Fun napkin math fact: If we divvied up the top… 5 wealthiest billionaires net worth… that’d get every living man, woman, and child on earth a cool $250 ish.
Sure - its not very much but it certainly does make you think. What if…
No one human should have the wealth of nations let alone the wealth of one nation.
Its not the money that is the issue its the power that comes with it.
The two are tightly intertwined. Money is a powerful force multiplier. People are fundamentally still the same as we were 1000s of years ago. The same instincts that served us well then are our greatest weakness today.
When looking at relatively new and abstract societal expectations now… its not particularly shocking that the norm tends to be weighted towards short sighted individualism. We’re just wired that way. I’m not excusing it: ita humanities greatest flaw. We just need to acknowledge these flaws and plan accordingly.
The idea of wealth redistribution is in stripping power from the very rich. If you are rich, you influence politics in a way that benefits you by not caring about others.
The problem with Bill Gates’ poly vaccine in Africa is not in the fact that it didn’t save children, in fact it did. The problem is that measles takes more children’s lives in Africa by an order of magnitude and measles vaccination would’ve saved much more.
Now add to the picture the recent decisions: internet surveillance (age verification), ignoring the Paris agreement, data centers built everywhere. I guess a lot of people would oppose these, but their voices are not heard.
I mentioned this a moment ago as a different reply but your observations are all examples of a feedback loop perpetuating itself. Its certainly correctable. This isnt the first time it happened nor will it be the last. Its a product of some of the uglier parts of the human condition.
Absolute power corrupts - and those in power will not only seek to keep that power bit increase it. They consolidate it. Less people with power: less opposition. But this has diminishing returns… and has reset trap baked in. How? Numbers. Power moves people. As you concentrate power - you have less people to move and more people opposing that movement.
1 billionaire, 8 billion people. What do you do to maintain that power? Surveillance. Draconian rules. Control the narrative and paint yourself as necessary. The power dynamic is reaching a tipping point. Unrelated: I recall there seems to be an uptick in bunkers being built by the ultra wealthy. Puzzling.
Sound familiar? It should. History is littered with example after example.
The system breaks in the same way - every time. These aren’t deitites - they aren’t special. They are just another meat bag running on 80% lizard-brain firmware that is purely focused on ITS survival alone. In the end these twats engineer their own destruction. Now, while the all for one trait certainly is consistent in its consolidation of power: it still consistently maintains its loss record to the group. I’d like to think of that as an immune response to a foreign entity. In a weird way that sorta gives me hope.
Where do you live? Because your “poor” country’s minimal daily wage is more than the daily wage of someone on the US federal minimum wage (e.g., $7.25 x 8 hrs = $58)
We are 9th european country by size and GDP, formerly part of Soviet Republics. We have smaller military, smaller economy, smaller population than USA etc. In fact I think our entire economy barely rivals some of the states inside USA. Our older generations (those who lived under communism) see USA as a shiny utopia where nobody is ever poor or unhappy, which caused several our post-soviet generations to emigrate as far west as they could.
Money and value are interesting topics. Many of the oddities surrounding expense vs need exist as a result of scales being unfairly influenced. Billionaires aren’t the root of the problem - they are the symptom of the problem. If billionaires didnt exist: that would likely be because wages, costs, and services are more fairly balanced. Less disparity - less resources to leverage to create it… and likely a much higher cost to apply that leverage. We are simply in a feedback loop in a sick system. Cancer doesn’t just go away with thoughts and prayers.
Fun napkin math fact: If we divvied up the top… 5 wealthiest billionaires net worth… that’d get every living man, woman, and child on earth a cool $250 ish.
Sure - its not very much but it certainly does make you think. What if…
No one human should have the wealth of nations let alone the wealth of one nation. Its not the money that is the issue its the power that comes with it.
The two are tightly intertwined. Money is a powerful force multiplier. People are fundamentally still the same as we were 1000s of years ago. The same instincts that served us well then are our greatest weakness today.
When looking at relatively new and abstract societal expectations now… its not particularly shocking that the norm tends to be weighted towards short sighted individualism. We’re just wired that way. I’m not excusing it: ita humanities greatest flaw. We just need to acknowledge these flaws and plan accordingly.
The idea of wealth redistribution is in stripping power from the very rich. If you are rich, you influence politics in a way that benefits you by not caring about others.
The problem with Bill Gates’ poly vaccine in Africa is not in the fact that it didn’t save children, in fact it did. The problem is that measles takes more children’s lives in Africa by an order of magnitude and measles vaccination would’ve saved much more.
Now add to the picture the recent decisions: internet surveillance (age verification), ignoring the Paris agreement, data centers built everywhere. I guess a lot of people would oppose these, but their voices are not heard.
I mentioned this a moment ago as a different reply but your observations are all examples of a feedback loop perpetuating itself. Its certainly correctable. This isnt the first time it happened nor will it be the last. Its a product of some of the uglier parts of the human condition.
Absolute power corrupts - and those in power will not only seek to keep that power bit increase it. They consolidate it. Less people with power: less opposition. But this has diminishing returns… and has reset trap baked in. How? Numbers. Power moves people. As you concentrate power - you have less people to move and more people opposing that movement.
1 billionaire, 8 billion people. What do you do to maintain that power? Surveillance. Draconian rules. Control the narrative and paint yourself as necessary. The power dynamic is reaching a tipping point. Unrelated: I recall there seems to be an uptick in bunkers being built by the ultra wealthy. Puzzling.
Sound familiar? It should. History is littered with example after example.
The system breaks in the same way - every time. These aren’t deitites - they aren’t special. They are just another meat bag running on 80% lizard-brain firmware that is purely focused on ITS survival alone. In the end these twats engineer their own destruction. Now, while the all for one trait certainly is consistent in its consolidation of power: it still consistently maintains its loss record to the group. I’d like to think of that as an immune response to a foreign entity. In a weird way that sorta gives me hope.
And that’s not at lot…for people in the US, like a month of groceries for 2 adults. Not touching other actual bills.
But in developing countries, $250 could rival a large percentage of their monthly wages.
250 USD is in my country about a daily wage of high-level specialist, I mean - top 5% of people who live from working.
63 USD is a minimal daily wage in my poor country.
Where do you live? Because your “poor” country’s minimal daily wage is more than the daily wage of someone on the US federal minimum wage (e.g., $7.25 x 8 hrs = $58)
Poland.
We are 9th european country by size and GDP, formerly part of Soviet Republics. We have smaller military, smaller economy, smaller population than USA etc. In fact I think our entire economy barely rivals some of the states inside USA. Our older generations (those who lived under communism) see USA as a shiny utopia where nobody is ever poor or unhappy, which caused several our post-soviet generations to emigrate as far west as they could.
Money and value are interesting topics. Many of the oddities surrounding expense vs need exist as a result of scales being unfairly influenced. Billionaires aren’t the root of the problem - they are the symptom of the problem. If billionaires didnt exist: that would likely be because wages, costs, and services are more fairly balanced. Less disparity - less resources to leverage to create it… and likely a much higher cost to apply that leverage. We are simply in a feedback loop in a sick system. Cancer doesn’t just go away with thoughts and prayers.
Many workers get paid the equivalent of $120 a month or lower
In Zambia, average monthly wage is 130$.
Why not divide up ALL of their wealth?
Most of that would be in stocks you can’t sell at once or they immediately lose value.
While yes, my napkin math may have simplified things to produce a workable ish value:
The numbers purpose was to provide perspective - which I feel worked reasonably well.