a wealthy background, or was it an incidental detail?
      - mypastself 4y ago
        I doubt it was incidental, because they were referring to “hereditary oligarchy”, which is different from merely having wealthy parents. It implies wielding political power and using oppressive or tyrannical tactics, as well as amassing wealth in unfair and unethical ways. That’s why the Apartheid angle seems to be the key aspect of this argument whenever I see it raised online. It’s never just, “his father made money from investments”.