I've recently heard a lot of people giving billionaires flak for having too much money. They claim that no reasonable person will have use for that much accumulated wealth. They feel as if the billionaires have taken something from them and feel envy towards them; this justifies the line of reasoning that they should be culled or have their net worth reduced to a more reasonable level through forced requisitions. What they don't understand is that billionaires don't take money from anyone. In the modern American system, the majority of high-profile billionaires were given that money by you--by the people who are complaining. You use services like Amazon and Paypal, paying money for the privilege. You utilize services distributed by satellite that were launched into space by SpaceX. You pay money for goods and services totally and completely voluntarily.
One may argue that "eating and drinking and housing" are not voluntary. However, in our current system, you have choice as to what you eat, how you drink, and where you live. That same "non-voluntary" set of human necessities does not begin with you. In order for a man to eat, another man must till the field. In order to put butter on your toast, another man must milk the cow and churn the butter. There are certain things in this world that are not voluntary. But when you look at the current system, we have figured out a way to inject voluntary choice even into these things. You can choose Nutella or Jiffy. White or wheat. Seven different kinds of fruit jam.
Do you think a government would function without a figurehead? Without people making big decisions? How do you expect an economy to work the same? The people on top, when viewed through a utilitarian quid pro quo lens, may not deserve a billion dollars for their hard work, when there are plenty of people working just as hard for much less. But what billionaires do is inspire. They lead their company or corporation through trailblazing and pushing the envelope.
Most billionaires have their net worth tied up in stocks; these stocks, at one point, were worth much less. They are not taking money from anyone. That money is being given to them by you, the person using the service or buying the good; by you, pushing up the stock price through your pension; by you, getting that PS5 through amazon. No one but the government is forcibly taking money from you or from anyone else around you. You give the billionaires money. If you want there to be no billionaires, then stop buying things.
Here's the rub. We live in a free market society. Most billionaires make their money because they produce something, start something, or do something incredible. The ones who actually make their money through cheating, such as Bernie Madoff, are arrested and put where they belong. You may not think that what they do is worth a billion, but at the same time you spend a hundred dollars on amazon in a single month. You purchase a Tesla. You use PayPal. You Google something. Hell, you participate in the modern world. You don't have to do these things. But you do, and a small percentage of that money makes its way up the chain and into the pockets of a billionaire. You don't like it? Play by the vegan book and stop buying their products. No more smartphones. No more internet. No more electric cars.
And finally, you must understand that the alternative to giving billionaires power is to give the government that same power. And the government is not answerable to you. They are answerable to the masses, which might not include you. And even that tenuous connection will be thrown off by any government that can figure out a way to fenagle more power.
The thing is that there will always be people with more and people with less. The people with less will envy the people with more, and certain kinds of people will promise a change in the status quo in exchange for power. The people with less will go along with it, hoping for change, and then get burned when all that happens is the leadership changes.
The economy doesn't run on feelings. It doesn't run on your emotions or your presuppositions. Trying to run an economy based on a single ideological framework just doesn't work. The world is complex, much more so than most people realize. It's an iceberg.
Here's what I suggest to all those who think we should "eat the rich." There really aren't enough rich people to fill the bellies of every citizen forever. If we eat the rich, we are also eating our intellectual and functional capital. Say what you might, but CEOs are always smart and driven. Members of the politburo, however? Say hello to nepotism. Running a huge company takes skills. Skills that very few people have. And if we eat them, the cream of the crop, because we're peckish and don't like how they look, then we're doing ourselves a disservice. We're not living in thirteenth century Europe. We're living in the modern world. One with a free market, where you vote with your dollar.
You gave that billionaire your money in exchange for what they gave you. Please stop trying to steal it back.
And finally, to address the fact that billionaires have the ability to lobby the government and get perks and subsidies and so on (unfairly): that's a government problem, not a billionaire problem. Governments will always be somewhat corrupt. Money fuels that. More money means more fuel to throw on the pyre of bribery. I think the genius of the American system is that the "bribery" is out in the open. We've figured out a way to turn what essentially is bribery into a transparent box where anyone can see exactly who is paying who and for what. Eliminate that and everything goes underground. So if you feel that billionaires are corrupting the government, then blame the government just as much as the people who are doing the bribing.
In conclusion, any action against billionaires that involves taking away their money is fundamentally envy-driven, rather than through a thought-out and well-considered plan to improve the state of humanity. There are plenty of ways to improve general human well-being; most of them not involving the government. That's what churches and charities are for. While I believe that the free market can handle a large amount of fat, don't axe the whole system because you think that you deserve something that you don't have. Be kind. Be happy with where you are. If you are concerned about the well-being of a group of people, look inside yourself and see if you really care about them or if you just want to use them to feel better about yourself. Enjoy your life the way it is. The concept of "Nirvahna" is one I believe you should embrace; it's a system of thinking where you live with what you have without envy and without the need to constantly feel better about yourself. Instead of being an ass about your own views, learn to live in harmony. When you stop the greed in yourself, you will suddenly find that you won't begrudge other people their wealth. They're not the greedy ones; you are. You're the one talking about stealing large portions of another person's property because you feel as if they don't deserve it; even though you've given it to them of your own free will.
Live in peace and everything will be fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment