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Don’t Be It (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 month ago by to c/tumblr@lemmy.world
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[–] 77 points 1 month ago (16 children)

Throw potentially $100,000,000 at me and I would be a wholly different person. Humans aren't meant to have that much power and systems that allow it are inherently psychologically poisonous.

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  • [–] 21 points 1 month ago (11 children)

    This isn't universally true. There are plenty of people with that amount of money that aren't psychologically poisoned, but they stop trying to double their weathly and many go philanthropist but you rarely hear those stories because they don't make a big deal about it.

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  • [–] 23 points 1 month ago (7 children)

    If you have that kind of money and choose to keep it, you're evil. Full stop.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

    To play Devil's Advocate, that kind of money gets you connections you'd never have access to otherwise. If your goal is to improve the world, having a direct line to the people in charge could let you do more good, and nothing is stopping you from donating it all posthumously anyway.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 month ago (5 children)

    If we don't let anybody accumulate that kind of wealth, then that wealth can't be used to buy access.

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  • [–] -5 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Where do you draw the line?

    A retiree that invests well and owns a home can easily end up with well over 10 million.

    I'm fine with a billion but I find it gets tricky below that. Since a billiion is a very large magnitude above the mean.

    I'd rather push for philanthropic efforts rather than force people to do weird things like setup trusts for every heir that sits just below some limit but remain funds they still directly control by being the trustee.

    If the goal is truely to prevent being able to possible accumulate those amounts then we're looking for a different economic system which is fine but then just say that.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    We should in some way couple the amount of money retirees receive (don't know how it is calculated in the US, here it is dependent of how much you earned in life and how many years you were working, with a minimum and maximum value) to the maximum amount a single person can directly and indirectly own. If your investments get over the limit, you can only spend, but not earn more money - in some cases this might result in you having to sell off something you own and donating what you get for it (and you can't use your investments as collaterals for a credit line when over) until you are back below the max.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    No human being can own more than the average insurance value of a human life. Raise the average value of a human life if you want more money. That's my solution.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago

    There isn't an insurance value, only values awarded and liability coverages.

    The latter it based on risk profiles with some people having very high coverages.

    The former is literally based on earnings and ages so it would need to be a median not average.

    And a side effect you're going to run into is that by force this restriction you actually cap the punitive damages which in extreme cases can be well over 100 million so it ends up protecting billion dollar corporations which will continue to exist just spread among more investors.

    Capitalists will find a way to exploit any solution you apply. Best way to think of capital is it is like gravity, it bends everything around it and pulls more towards itself.

    Spreading the capital into a thin layer could work but will require continued and ever changing effort to prevent it from clumping.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 month ago

    Yes, that's why I keep saying America's problem is the boomer class. By value of assets it's 8 times bigger than even the billionaire class. And that's just boomers, it gets worse when you include the older ones (silent or greatest or whatever).

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Like MacKenzie Scott (Bezos ex-wive). The amount of money she is funneling to struggling NGOs is insane.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    The idea that NGOs can provide better ROI than tax supported public services is billionaire propaganda.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    I agree, but she can't really force the state to tax her more, can't she? Supporting NGOs (which also might lobby for higher effective tax rates for the rich) is for sure a better way to help people now instead of sitting on the money and waiting that the country does something they will never do on their own.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago

    Quite honestly, if I was handed that much cash, I would 100% go the Paul Newman route. Food for children, free education, free healthcare... damn dude, if I were elected President, I would be assassinated the same day. I would tax anyone with a billion dollar net worth 95%.

    And I would also close down the military budget. Vote for me to be dictator, and I will start practicing Neo's moves. I would be literally dodging bullets and would have to wear an anti-bear bullet proof suit.

    But I would do it in a heartbeat for humanity. So much of this suffering is so easy to stop that it makes me sick.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Psychologically poisonous? How? I'd imagine that it'd liberate you and then you can just be yourself.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago*

    Liberated in the same way a toddler is liberated from social decorum. The world enforces personality traits via social and evolutionary pressure. As that pressure wanes, humanity's prosocial nature can morph or decay.

    You are right, you get to be yourself. Ultimate freedom. Say hello to people at the park? That's an option. Purchase a restaurant you enjoy? That's an option. Gain an uninterruptable supply of cocaine? That's an option. Kidnap kids to be your island sex slaves? That's an equally easily available option. You are free.

    Released from restraints, people can be their best self or the most debaucherous, ladder pulling, vile thing ever to be birthed. Or cycle between either extreme as they slide through philanthropy and torture like a saltwater crocodile between marine and freshwater environments. Eventually, an itch that shouldn't be scratched might arise and an opportunistic infection could follow. I'm not interested in putting myself in that situation, let alone others.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    I would probably break mentally if you gave me that much money. After a short shopping spree to buy the things i always wanted but never was able to finance (nothing major - mostly high end PC hardware and around 100 TB redundant storage, a phone without a huge amount of scratches, a nice e-bike and some home renovations) I would give most of it away with minimal involvement from my side and just keep a small nest egg because i never had one.

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