OK, you didn't so much push my buttons with this one as play some insane inversion of a Beethoven piano concerto on the key board. I just set down my current Whitehead project before my head asploded, but I need to keep typing. Here you go:
For those who don't know (and for context):
1,000 seconds = 16 2/3 minutes
1,000,000 seconds (1,000 X 1,000) = 11.57 *DAYS*
1,000,000,000 seconds (a billion; a thousand times a million) = 31.7 *YEARS*
1,000,000,000,000 seconds (a trillion; a thousand times a billion) = 32,000 years ago. This not only predates human civilization, it largely predates humanity.
This is what $1,000,000,000,000.00, a trillion dollars, looks like.
A friend of mine who was successful at business and since gone into creative pursuits has a sister. That sister was struggling after her separation/divorce from her low-life husband, as a bank teller. She met a successful business man who worked as the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) for a Big Name tech company at the time. (Big Name tech company has since disappeared and it is very telling if you've ever even heard of it, though at the time everyone had.) They fell in love, he divorced his wife at the time and married her. They are worth something below $200,000,000.00.
That is staggeringly wealthy. And it is, for all intents and purposes an order of magnitude below a billionaire.
She prances around like she's earned it, and he's a nice enough, if altogether clueless human being. He's a glorified accountant who just happened to be standing on the platform when the train pulled up.
An example: I was at my friend's house and most/all of her family was there. He was studying the lights flashing on the brickwork behind the stove, and I went over to see what was going on. He commented on the overheads. I glanced around. I pointed out that the lights were coming from the TV at the farside of the extended space, beyond the chef's island and into the living room. The man had absolutely no imagination, and didn't even think about examining his environment.
Elon Musk was born rich, to the family that controls most of the sapphire(?) mines in South Africa. The only company he directly manages (Tesla) is tanking. He is a billionaire. He is patently incompetent.
Economies grow from the bottom. This is ECON 101 stuff. 1,000 people with $1,000.00 each will always be able to spend and consume more than 1 person with $1,000,000.00, even thought the dollar amounts are identical. The more wealth is concentrated, the more the potential for spending and consumption is siphoned out of the economy, rendering it less and less capable of growth, and more and more likely of significant implosion. Again, this not some kind of radical, scary socialist ideological ranting. This is just economic fundamentals, ECON 101. I mean, I consider myself a socialist of a kind, but all I really want to see is people at policy levels paying basic attention to 100 level economic fundamentals.
Just that, FFS. I don't give a shit about some Marxist Utopia. I'd settle for a mild reduction in the resolute and intransigent stupidity.
See, that is SUCH a strong argument. A lot of rich folks don't want what's best for the economy, and they most especially don't want what's best for us. Hand to God, the older I get, the more I see how thirsty they are. All the money in the world isn't enough for these people. Meanwhile, we're desperately trying to stay afloat.
Alexis de Tocqueville observed that Americans were convinced that they were "soon-to-be" millionaires, so I suppose that part of our collective psychology hasn't changed much in two to three centuries. I've always been amazed at our willingness to tolerate excess, perhaps because we want to see ourselves in similar circumstances. But are those circumstances really that much to brag about? I wonder.
You are so right. de Tocqueville said a lot of things that are just as true today as they were then. He was pretty outspoken about American religious mania as well. Courageous. Insightful. Very interesting insights.
However wealth is acquired, it would behoove a person to keep the assets level under wraps. Flaunting it is so nouveau riche, and people like the Kardashitstains have taken tackiness to a new level of disgusting. Why, oh why, do people watch their show(s?), follow them in the media, or try to emulate their 'look'? It's creepy.
Anyway, re the wish to be rich by any means, let's not forget that it's Not just an American thing. Remember the Irish sweepstakes? There are, and have been, lotteries all over the world for folks to try their luck at a dream of instant fortune. It gives some hope, and an inducement to go on, I guess. Funny thing is: many have won, only to lose it all or have it swindled from them. The idea of wealth then becomes relative.
OK, you didn't so much push my buttons with this one as play some insane inversion of a Beethoven piano concerto on the key board. I just set down my current Whitehead project before my head asploded, but I need to keep typing. Here you go:
For those who don't know (and for context):
1,000 seconds = 16 2/3 minutes
1,000,000 seconds (1,000 X 1,000) = 11.57 *DAYS*
1,000,000,000 seconds (a billion; a thousand times a million) = 31.7 *YEARS*
1,000,000,000,000 seconds (a trillion; a thousand times a billion) = 32,000 years ago. This not only predates human civilization, it largely predates humanity.
This is what $1,000,000,000,000.00, a trillion dollars, looks like.
A friend of mine who was successful at business and since gone into creative pursuits has a sister. That sister was struggling after her separation/divorce from her low-life husband, as a bank teller. She met a successful business man who worked as the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) for a Big Name tech company at the time. (Big Name tech company has since disappeared and it is very telling if you've ever even heard of it, though at the time everyone had.) They fell in love, he divorced his wife at the time and married her. They are worth something below $200,000,000.00.
That is staggeringly wealthy. And it is, for all intents and purposes an order of magnitude below a billionaire.
She prances around like she's earned it, and he's a nice enough, if altogether clueless human being. He's a glorified accountant who just happened to be standing on the platform when the train pulled up.
An example: I was at my friend's house and most/all of her family was there. He was studying the lights flashing on the brickwork behind the stove, and I went over to see what was going on. He commented on the overheads. I glanced around. I pointed out that the lights were coming from the TV at the farside of the extended space, beyond the chef's island and into the living room. The man had absolutely no imagination, and didn't even think about examining his environment.
Elon Musk was born rich, to the family that controls most of the sapphire(?) mines in South Africa. The only company he directly manages (Tesla) is tanking. He is a billionaire. He is patently incompetent.
Economies grow from the bottom. This is ECON 101 stuff. 1,000 people with $1,000.00 each will always be able to spend and consume more than 1 person with $1,000,000.00, even thought the dollar amounts are identical. The more wealth is concentrated, the more the potential for spending and consumption is siphoned out of the economy, rendering it less and less capable of growth, and more and more likely of significant implosion. Again, this not some kind of radical, scary socialist ideological ranting. This is just economic fundamentals, ECON 101. I mean, I consider myself a socialist of a kind, but all I really want to see is people at policy levels paying basic attention to 100 level economic fundamentals.
Just that, FFS. I don't give a shit about some Marxist Utopia. I'd settle for a mild reduction in the resolute and intransigent stupidity.
See, that is SUCH a strong argument. A lot of rich folks don't want what's best for the economy, and they most especially don't want what's best for us. Hand to God, the older I get, the more I see how thirsty they are. All the money in the world isn't enough for these people. Meanwhile, we're desperately trying to stay afloat.
Love what you wrote here, Gares.
Alexis de Tocqueville observed that Americans were convinced that they were "soon-to-be" millionaires, so I suppose that part of our collective psychology hasn't changed much in two to three centuries. I've always been amazed at our willingness to tolerate excess, perhaps because we want to see ourselves in similar circumstances. But are those circumstances really that much to brag about? I wonder.
You are so right. de Tocqueville said a lot of things that are just as true today as they were then. He was pretty outspoken about American religious mania as well. Courageous. Insightful. Very interesting insights.
However wealth is acquired, it would behoove a person to keep the assets level under wraps. Flaunting it is so nouveau riche, and people like the Kardashitstains have taken tackiness to a new level of disgusting. Why, oh why, do people watch their show(s?), follow them in the media, or try to emulate their 'look'? It's creepy.
Anyway, re the wish to be rich by any means, let's not forget that it's Not just an American thing. Remember the Irish sweepstakes? There are, and have been, lotteries all over the world for folks to try their luck at a dream of instant fortune. It gives some hope, and an inducement to go on, I guess. Funny thing is: many have won, only to lose it all or have it swindled from them. The idea of wealth then becomes relative.