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> When people say they find the "very idea of billionaires" abhorrent, what exactly is the solution here? After the stock in your company becomes worth > billio

> When people say they find the "very idea of billionaires" abhorrent, what exactly is the solution here? After the stock in your company becomes worth > billion you have to give it away for free? Yes. Arguably it was never rightfully theirs to begin with—owning someone else's labor output without working yourself is a pretty antisocial act. Furthermore I'd argue that billionaires have repeatedly demonstrated they are unable to invest in public good. Philanthropy used to be a thing; even the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is a pathetic shadow of that practice with obvious ideological blind spots.

kortilla 3y ago
>owning someone else's labor output without working yourself is a pretty antisocial act. This is what happens when you buy literally anything. What is the distinction you are trying to make?
- diogenes4 3y ago
  > This is what happens when you buy literally anything. Well presumably if you buy from the sole creator of a product, they're justly compensated as they could simply refuse the sale. Buying from a privately owned enterprise allows the owners of the enterprise to siphon off of the work of the people who actually build the phone without contributing anything themselves. That doesn't sit right with me, and it doesn't sit right with a lot of people. This creates hugely perverse incentives that magnify to global economic dysfunction and inefficiency and irrational resource distribution and social volatility. The world we live in!