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> The answer may not be to give them more stuff. Is the answer to let people like Musk and Gates get so much stuff that they can pretty much do whatever they w

> The answer may not be to give them more stuff. Is the answer to let people like Musk and Gates get so much stuff that they can pretty much do whatever they want? No one elected them. If you are incredibly successful does that mean you get to make more money than you would ever need and use it to do whatever you want? At what point are collective needs more important than the freedom of the individual to keep making more money? These are all questions that are waved away by nature of 'they earned it'. But so what? They are particularly good at one specific thing (making money, or being lucky, or both) -- does that mean they deserve the power that one gets with having effectively infinite capital in a capitalist society? I honestly don't know, but I heavily lean towards 'no'.

robertlagrant 3y ago
Rich people don't automatically have power. Sam Bankman-Freid is about to go to jail. If we lived in the sort of world your instincts seem to have been moulded to believe we do, that wouldn't happen. Anyone can go to jail, no matter how much money they have. Power is in the state, not in money. Now, you can buy powerful people such as politicians, because the democratic process is not very good at being able to detect people who shouldn't have power. But that is not the same as power. Private enterprise, however, is generally pretty good at giving people the right amount of responsibility and reward for value created. The big, big problem occurs when you mix power and money. That's why tens of millions died in the last century. Mao and Stalin destroyed their own countries for the greater good, put and kept in power by people who thought that for government officials they could turn off their critical faculties; their instincts somehow trained to believe that government was like a good parent who will handle the family finances well and love its children. Sadly for them, government is populated by flawed people, just like everything else. To limit the blast radius of this, successful societies generally say: government has power; it shouldn't have control over the allocation of money. Venezuela has been experiencing the horror of the state taking over its main industry, its population starving. In this case it's definitely true that perfect (or a utopian vision sold by a skilled orator) is the enemy of good.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > Rich people don't automatically have power. Yes, they do. In the US, anyway, money is power and the more of it you have, the more power you have. That rich people don't always get their way isn't evidence contrary to that. Not all powerful people are pulling in the same direction. > Private enterprise, however, is generally pretty good at giving people the right amount of responsibility I am very unconvinced of this, but it may depend on what you mean by "the right amount of responsibility".
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  Bankman Fried is in jail because he is a megalomaniac who thought he could talk his way out of it. He could be in Dubai right now with the other rich crypto scammers who are wanted in other countries but he decided to go back to the USA. He also lost all his money, so he isn't a billionaire. I would love if you could list some actual billionaires who ever went to prison in the USA.

robertlagrant 3y ago

Rich people don't automatically have power. Sam Bankman-Freid is about to go to jail. If we lived in the sort of world your instincts seem to have been moulded to believe we do, that wouldn't happen. Anyone can go to jail, no matter how much money they have. Power is in the state, not in money. Now, you can buy powerful people such as politicians, because the democratic process is not very good at being able to detect people who shouldn't have power. But that is not the same as power. Private enterprise, however, is generally pretty good at giving people the right amount of responsibility and reward for value created. The big, big problem occurs when you mix power and money. That's why tens of millions died in the last century. Mao and Stalin destroyed their own countries for the greater good, put and kept in power by people who thought that for government officials they could turn off their critical faculties; their instincts somehow trained to believe that government was like a good parent who will handle the family finances well and love its children. Sadly for them, government is populated by flawed people, just like everything else. To limit the blast radius of this, successful societies generally say: government has power; it shouldn't have control over the allocation of money. Venezuela has been experiencing the horror of the state taking over its main industry, its population starving. In this case it's definitely true that perfect (or a utopian vision sold by a skilled orator) is the enemy of good.

JohnFen 3y ago
> Rich people don't automatically have power. Yes, they do. In the US, anyway, money is power and the more of it you have, the more power you have. That rich people don't always get their way isn't evidence contrary to that. Not all powerful people are pulling in the same direction. > Private enterprise, however, is generally pretty good at giving people the right amount of responsibility I am very unconvinced of this, but it may depend on what you mean by "the right amount of responsibility".
Eisenstein 3y ago
Bankman Fried is in jail because he is a megalomaniac who thought he could talk his way out of it. He could be in Dubai right now with the other rich crypto scammers who are wanted in other countries but he decided to go back to the USA. He also lost all his money, so he isn't a billionaire. I would love if you could list some actual billionaires who ever went to prison in the USA.