> I sometimes get the feeling that people are actually envious, sometimes even respectful of the ingenuity it takes to manufacture these schemes.
I think this is an accurate assessment (at least for the US). One of the only logical reasons as to why we as a society allow this is that there are enough individuals that aspire to be these insanely wealthy folks that we make sure that these scenarios remain possible.
Ironically, robbing your country and hiding your cash has become the American dream. For example, if I were to say:
“Aspiring to be like Elon Musk is genuinely the most pathetic way to spend a human life imaginable.
His fortune is built on apartheid and all of the torture and death it entails. Yes, Elon Musk and his family should rightly be judged morally as being active participants in the system that tortured and murdered countless black Africans. The fact that his family (and the money that they extracted from South Africans) left South Africa as soon as segregation started to wane is indicative of this.
He isn’t some sort of hero or genius, or even supervillain. He’s just managed to become what nerds masturbate to when they picture their (nonexistent) futures.
Finally, the wealth that he holds is only his because of his staff figuring out how to avoid paying for your roads, hospitals, schools, parks, research etc. He is only rich because you are not. To want to be like Elon Musk is like wanting to be a tumor attached to a nearly-dead host.”
Here’s what will happen, because this is the internet:
People with <0.00000001% of his net worth will jump in with one of a small handful of responses:
(These are all paraphrased but you never know, some might be verbatim)
1. I bet he actually does pay fair taxes…
2. Actually, I think his family didn’t profit from apartheid because…
3. Because you’ve used emotionally charged language in this post, I’m going to treat everything written here as patently false. While my decision to ignore what you’ve said is entirely based on my emotions, it is your fault for not being nice enough to me/Elon.
4. Fuck you. You owe him respect because [insert business here] has or will save the world someday, or not. It’s up to him. And while I’m not advocating for being afraid of him, in the back of my mind I get anxious about him being displeased every time I see him criticized and the best way to assuage that anxiety is to dunk on a stranger.
5. I don’t think we should use Elon as an example here because he’s such an easy target. The fact that he has so many “haters” is, to me, proof positive that he’s a saint. In fact, since criticizing him makes you a hater and everything haters say is False (as in the Boolean value), no criticism of him is True.
6. Any combination of the above + “I am/know somebody who is a Tesla shareholder, therefore it’s good”
While it might seem that I’ve meandered away from the topic at hand, I haven’t. The weird impulse to defend the uber-wealthy is precisely why we allow billionaires to run amok.
People can be nuanced in their responses. I do not respect Elon's overeagerness in trying to indirectly consider himself as demigod.
However i appreciate his zeal in creating an impact in a sector that would had otherwise not happened so fast. Not saying that he is solely responsible and deserves all the credit, however he understood how the system works and focused on doing some change.
Even people higher up in the food chain do not necessarily have all the power to effect change within a short span.
I think this is an accurate assessment (at least for the US). One of the only logical reasons as to why we as a society allow this is that there are enough individuals that aspire to be these insanely wealthy folks that we make sure that these scenarios remain possible.
Ironically, robbing your country and hiding your cash has become the American dream. For example, if I were to say:
“Aspiring to be like Elon Musk is genuinely the most pathetic way to spend a human life imaginable.
His fortune is built on apartheid and all of the torture and death it entails. Yes, Elon Musk and his family should rightly be judged morally as being active participants in the system that tortured and murdered countless black Africans. The fact that his family (and the money that they extracted from South Africans) left South Africa as soon as segregation started to wane is indicative of this.
He isn’t some sort of hero or genius, or even supervillain. He’s just managed to become what nerds masturbate to when they picture their (nonexistent) futures.
Finally, the wealth that he holds is only his because of his staff figuring out how to avoid paying for your roads, hospitals, schools, parks, research etc. He is only rich because you are not. To want to be like Elon Musk is like wanting to be a tumor attached to a nearly-dead host.”
Here’s what will happen, because this is the internet:
People with <0.00000001% of his net worth will jump in with one of a small handful of responses:
(These are all paraphrased but you never know, some might be verbatim)
1. I bet he actually does pay fair taxes…
2. Actually, I think his family didn’t profit from apartheid because…
3. Because you’ve used emotionally charged language in this post, I’m going to treat everything written here as patently false. While my decision to ignore what you’ve said is entirely based on my emotions, it is your fault for not being nice enough to me/Elon.
4. Fuck you. You owe him respect because [insert business here] has or will save the world someday, or not. It’s up to him. And while I’m not advocating for being afraid of him, in the back of my mind I get anxious about him being displeased every time I see him criticized and the best way to assuage that anxiety is to dunk on a stranger.
5. I don’t think we should use Elon as an example here because he’s such an easy target. The fact that he has so many “haters” is, to me, proof positive that he’s a saint. In fact, since criticizing him makes you a hater and everything haters say is False (as in the Boolean value), no criticism of him is True.
6. Any combination of the above + “I am/know somebody who is a Tesla shareholder, therefore it’s good”
While it might seem that I’ve meandered away from the topic at hand, I haven’t. The weird impulse to defend the uber-wealthy is precisely why we allow billionaires to run amok.