Conversation

Aella
@Aella_Girl
The kind of economic views that get heavily upvoted on Reddit really terrify me, because I view it as an indication of the future as our generations age. They don't even seem like economic views, but rather moral values wearing the clothes of economic opinions.
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
It's basically "rich=bad, poor=victims" and making policy moves based off of this extremely simplistic rule is going to fuck us so hard.
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Rafael
@w0dinga
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
I don't know what you're reading, but I've yet to read a single comment saying being rich is bad. Nothing wrong with being rich, but amount of wealth at the top of the system is literally incomprehensible. Several hundred people should not have as much as half the population.
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Rafael
@w0dinga
Replying to
@w0dinga
and
@Aella_Girl
An economy only works if money is flowing, but wealth aggregation is the literal opposite of that. You could tax some of the richest people in the world 99% of their wealth and it would not affect their day to day life. They would still be unimaginably rich.
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Rafael
@w0dinga
Replying to
@w0dinga
and
@Aella_Girl
Fundamentally humans are mostly similar and it is physically impossible for a billionaire to be millions of times more capable than any other human on earth. One man can own several forms of media such that their view outweighs the views of hundreds of millions of people.
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
Replying to
@w0dinga
Again, this seems to come from some idea that there 'should be fairness.' If you think billionares shouldn't earn that much more because they're not capable, do you think people should be rewarded proportionally according to how capable they are?
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Rafael
@w0dinga
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
I simply believe that the needs of the many (>99.9% of society) outweigh the wants of the few. I am a programmer. I am aware of the fact that we have machines that can do the labor of a human x100 or x1e9 or more. Humanity has the resources to provide for most people.
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Rafael
@w0dinga
Replying to
@w0dinga
and
@Aella_Girl
In the long run this would be beneficial because more often than not they're billionaires are not because they're brilliant but because they have a greater drive to "win at all costs", suppressing the potential of others.
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Aella
@Aella_Girl
Replying to
@w0dinga
have you personally known very many rich people? All the wealthiest people I know got there by being very smart and very driven and making money through people voluntarily giving it to them (like selling a product), and they seem generally kind to me.
Rafael
@w0dinga
Replying to
@Aella_Girl
I have known lots of wealthy people, or people that come from relatively wealthy backgrounds. Often they're nice people, and no doubt talented. I think it's possible to be a millionaire without taking from others.