General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHere's How Weird Our Obsession With Rich People
Reality check, anyone?Found on the Facebook page of USeD and FED-up no more/MoveOn.org
cali
(114,904 posts)I shouldn't even have to explain why.
ret5hd
(20,491 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)amassing money, does. It also means security and comfort. Life is easier with money. And humans are attracted to power and security.
Not that cats aren't great.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,367 posts)Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)created thousands of jobs, and made millionaires of many of his employees.
What have newspaper guy and cat lady contributed to society?
jp11
(2,104 posts)His business created what 2000 jobs?
Lots of millionaires, made on the idea of getting people to feel good about being unpaid lab rats handing over their personal information. That fosters a crappy social network method of interacting with people, you don't need to know your 'friends' FB keeps their bio on hand for you, it is on 'the cloud' just connect and it will tell you who your friends are.
That newspaper guy is a hero from Afghanistan who saved three fellow soldiers after and IED took out their truck,
The cay lady is a surgeon who specializes in reattaching severed limbs giving people a second chance after a horrible injury or accident.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)He has a quarter of a billion stashed away in various countries.
He gets about $20M a year in interest. I'm sure he doesn't even spend a quarter of that, so it just piles up...
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)Zuckerberg built his own company as opposed to preying like a vulture on companies that others built.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)that people are stupid enough to give him, and laughing at them in the bargain.
Nah, no vulture there.
liberalhistorian
(20,818 posts)He stole the whole thing from the college kids who hired him to help them with the technical aspect of implementing it and bringing it to fruition, then shut them out, claimed it was all HIS idea and doing, and had to be forced by a court to acknowledge their contributions and give them a share of profits. And he's made many of his millions by surrepticiously selling the private data of his customers, without their knowledge or permission, and refusing to bend to protests from his own customers; his own enrichment is far more important. And what, exactly, has he done for others and society with his now billions? Has he done anything else except enrich himself and his employees?
Maybe the newspaper guy and the cat lady are soldiers and/or professionals who help or have helped others? You DO realize that because someone isn't rich or hasn't built a company that doesn't translate automatically to their not contributing anything to society? Or at least I'd hope you would. My parents were both teachers for decades, now retired, and aren't rich by any means. In fact, my father is now in a nursing home with dementia at an early age and most of their not-so-great pensions and assets goes to pay for it, with my mother struggling each month on what little is left her. I'd say they each contributed far more to society than Zuckerberg ever has or ever will, yet he will never be lacking for any comfort whatsoever.
Initech
(100,068 posts)Zuckerberg made several billion but he stabbed a shitload of people in the back to get that money - he's a definite 1%er.
dkf
(37,305 posts)Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Most people want to be free of debt, of want, and to be comfortable.
That is far from rich, that is what many Americans use to be able to do.
People that obsess over the accumulation of wealth and 'stuff' are not healthy individuals.
In the end, they end up just as dead as poor people.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)much to say on the compulsion to hoard, whether the object of hoarding be newspapers, cats or cash.
I cannot put my hands on it right at the moment, but I think Freud discusses something similar in Eros and Thanatos. Any Freud experts out there care to weigh in?
deutsey
(20,166 posts)Crowman1979
(3,844 posts)If I had excess cash, I would give it away to those who need it.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)liberalhistorian
(20,818 posts)wanting to be rich. Money is, after all, simply freedom. Where the craziness and wrongness of it comes in is if you use and screw over others to get rich, and/or use the assets of others with far less means than you in order to get rich. Like, say, the psychopaths on Wall Street who play with the retirement and savings assets of others like it was their own money, then make their millions doing it while impovershing those whose money they played with and who can never get it back.
The crazy wrongness comes from thinking the rich are better simply because they're rich and that, if they're rich, that automatically means they're contributing more somehow to society. Bullshit.
DoBotherMe
(2,339 posts)that is used to define freedom. Jesus the moralist said "money is the root of all evil." Dana ; )
Ty Templeton
(26 posts)The quotation is "Love of money is the root of all evil." The money itself is passive and inert, and isn't evil on its own.
DoBotherMe
(2,339 posts)From the Greek, it translates as "money is the root of all evil." Dana ; )
Spoonman
(1,761 posts)Response to dkf (Reply #3)
progressoid This message was self-deleted by its author.
HangOnKids
(4,291 posts)You always defend the capitalist model, please share your secret to great wealth. Thanks!
Response to HangOnKids (Reply #29)
devilgrrl This message was self-deleted by its author.
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)the ones who are greedy will get pissed at this.... too funny!
hughee99
(16,113 posts)or a heard of cats, but everyone has ideas on what they would do with a hoard of cash. MoveOn.org is constantly raising money, but I don't recall them ever asking people to donate newspapers or cats.
CJCRANE
(18,184 posts)"everyone has ideas on what they would do with a hoard of cash" (italics are mine).
That's the point - most of us want money for the things we could *do* - things we could build, things we could buy, services we could buy, people we could help, places we could travel to, courses we could study etc.
And granted there are plenty of billionaires who actually do things with their money. But there are many others who just sit on the cash and watch it pile up.
Noose4
(13 posts)unless they are getting filthy rich at the expense of the American workforce, a business does well all boats should rise but in today's world the top seems to want to keep it all.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)The2ndWheel
(7,947 posts)When we live in Waterworld, the guy with the newspapers won't be so crazy.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)cash on the other hand . . .
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)And when you have more than you can possibly spend already what is the marginal utility of another dollar, or another million dollars?
Beyond the point where you have enough to comfortably support your life money really is far more about status than anything to to with actually purchasing anything, it's the way we keep score in our society.
4th law of robotics
(6,801 posts)I feel uncomfortable telling other people that they aren't living appropriately because they have chosen a different course than I have.
Some people work out excessively because they like the status. Or for other reasons.
Some people spend hours putting on make-up for the attention. Or for other reasons.
Some people spend months rebuilding an old car. And so on.
People are status seeking creatures. It's hardwired in to us. Eliminating that behavior will be as successful as convincing people to give up sex or gossiping or eating bacon or . . . .
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)And accumulating wealth beyond a certain point does become destructive of society, if for no other reason than reducing the velocity of money through the economy.