Billionaire money hoarders are the modern equivalent of a dragon from a fantasy novel. Just laying around on more money than some nations have just to say they have the money.
It reminds me of when I had to read Beowulf in school last year (I hated it) From what I remember, the humans in the story thought that treasure shouldn't be hoarded and that it should always be in circulation. The dragon in the story, of course, had a mountain of hoarded treasure. I can't remember too well, but as the end of the story goes, Beowulf kills the dragon but is also fatally wounded, causing his own death. He is then buried with all the dragon's treasure. I believe the whole point of him killing the dragon was to stop it from being hoarded, though.
@@rufusthehunalprophet6648 I've never read that one, but I'm wondering now what/who the dragon was a metaphor for exactly. Greed in general, or a specific king? I'll find the Cliff's Notes later...
I feel like the fantasy idea of a dragon hoarding has been handed down as a metaphor for these people. So I guess it's finally obvious to a new generation?
People have done the napkin calculations. The mega billionaires have *more* money than fictional dragons such as Smaug the dreadful. The fictional dragons would be forced to say “hold on here a minute guys, we think you might be a little excessive.”
The company I work for is currently painting a "Chick-fil-A resort home." Built on eight acres inside a gated community. This is a brand new five-bedroom, five-bath house where I can make out the tennis courts from the back patio with the built-in fireplace, nestled next to the frisbee course, with the cute little red and white bridge over the canal for the golf carts. I haven't seen the clubhouse, but I'm sure it's something to behold. The people staying in this "resort" can most likely afford to vacation in any part of the world they choose. You know as well as I that a Check-fil-A cashier will never set foot inside this resort home, let alone the gate.
Thanks for this, Seth. I've been thinking about the hypocrisy for the past few months and it's been driving me over the edge lately. How do I, an atheist, embody Christian ideals and values more than the religious people around me? And they think they're the good guys; that they hold the moral high ground! It's maddening.
Everyone has "Christian values" because their values are based on interpretation. If you're gay you can be a Christian because you interpret the Bible differently. The bible is the big book of multiple choice and despite the propaganda and brainwashing, they stand on no firm moral ground.
Billionaires ought not exist...It's absolutely obscene in a Society that has homelessness, hunger, illiteracy... EVIL can be manifested in many ways...😢
Musk is an inventor though he moved from inventing to entrepreneurship. He is an excellent marketer and his intelligence is obvious and is sought by those who recognize it. We really don't care that you don't like him. Proof that he was a competent inventor: Example of Patents with Elon Musk as an Inventor: U.S. Patent No. 6,317,060 - "Method and apparatus for an electric vehicle charging system" Filed by: Zip2 Corporation (Musk's early venture) Summary: This patent, granted in 2001, describes an electric vehicle charging system. U.S. Patent No. 6,278,739 - "System and method for providing personalized content based on a net user profile" Filed by: Zip2 Corporation Summary: This patent, filed in 1999, relates to methods of providing personalized content to users of an internet service. It was an early exploration into personalization technologies, something Musk worked on during his time with Zip2, his first company. U.S. Patent No. 6,012,046 - "Method and apparatus for an electric vehicle warning system" Filed by: Tesla, Inc. Summary: This patent, granted in 2000, involves an early idea related to electric vehicles, which would later become central to Tesla’s mission. Although assigned to the company, Musk is listed as an inventor.
I would say he’s a selfish businessman with grand designs. He’s not an engineer, but he’s smart enough to understand the engineering sufficiently to make good decisions about the technology. He’s smart enough to get the people who CAN innovate to make the tech he sees a market for. He’s also more interested in success than he is in people. I thinks he’s an “ends justify the means” kind of guy.
Religion, Money, Power, Race, and Competition will never allow equality or peace. The reasons why there will always be a battlefield and rumors of wars.........
It might have been 10 years ago now, but I remember hearing a news story on the radio during my work commute home, the news story was about the "American Dream", and "upward mobility" in terms of wealth in the United States. The two things I remember from that story was the percent of people who would end up in a higher economic position than their parents was down from what it has historically been, I think the upward mobility rate at the time of the report might have been under 10%, if not under 5%, or even 3%, the other thing I remember the news story reporting was that the "ends of the economic wealth distribution are 'sticky'", that if your parents are on the poverty end of the spectrum, you are likely to end up even further into poverty than them, and that if your parents are extremely wealthy, you would likely end up even wealthier than them, this second point seems very intuitive, but good to know the data confirmed it. While it is all too easy to understand how a society could end up like this, with wealthy/powerful people using that wealth, and power to gain even more wealth, and power, that also seems to be exactly the opposite of how we should want society to operate.
There was a global study about social mobility a decade or so ago... One "TL;DR" conclusion was: "If you want to live th American Dream, move to Denmark." 🤣
My boyfriend of 9 years proposed to me last fall, with a silver ring I think he might have paid $25 for. I am the luckiest woman in the world, and he could have proposed with a twist tie off a bread bag and I would feel no less cherished.
Pity I can't in touch with Rich... I'm (585) as well. Born in Rochester, left NY for the South at 18 (partly to avoid the draft... my number was 8). I spent roughly 38 years (4 from '75 to '79) in the Atlanta area. I moved back to Rochester a year ago, escaping the heat, the traffic, and the "stroad", cul-de-sac, and strip mall model of city planning. I've been an atheist for approx. 58 years, at the age of 12. After a year with my mother ("anointed") and stepfathet, both Jehoovies, I came to understand that the bible was bullshit. In my mid-teens I came to understand that all the other religions, as well as New-Age type stuff, Paganism, etc were all bullshit as well. I'm also more Progressive at 71 than I became at 15/16, when I met some SDS folks as well as encountering Hoffman's Magic Potion. I'm already registered to vote in Monroe County, and you know I'm voting BLUE.
Frankly wrt the wedding ring thing, if I had a girlfriend and she proposed to me and _needed_ to include a ring of some kind, I'd be happier with a Ring Pop than any diamonds or precious gems that put her in a financial hole. I don't like wearing rings in the first place (aside from my spinny ring), Ring Pops are a tasty treat, and she gets to save her money for something that will make us or even just herself happier than a ring would. Win-win!
I remember Oral Roberts on TV “giving away” “free” copies of a book - How I Learned Jesus Was Rich - in exchange for a $100 “donation”. I had never seen such a blatant hustle! 😳
I love your voice and content, Mr. Seth! I don't listen to the hard rock or heavy metal anymore. I'm glad I don't feel that anger like I used to. I'll blame religion and carnism. 😉My favorite song right now is called 'The Face I Love' by Stacey Kent. I like to sing it to a little calico cat I know named Face.
Don't give up on metal though! Chances are (at least if you live in the USA) that you've been missing out on plenty of "non-angry" metal (and hard rock) anyway, there are quite a lot of very different "types" of metal than what the USA's music industry promotes. If you want a really good example of an actually happy, mood-lifting song (and one of the most beautiful voices in the world right now), try Nightwish's "Alpenglow" (go with the official live version...). Or there's Within Temptation for a slightly more "rocky" alternative to Nightwish. Or, for a very different direction again (and if you want a good laugh), try Nanowar of Steel's "Valhalleluja" 🤣
I personally think there should be a limit monetarily that one person can acquire. After that limit we take them to ensure they never get more money. There should be no multimillions especially billionaires. No one gets wealthy in a vacuum. You don’t get that rich unless you exploit a lot of people. The older I get the more I think socialism might be on to something. Only in capitalism do you have polarization of wealth.
I often feel frustrated listening to conversations about "hoarding wealth". In a capitalist country 90% of what people think of as "hoarding" wealth is not hoarding wealth. If I have $1B in a bank account, would Seth say that I am hoarding wealth? That those resources could be used to clothe the naked? But in a capitalist credit-based system, money in a bank is not sitting in a sack in the back. It is out in the community, funding mortgages and paying credit card balances. At 44:00 the Rochester caller was saying that if taxes were fair Tom Golisano would be forced to sell his stocks and invest that money. I'm sure if he thought about it, he would understand that statement makes no sense, but he's the one who said it. So let's distinguish between the capitalists and entrepreneurs who spend their money building companies and employing workers, and the worshippers of Mammon, who spend their money on yachts for their yachts or lawsuits against geese.
But if you "have" huge amounts of money and use it to build companies and employ workers - what do you pay those workers? How much are _you_ getting out of their work, how much are _they_ getting out of it? Yes, you carry the risk - but a lot of the super-rich never had any _actual_ risk since they always had some means to start over (Musk's gem mine being a prime example, but that's just one example out of quite a few). So if you "have" that much money, what's the justification for you getting more out of the work of the employees than those employees get out of it? Why are Musk/Gates/Zuckerberg/Besos/... billionaires, but none of their employees are even millionaires (with maybe some few exceptions - but I'm talking about the broad mass of their employees, not just some high-level managers or so)? *_That_* is exploitation, pure and simple. And it gets excused because of a kind of "financial might makes right"... 🤮
23:00 - Yep, as I've brought up quite a few times in contexts like this already, there's a perfect quote from a certain character from Star Trek's Deep Space 9 that describes the "dishwasher to millionaire (now billionaire)" American Dream in a nutshell: _"Ferengi workers don't want to stop the exploitation, we want to become the exploiters."_
22:42 They could interact, in the scenario of him shooting people in the street. 44:20. They give a donation to get their name on a hospital.. Perhaps if they paid the tax due for those extreme riches, they could build many hospitals/schools/ etc.
Great John Lennon example the day I broke away from religion is a day I found peace I have disabilities and I can't work it's definitely not our fault and politics sometimes scares me
Troo. The Reps might press harder on the accelerator, but the overall trajectory has been the same. Some Dems are trying to break from that, but the grooves are pretty dug in.
Seth 👏 this is a beautifully constructed and executed piece.The residual effects of its truthful enlightenments creates a zenful cerebral stimulation, brilliant and it's the direction of excellence.
there is a book: Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price - If you haven't read it, maybe you should. Because there does seem to be a logical reason behind "laziness" that is not just obstinance. It seems to be more like neurodiversity, stuff you don't seem to understand.
Remember that we are Great Apes, the Homo Sapiens branch. Take a step back from our own species and look at our cousins. The behavior and sociology of alpha chimps for example, goes a long way to explain not only alpha humans like Trump and Musk, but also that they have sycophants. What impresses me is when humans can sidestep the programming and behave ethically. How does that happen? And how can we encourage it?
Everyone bitching about huge quantities of money being obscene knows they would in the position of millionares spite their previous rants against wealth go buying top notch stuff for themselves to show everybody around how rich they've become and how better people they are than others thereof and the last thing they'd do is to donate anything substantial to charities.
Have something I've been thinking about for a good while now Robin Hood why do we praise him but Mr freeze who is trying to save his dying wife we demonize this man
I have some really embarrassing and unfortunate facts about "managed capitalism" to share, if y'all are willing to hear them. IOW, it would GREATLY help the poor and exploited of the world should People like you (who have a sizable reach) actually take a stance against the current status quo... I'm just saying.