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The moral basis would be that most extremely rich people are not rich by merit, but by having good connections, luck, narcissistic personality disorders, or a h
by smokel 3y ago
The moral basis would be that most extremely rich people are not rich by merit, but by having good connections, luck, narcissistic personality disorders, or a head start in life.
Consider a random thing that you are grateful for, trace down who actually made it possible for you to enjoy, and then consider whether those persons all get equal gratitude.
- thegrimmest 3y ago> not rich by merit There are lots of stats that disagree. The overwhelming majority of fortunes are made and squandered within three generations. Raising capable people in an environment of extreme wealth is very hard. Most famous fortunes are self-made, in the sense that turning a few 100k into billions is something that clearly takes a lot of merit to accomplish. I would also argue that morally, your good fortune in domestic environment (which is the main predictor of economic outcomes) is entirely your own. I don't see a moral claim by a third party over my upbringing as any more valid than a claim over my organs.
- achenet 3y ago> The overwhelming majority of fortunes are made and squandered within three generations people keep saying this but I can't find a rigrous source when I google it, it's always just LinkedIn puff pieces or Quora... would you have a link to the original by any chance?
- smokel 3y agoNote that I was implying that there is no merit to "making money" by itself.