I’m not going to make a statement about the ethical basis for such calls to action here.
I’m certain, however, that abolishing the levels of extreme wealth we see in the world today in another way would make the lot of them about as happy. Can’t be mad at billionaires if there are none.
But by “removing” billionaires you have not made there none. That’s the problem with it. It’s like covering a sore and refusing to treat the disease that causes sores.
And now i shall refer to my original statement. If you keep removing something, regardless of the means by which you do, you can get pretty close to zero.
It’s kind of like gardening. Weeding a garden is a regular maintenance task a gardener accepts as part of life. The weeds will never stop trying to grow but we must continue to remove them nonetheless. We can plan a selection of plants and garden infrastructure to discourage them but they still show up. We could salt the field or pave over it but then we have no garden. Eventually, with enough pressure and time, the weeds become less obnoxious. So, if you want a garden, you keep weeding. The weeds will still there but there will be less of them and they’ll be slower to cause harm.
And if it’s not clear the analogy is the weeds are people who seek to obtain extreme wealth.
Yes, I’m very pro-tax, which is why I’m always arguing with the “kill every rich person” crowd because very few of them seem to agree.
I’m not going to make a statement about the ethical basis for such calls to action here.
I’m certain, however, that abolishing the levels of extreme wealth we see in the world today in another way would make the lot of them about as happy. Can’t be mad at billionaires if there are none.
But by “removing” billionaires you have not made there none. That’s the problem with it. It’s like covering a sore and refusing to treat the disease that causes sores.
And now i shall refer to my original statement. If you keep removing something, regardless of the means by which you do, you can get pretty close to zero.
It’s kind of like gardening. Weeding a garden is a regular maintenance task a gardener accepts as part of life. The weeds will never stop trying to grow but we must continue to remove them nonetheless. We can plan a selection of plants and garden infrastructure to discourage them but they still show up. We could salt the field or pave over it but then we have no garden. Eventually, with enough pressure and time, the weeds become less obnoxious. So, if you want a garden, you keep weeding. The weeds will still there but there will be less of them and they’ll be slower to cause harm.
And if it’s not clear the analogy is the weeds are people who seek to obtain extreme wealth.
Rather than spend eternity harvesting weeds, a sysiphean task, let’s make sure we don’t dissuade anybody from the real solution.