To think billionaires shouldn’t exist?

[ThisIcyWriter]

No one earns a billion through hard work alone - it’s exploitation. AIBU to think billionaires shouldn’t exist in a fair society?

more wealth equality please. More regulation to reduce exploitation. What is Elon’s earning multiple against his median worker. Can’t even begin to think about it.

AreYouBrandNew · Today 20:13
more wealth equality please. More regulation to reduce exploitation. What is Elon’s earning multiple against his median worker. Can’t even begin to think about it.

How will this be achieved without a revolution in America? and anyway, the billionaires would have escaped on their private jets before the first guillotine was half built.

Bill Gates is not a good guy.

But the harsh truth is we are all born unequal. Elon is exceptionally clever and creative. So it's deserved.

It's also not fair that some people are hideously ugly when others are ridiculously beautiful! That's life.

Nobody’s so clever and creative that they “deserve” $400 billion.

He is a very dangerous man who currently seems to be using his vast wealth to pull Trump's strings.
I think the world will rue the day Musk bought his way into US politics.

I don’t think he’s dangerous , I think people are threatened by him as they may not understand him or his motives

What do you see his motives as then?

Well I can’t say for certain as I’m not him but to me it looks like he just wants to be unofficial VP and have some power but I don’t feel he’s dangerous. In fact he may be the one person who can control Trump so in fact could turn out to be an asset

So people who see him as dangerous are "threatened by him" because they don't understand his motives but you aren't threatened by him even though you don't understand his motives either? Err, ok...

I hope you are right but judging by the things that he is already doing I don't think you are. I think he will be great if you are already rich & doing well but if you aren't, particularly in the US, then he will be a danger.
Trump likes him because Trump for all his posturing is actually a terrible businessman who was gifted a fortune by his father & has lost so much money over the years. He needs Musk & his billions.

It's not exactly democratic to have Musk pulling Trumps strings.

Apologies Gates is planning on leaving his DC $10m each. Michael Bloomberg despite having over 100 billion has said he is leaving his DC nothing at all. Not a dollar. He's leaving it all to his charitable foundation.

Oh it looks like op is a one and done post creator!

My concern is when people can afford to pay for legal fees to win a legal case and afford to pay for multiple appeals if they are convicted.

It would seem it would be fairer if there were some cap at least to what you can pay your lawyer.

Obvious case in point being Musk and the cave rescue guy who took Musk to court because Musk called him a peado.

Musk really isn't a great advert for unchecked billionaires atm.

🙄

Beauty is a least a subjective quality.

Rather than forcibly taking someone's wealth (never good idea), why don't we work on giving British people more skills/ services to offer so that the rich want to spend their money on UK goods and services.

I don’t think anyone has suggested taking their wealth forcibly. In a long term plan you wouldn’t care about Elon etc, you would simply aim for no new billionaires and in 40 years they’ll all be gone

I’m very happy for these people to give money to charity. At least their money would be used to achieve something positive. All of us who donate have the choice of where our money goes so why not the wealthiest?

The problem With this is its duspriportionate. Its not the few pounds individuals give to charity it is then a decision of one of the richrdt peopke to make a choice where they donate to rather than a drmocraticslly elected government who should be decifing on the priorities for the nation they serve. So fine in one respect for them to donate to charity AFTER paying their fair shsre of tax. Of which they should neither get any mote say than the rest of us.othŕ than at thr ballot box..

Sorry for all the typos. Yes, many people donate to charity. However all PAYE people pay tax, which is a substantial part of a lot pf peoples earnings. If billionaires were paying the same proportionate tax as the rest of us (including what they hide) then that would at least be fairer.
Donating to charity is an option. It gives them far to much freedom to decide where their money goes, than what the priorities for the country are. They should not be above fair taxation it is simply handing too much power (not forgetting their immense wealth) to one peraon.

They have - via tax.

Just taking it off them isn't going to work. Need to incentivise them to spend & invest and get it moving organically

lol I’m imagining Elon musk getting the email from HR saying his payslip is ready and that he should keep it for his personal records. Then he’s opening it and seeing he got paid $250m this month, and so much went to NI, so much to tax, and he sits there and thinks “kinda bollocks to earn this much, and have the government take so much, I know, I’ll manipulate Trump”…

Billionaires don’t pay PAYE. You want to be rich like them? Don’t get a 9-5 PAYE job. There’s security, and comfort, and predictability. And for the majority of people who try to speculate with what money they have, or start their own businesses, they lose it. But sometimes they don’t. And they can get very, very wealthy in the process.

"And for the majority of people who try to speculate with what money they have, or start their own businesses, they lose it. But sometimes they don’t. And they can get very, very wealthy in the process."

@Hiddenmnetter

The challenge comes when they hit a level of wealth where they are accumulating at an extreme speed with no growth creation. At the moment we have a bunch of mega billionaires using their wealth to influence policies that pull the ladder up behind them and make it harder for smaller players. This stifles innovation and growth

We need to balance encouraging enterprise with stopping wealth from concentrating in very few hands. It's damaging economies, democracy and society.

Yes but he's able to do a lot more for his kids than the average person while he is alive. They won't have any need of anything by the time he's gone. They will know unearned privilege their whole lives and will see and do things most people who work their arses off their whole lives can only dream of. They'll have the best medical care, the best education, the best of everything. And what they do get while no doubt still be substantial and more than most of us will ever see.
So I hardly think it's some great sacrifice giving more to charity than to his kids

If I understand it correctly, Musk and Trump have blocked funding into Ebola research.

WTAF?

I hope that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will step in and plug the gap.

How stupid are these men/children? Did they not notice how quickly covid raced around the world and how much worse it will be if the next pandemic is Ebola?

Doesnt matter how much cryptocurrency you have, Donald. If you contract Ebola, you’ve had it (however much bleach you ingest).

Just fucking unbelievable.