To be honest, I think the billionaires think they are solving problems. I also think that they believe if they had the money they could do more good with it. They are obviously wrong.

I had this vision of the military. Imagine a natural disaster like a tsunami is about to strike the Middle East. Here comes the carrier force and they start launching what looks like tomahawk missiles. Instead of blowing people up on the ground they open up in air and drop rafts and life preservers. The military has shown up to save countless people instead of murdering them.

Because they think they know better than us hoi polloi. Seriously. There's a psych term that escapes me, but once a person gains wealth and power, they think they know better than the rest of us and the rules don't apply to them.

One of the most horrifying things I know about humans is that almost all of us are susceptible to this and it's not simply a matter of people kissing their ass, though that certainly "helps".

Because they don’t actually have the money. The value of their holdings are used as collateral on loans. They use the loans to pay for their expenses and are just constantly in debt. This avoids all tax consequences for them. And it is fucking stupid.

They don't see money as we do. It's the control in the price of items and buying power where the real value is at.

These sort of control freak cultists have existed in human societies since time immemorial. They have, can and will always find ways to exploit everyone.

Last year was religion, yesterday ideology and today it's finance. None of these things in a vacuum were meant to debilitate humans until these same people rigged the system.

Future humans will be condemning our capitalist ways like we do feudal societies. They won't see the difference.

they like to hoard it, and use other peoples money thats why. thier net worth is actually in thier stocks/investments for the most part.

Quit making perfect sense. You're making the capitalists nervous and ruining the hopes and dreams of all the Questrader's out there. /s

Not only is it real money when its invested, typically the rich can just borrow against those shares instead of having to liquidate anything to pay for things.

For example when they need $40b to purchase a website or media corp to use so they can have better control of the narrative, they just get a loan because everyone knows they'll be able to make the payments, instead of selling enough shares to tank the thing that inflates their networth beyond all reason.

They can liquidate part of it. If they liquidate all of it then most will disappear into thin air.

If you're Elon Musk and own a large part of Tesla and SpaceX and you sell all your shares, both companies crater HARD.

Just remove stock from anyone who owns over 1% of any publicly traded company and nationalize all index funds' assets (yes, that includes retirement funds). Problem solved.

Or just cap total wealth at ~5 mill, indexed to the median income so there's no need for legislation like with minimum wage.

Just because it isn't hundred dollar bills in their mattress doesn't mean they don't have it. They can leverage what they own in exchange for goods and services equivalent to the value of their holdings, the exact mechanism doesn't really matter.

The only actual cash billionaire I can think of is the guy that created and sold Minecraft. That dude has billions in the bank. Or at least he did for a minute or two before I’m sure he invested a ton of it. All the other billionaires just own billions worth of stuff for the most part. Banks don’t even leave money in banks. They invest or loan out all of it and keep the returns. That’s the scam, same as it ever was.

The blood could also replace the motor oil in my car. Use all parts of the Sam Altman.

Just tax unrealised capital gain then. A progressive tax too so small investors wouldn't really be penalized much.

I'd gladly give up half of my RAM if Altmann gave up half of his fortune.

I'll lick your butt for some of that ram

Did a 2 slip in between that 6 and 4? Or how do you end up with that much DDR5?