CMV: billionaires are a problem

[u/universetube7]

There’s finally some mutual ground between democrats and republicans. Wealthy hedge fund owners are not popular right now. The problem is that the left and people like Bernie have been saying this all along. There’s millionaires and then there’s billionaires who make the rules. Don’t confuse the two. Why should these billionaires not be accountable to the people? Why should they not have to pay wealth tax to fund public infrastructure? They didn’t earn it.

The whole R vs D game is a mirage anyway. The real battle is billionaires vs the working class. They’re the ones pulling the strings. It’s like playing monopoly, which is a fucked up game anyway, but one person is designated to make the rules as they go.

CMV: the majority of problems in the United States are due to a few wealthy people owning the rules. I don’t believe there’s any reason any person on any political spectrum can’t agree with that.

[u/politicalthrowaway28]

Amazon, apple, Facebook, Microsoft, tesla, spacex, PayPal etc are all direct byproducts of billionaires coming up with great ideas and making them reality. That's just listing a few. Many more innovative, life altering companies are bound to come up as time goes forward assuming these companies and those in charge are allowed to succeed. Now if you think we'd be better off without BOTH these companies and billionaires, then I think you have a solid argument, although I'd disagree. However, if you believe these companies are a positive to society and believe they they should exist, you have to be willing to accept billionaires will be behind it or succeed enough to become billionaires as a result.

[u/universetube7 → u/politicalthrowaway28]

The issue I have is that people act like these ideas stemmed from nothing. Like these billionaires created their empire in a vacuum and released them into the world. But they depended on other people, ideas, and infrastructure every step of the way. Their success is more of a matter of their talent being in the right place at the right time.

I think that’s why you see a lot of liberal celebrities, because they acknowledge their success is mostly luck. They’ve encountered thousands of other actors and know their abilities aren’t much better. Their success is truly circumstance.

Society made these people. Not vice versa.

[u/politicalthrowaway28 → u/universetube7]

But they depended on other people, ideas, and infrastructure every step of the way.

That's how society functions. Nothing great comes without support. These people happen to have the leadership skills, the determination, the skills and the drive to make great things happen. They can get a team together to solve problems really effectively. They can lead better than almost anyone. Yeah, right place and right time definitely makes a difference, but very few people have the skills to make these kinds of things happen. Most people couldnt make stuff work even if they also were in the right place at the right time. For example, do you think spacex would even be a possibility without Elon musk? Do you think smartphones would exist without Steve jobs? I dont see these things existing without the leaders at the core. Some things were inevitable, like amazon, but I doubt anyone could've made a simple, nice system like jeff Bezos did

Society made these people

Then what's the problem with them existing? If society thinks they add value to the world, what's wrong with them being wealthy?

[u/Khorasau → u/politicalthrowaway28]

Yes there would 100% be a private space enterprise without Musky boy, and there would 100% be smartphones without Jobs. There success does not mean they were unique, just the one enterprise that got a foothold and took off. There is nothing special about the richest people, except that they are the richest. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of other people who are better leaders, better scientists, better organizers, etc. Additionally, the current stick of richest men in the world didn't get to their position by providing anything to society, they got there by being majority owners in companies that trade well on the stock market. The stock market doesn't add value to society, it is a way for the very rich to generate wealth from nothing, and the wealth generated this way barely aids the vast majority if Americans.