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this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2024
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As someone else pointed out a while ago, Dolly Parton isn’t a billionaire because she tirelessly gives away her wealth to the poor.
It’s not the same level, but there are other musicians who have fought to keep ticket price affordable for their fans, Minor Threat/Fugazi being the most notable but far from the only ones.
Yeah and there probably is a gender cultural component to Dolly being so kind. But to the commenter I am responding to, I stand by what I said.
So... The endgame here is that billionaires CAN exist, but any of them who don't give away their wealth are assholes? So are we all here on these posts just to peer pressure billionaires to give away money?
That's certainly going to be a helpful approach.
Essentially yes. The ethical thing to do with that amount of money is to redistribute it to people that need it more. Whether that is by donation to charity, or raising wages and investing in worker protections in the company that you run, or funding schools and development in places that need them, or paying your fair share of taxes, emphasis here because most billionaires got that way by lobbying tax code in their favor - they've reached a level of net worth that genuinely boggles the mind and couldn't be wasted in full in a dozen lifetimes if you tried to.
I'm fine with people being wealthy, keep a million in your bank account, hell keep ten million, I don't care. But there needs to be a line somewhere. There needs to be a point where we can say, okay, well done, you have Won At Capitalism. Here is your medal. All further profits are taxed at 99% income. We cannot let individuals amass so much of the supply of money that the nation can no longer support itself, which is what's happening. Money is the life blood of society and all that blood is being concentrated in particular spots, starving the rest of the body. Money needs to flow to create a healthy economy, but it's stagnating.
I don't fundamentally disagree with you. I would contend that the problem is not that billionaires exist, it's that there is a legal path to becoming a billionaire.
This post is a combo shame of other poors like us who like a product generated by a billionaire and a yell at the sky because TS (and whoever the other person was) aren't reading it anyway. You can be mad at billionaires who sit on their hoard and don't give it to society for free, or we can all say enough is enough and make it a call to action to DO something. Like vote and participate in government for example.