Who has a billion dollars? Your net worth is what someone is willing to pay for what you have, whether you've sold it or not. If a famous painter paints a new portrait, the value he's created wasn't taken from anyone. Nor if an entrepreneur creates a much-loved product.https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/1206656298625966081 …
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I'm arguing that the vast majority of the wealth controlled by billionaires wasn't created by themselves but instead by society. Thus society is entitled to the money to spend on whatever it deems most useful.
What money? Again — sigh, again — this wealth is not cash. It's company ownership. Does the US government rightfully own Amazon? Should it be able to fire Bezos? To what extent does it own your labor, or mine, since the value of that, too, is predicated on a functional society?
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The state controls the monopoly of violence. It owns it's citizens. In a democracy, that ownership is vested back in citizens thru representative government. Tax was originally to fund wars - now it funds public services and infrastructure. Makes sense.
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And before you say "should the state have a monopoly on violence?" - what is the alternative - let the billionaires own it?
End of conversation
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