If they were saying that kings shouldn't have the unchecked right to execute people, this response would be akin to "Oh, you just wish you could kill anyone. Your argument is invalid."
Not really. The person saying that billionaires shouldn't exist is just failing to describe why that number is so mystical or interesting to them. If billionaires don't exist are we saying that people worth 500 million won't have power? you can keep doing this but the end result is the same. Power is asymmetrical and the system is self balancing. Those that have more wealth have more power. It's that simple. If you want to make wealth irrelevant then at least come up with a real system where wealth does not exist, because power is an intrinsic property of wealth.
The idea that you can distribute wealth is actually the tell for envy. You want to distribute power because you want power. And you won't be satisfied until that power reaches you, therefore you need to eliminate not just the billionaires, but after it trickles to centimillionaires and decamillionaires after that. If your premise is based on billionaires not existing because they have outsized power you're not going to be satisfied until that power eventually reaches where you are stationed in society.
It has nothing to do with billionaires and it has everything to do with people with more wealth than you having more power. That's envy. How far do you have to distribute before power is meaningless?
The truth is that there are more billionaires than ever before and that number is growing. It would seem that having power is becoming more democratized over time too. If we go back 500 years the number of people that had this level of power were limited to actual Kings. You are closer to a billionaire in your capabilities and agency in this society than a peasant was under an actual King. 500 years ago if you made a tiktok video about your King's private affairs and his properties while trying to tell everybody that the king doesn't deserve their power and the king should be taxed, you'd be executed in the town square. Yet somehow people that have the mindset that "billionaires should not exist" fail to convey how we've suddenly reached some tipping point where there's no going back.
Like saying, "There have never been more opportunities for commoners to become kings!" Okay, most of the people who say kings shouldn't exist will still feel that way, even if they could become king.
> You are closer to a billionaire in your capabilities and agency in this society than a peasant was under an actual King.
How much of that is because I live in a democratic republic, and not because billionaires exist? I guess you might say they're the same thing, but I believe there are free-enough societies with less wealth/power inequality than the US. I think I care more about the gap between top and bottom than about my own personal level of power, but of course it's hard to be objective.
It is harder to draw the line with money than with literal kingship, but I don't accept that we should change nothing and let unbounded power disparities exist.
If they were saying that kings shouldn't have the unchecked right to execute people, this response would be akin to "Oh, you just wish you could kill anyone. Your argument is invalid."
Not really. The person saying that billionaires shouldn't exist is just failing to describe why that number is so mystical or interesting to them. If billionaires don't exist are we saying that people worth 500 million won't have power? you can keep doing this but the end result is the same. Power is asymmetrical and the system is self balancing. Those that have more wealth have more power. It's that simple. If you want to make wealth irrelevant then at least come up with a real system where wealth does not exist, because power is an intrinsic property of wealth.
The idea that you can distribute wealth is actually the tell for envy. You want to distribute power because you want power. And you won't be satisfied until that power reaches you, therefore you need to eliminate not just the billionaires, but after it trickles to centimillionaires and decamillionaires after that. If your premise is based on billionaires not existing because they have outsized power you're not going to be satisfied until that power eventually reaches where you are stationed in society.
The truth is that there are more billionaires than ever before and that number is growing. It would seem that having power is becoming more democratized over time too. If we go back 500 years the number of people that had this level of power were limited to actual Kings. You are closer to a billionaire in your capabilities and agency in this society than a peasant was under an actual King. 500 years ago if you made a tiktok video about your King's private affairs and his properties while trying to tell everybody that the king doesn't deserve their power and the king should be taxed, you'd be executed in the town square. Yet somehow people that have the mindset that "billionaires should not exist" fail to convey how we've suddenly reached some tipping point where there's no going back.
Like saying, "There have never been more opportunities for commoners to become kings!" Okay, most of the people who say kings shouldn't exist will still feel that way, even if they could become king.
> You are closer to a billionaire in your capabilities and agency in this society than a peasant was under an actual King.
How much of that is because I live in a democratic republic, and not because billionaires exist? I guess you might say they're the same thing, but I believe there are free-enough societies with less wealth/power inequality than the US. I think I care more about the gap between top and bottom than about my own personal level of power, but of course it's hard to be objective.
It is harder to draw the line with money than with literal kingship, but I don't accept that we should change nothing and let unbounded power disparities exist.