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Cake day: August 23rd, 2023

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  • HardNut@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.worldReification
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    11 months ago

    Because we have limited resources, no riches can come to you without profiting from the work of others.

    Why is this true, and why is this a problem?

    look for yourself how rich people got their wealth and judge by yourself is that normal.

    In almost all cases I can think of, a rich person became rich because they provided a product or service that others saw value in, and this generally works for the betterment of civilization.

    Ford got rich off cars, the people benefitted by gaining access to transportation. JP Morgan got rich off trains, same thing, he provided a transportation service that people willfully used. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs gave us home computers, despite whatever your opinion is for each of them. Jeff Bezos got rich because he made the online marketplace so ridiculously easy to use, a service people enjoy and see value in.

    This is the principle reason they got rich in all of these cases: they sold something the people wanted, at a price they were willing to.

    Some moderately rich people are actually contributing positively.

    Can you describe what some of these moderately rich people are doing better than the mega rich people?

    But the true goal of society would be to distribute riches correctly in the first place.

    Why is this the goal of society? How do you determine it’s been distributed correctly?


  • My point of view is that the money all capitalist have is a resource that was taken from the rest of us.

    Why?

    you’re right we also need to figure out a plan to distribute it properly in the first place

    I didn’t suggest that. Redistribution of resources doesn’t work, because people don’t easily comply with their wealth being taken away. This idea requires the assumption that it’s not theirs to begin with, so we’re back to the first question: why is a capitalist’s wealth not rightfully theirs?


  • Historical precedence says you’re wrong. Rockefeller, a prominent capitalist and thus commonly demonized by anti-capitalists, supported initiatives to combat hunger. His foundation provided substantial funding for soup kitchens during the great depression, and his foundation has continued to focus on public health, education, and scientific research.

    JP Morgan, “the ghost of rich dudes passed”, was also philanthropic as fuck. He didn’t donate food directly, but his efforts supported educational institutions, scientific research, and the arts.

    Even Elon Musk has a foundation that studies renewable energy research, space exploration, pediatric research, and more, all at cost for the betterment of the world. In fact, when it was especially popular to point out that his wealth could end poverty entirely, he started directly asking people for their metrics and potential methods. He was clearly ready to put resources into fixing a problem, but nothing ever came of it because no one actually had real metrics or methods, they just wanted a reason to dunk on Elon.

    Okay so those are just some guys I already knew about, what if I just pick a random “capitalist” name I hear commonly thrown around. Carnegie, sure, not sure what he did but I know I’ve seen his name besmirched for being capitalist aaaaand yep look at that! In his older age he donated most of his wealth to the establishment of public libraries, educational institutions, and foundations aimed at promoting world peace. I literally had no idea about any details of this guy’s life, but yeah, it’s not surprising that a successful prominent capitalist lived a life of philanthropy in his later years, because that’s the more consistent pattern.

    Have you ever once even tried to look into whether what you believe is true or not? Or would you just rather hate a label you’ve been told to hate?