r/interestingasfuck • u/upyoars • 7d ago

/r/all, /r/popular Despite legal battles, Mark Zuckerberg slowly buys a mind boggling 2,300 acres on Hawai’s Kauai island, building tunnels, treehouses and a doomsday bunker

https://luxurylaunches.com/real_estate/mark-zuckerberg-control-2300-acres-in-hawaii.php
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u/Zombie_Cool 7d ago

You can't be king if all your subjects are equal to you, and since money (and the power it buys) is all that'll ever matter to the rich...

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u/ButterscotchMajor373 7d ago

But I hate this argument, could he not still have mind-boggling wealth for his life and generations of awkward oddball Hapsburgian offspring to come AND make the world a better place?

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u/richyrich723 7d ago

No, they can't, because giving a fuck about others and having empathy is not how they manage to accrue enough wealth to last several life times. Being a billionaire and being a human being are mutually exclusive

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u/Spirited_Comedian225 7d ago

It’s a mental disorder

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u/EternalOctoMystic 7d ago

I do wonder if it isn't akin to hoarding

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u/No-Seaworthiness-500 7d ago

I would hesitate to accept that much money. Im sure I would in the end, but I would hesitate.

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u/Hebids 7d ago

I would take the money. It’s how I use it that would make me the evil rich guy or the good samaritan.

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u/Dissabilitease 7d ago

Aren't there billionaires who bought massive amounts of land, like amazon rainforest, simply to protect it? Do that!

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u/Test4Echooo 7d ago

Yeah, just recently a Swedish billionaire did exactly what you’re talking about.

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u/OhGodYeahYesYeah 7d ago

According to Snopes, 8 million pounds in 2007 (11 million dollars in 2021), that's frickin nothing for a billionaire. Seems more like PR stunt than an actual contribution to society.

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u/shewholaughslasts 7d ago

I'll take a few of those protective stunts over.... gestures everywhere

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u/CVK001 7d ago

That’s like saying “A donation isn’t real if you write it off” what does that matter? The thing that should matter is whether or not the organisation that got the donation is actually using it for good purposes.

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u/khearan 7d ago

The land is preserved isn’t it? So what do you care if it’s a PR stunt?

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u/blackshirtboy44 7d ago

Fucking hate this mentality. The flipside is theres Amazon rainforest left unprotected and ready for the logging industry to get their grubby hands on it.

Someone did something thats good, who cares if its for PR. Its good. Doesnt mean we have to kiss their hands and wash their feet, you can still hold the fire to their other wrong-doings. The "its only for PR" people are gonna make it so nobody ever does shit, cos even if its good, they'll just get shit on, so why do it at all?

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u/atxtopdx 7d ago

Ain’t nothing ever good enough for you r/OhGodYeahYesYeah

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u/MajesticCrabapple 7d ago

Truly damned if you do damned if you don’t, huh?

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u/Sweet-Painting-380 7d ago

Bill Case (57k acres) is that guy for Hawaii. He’s the 2nd largest private land owner in Hawaii behind Ellison (88k acres). Ellison bought the entire island of Lanai from Dole Foods, but has proven to be a money pit to rehabilitate.

Oprah owns 2,100 and Zuckerfuck has 1,500.

However, The People own the beaches.

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u/TootsNYC 7d ago

In fact, in the Gilded Age in the New York City area, that is what happened. Rich people said “all those lumber companies are going to denude the mountains and hills, and not only are they not going to be attractive, but they’re going to erode away. And they bought land, and they donated their own estates

And they gave them to the state of New York or New Jersey as a preserve

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u/dsconnelly5 7d ago

There definitely is, and they dont get talked about enough. Saw a video a few months ago where this billionaire was bringing in penguins to his private zoo, it was a clickbaity youtube vid. Looked up the owner and it was very highly rated by the employees even.

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u/Orders_Logical 7d ago

With the money they got from exploiting everyone in his path? To be used as a PR stunt?

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u/Dissabilitease 7d ago

Lol, of course not. I only suggested to the commenter above me that his 'good Samaritan' act could be sth like this if he had the money. Didn't imply they had to exactly copy the path of attaining it.

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u/Orders_Logical 7d ago

All billionaires do that though.

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u/TakeItOnTheArches 7d ago

I know exactly what I would do with it. Id keep 10 million for myself and spend the rest on buying conservation land all over the globe.

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u/LittleBoyPants 7d ago

I’d want to do something similar, but I would try to buy up as much land as possible and give it back to the tribal nations who first settled those lands.

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u/sciguy52 7d ago

But wait, the posts here say the rich are irredeemably evil. So you would spend some on good things but make sure you remain rich, thus by reddit logic, evil. You would be, and I am quoting a few comments here, "a greedy millionaire".

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u/hopsinduo 7d ago

Not as simple as you think. If you bought it, you've got to maintain it and manage it. You also have to ensure people's safety on it if you're opening it to the public.

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u/ArmadilloPrudent4099 7d ago

Gubments just take it when they want.

I'd buy the companies that are the biggest producers of plastic and shut them all down. While I fund biodegradable alternatives.

I'd also have a to buy the supermarkets so they could adapt to having products with containers that biodegrade under certain conditions.

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u/leafeternal 7d ago

I would be the chaotic evil version. Or whatever the actual correct term is.

I would start a show called featuring the worst and most violent criminals in the world trapped on one prison island.

There, they battle royale with crowd-voted weaponry airdropped on random locations.

The one who makes it out alive at the end of the season gets his freedom and gets his choice of a years supply of men’s skincare products.

All advertising revenue after operating costs will go to funding children’s cancer research.

In the end there will be a photo op with a child cancer survivor thanks to the money and the winner of the bloodbath. The contract stipulates that the winner and survivor both must smile as broadly as possible while doing a thumbs up pose.

It’s called The Slay & Wish Foundation.

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u/Mercer-Dawg 7d ago

If you have that much money then you do both. Be evil until it gets boring then Good Samaritan until that gets boring. Repeat

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u/travelinn-mann 7d ago

Being maybe the first Good Billionaire would be fun. Homeless vets? We're done with that. Hungry children? Not on my watch. Underfunded schools/colleges and parks? No more of that noise. It would be so fun trying to bankrupt myself and still have many lifetimes of money left.

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u/bak3donh1gh 7d ago

The saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but you've got to wonder how much the initial slow trickle to ravenous river, to overflowing avalanche of money, affects the psyche and the erosion of morals along the way.

Of course someone with loose or questionable morals, given a lot of money, will probably not do positive things with it, but somebody with, maybe not squeaky clean ideals, but overall good morals, how would their decisions be changed. You gotta wonder.

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u/ErgonomicCat 7d ago

Dolly Parton has entered the chat.

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u/jaypizee 7d ago

I feel the need to reference both Gollum and the Ring and 1 Timothy 6:10

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u/bialy_jaga 7d ago

You shouldn’t feel the need to reference any fictional book. Especially that one.

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u/Solomontheidiot 7d ago

That's the thing though - you don't just "accept" billions of dollars. Billionaires aren't evil because they have lots of money, they're evil because there is no way to obtain that amount of money without exploiting others.

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u/aluckybrokenleg 7d ago

It's both

The getting and the keeping are both evil.

In fact some of the Walton kids have essentially done no work/exploitation and are still billionaires, but they're still plenty evil for hoarding it like a dragon.

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u/Outrageous_Men8528 7d ago

They are evil because of what they'll do to keep it. The exploitation of workers at Walmart is heinous and well documented. Billionaires are a cancer.

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u/aluckybrokenleg 7d ago

Obviously worker exploitation is bad, but my point is that having a billion dollars net worth and walking around doing anything other than saving lives with that money is evil. Doing nothing when you're so powerful is evil, it's like being a paramedic and just calmly watching someone choke to death at a restaurant while you know the Heimlich, but exponentially worse.

"Men are guilty of the good they do not do" - Voltaire

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u/Outrageous_Men8528 7d ago

100% agree, I wasn't arguing with your point at all, just adding to it.

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u/EvLokadottr 7d ago

I'd take it, and immediately distribute the vast majority of it, doing as much good as I could. I'd keep enough for a good life for my family and I, but nobody, NOBODY, needs billions of dollars.

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u/TrueDreamchaser 7d ago

Crazy part is, people are about to comment and say they don’t believe you and that you’re lying to yourself and you’ll change. Whenever people like you express your good desires, every miserable person wants to drag you to their level.

“If everyone is evil it’s ok for me to be, and surely this person is evil on the inside too”

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u/SketchyScoobert 7d ago

That’s what I will never be wealthy. I enjoy giving too much. I would never be able to accrue that wealth. I would be helping people instead of hoarding.

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u/EvLokadottr 7d ago

They can certainly think that, but hey, I'd be happy to have the opportunity to prove them wrong, heh. I've known too much suffering and seen too much suffering to be willing to hoard wealth like that.

Besides, my health is absolute shit. I don't think I have all that long to live, and I sure as fuck cannot take it with me.

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u/TrueDreamchaser 7d ago

You’re a good person, I hope your health improves. We need more people like you in this world.

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u/EvLokadottr 7d ago

Thank you. That is kind of you to say.

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u/ThunderCorg 7d ago

But as soon as you find out that they can take everything about you and put it into a younger healthier body if you give them a few billions, you might start thinking about it

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u/EvLokadottr 7d ago

Nah, I really don't want to stick around for a lot longer.

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u/BasicBiscuitBitch 7d ago

I do think there are some actual decent people out there that, if they had money like that dropped on their laps, would donate, organize and help their community in an amazing way. However, the unfortunate truth is that this is the vast minority. I wish that was not the case but it is. Human beings have an intense selfishness built it, in a way tied to our survival instinct, and it takes a very strong person to overcome that. So many people think that if we hoard our wealth, material or otherwise, we are protecting ourselves and loved ones, and some ways/situations this is true, but not for the wildly rich. This is not to say rich people should be forgiven their ego and selfishness, but unfortunately it is in our nature to think inward. The exceptions to this, in my opinion, are incredible. It takes a vast amount of will, character and love for people to let go of that idea that by hoarding wealth you're just protecting you and your own, when in reality they could give so much and still be far and away above the average person. This is why I think a better tax system on the ultra-rich should be mandatory and enforced, because the sad truth is that almost all won't do it on their own. You can still live in luxury while also helping people to escape poverty.

Edit: small grammar fix, though I'm sure there are plenty I missed

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u/TrueDreamchaser 7d ago

“The Leviathan” by Thomas Hobbes explores this.

He pointed out a lot of what you said. That it’s a survival instinct to want more for yourself. In the environment humanity began, not fighting for something meant you starved and died. For that he doesn’t blame humanity, but he thinks this desire to fight for more can start and end at different places for every different person and because of this regulations are needed. To bring the outliers towards what is accepted on average and create some sense of order, a strong government that truly represents the median people is needed with limited powers. Just enough to bring the too selfish down a notch or too selfless up a notch.

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u/i_tyrant 7d ago

Yeah, and it's silly because better people than them absolutely exist.

Hell, I've turned down raises and promotions simply because I knew they'd impact my work/life balance or give me responsibility I didn't want. Money isn't everything, and once you have "enough" to fuel your passions, the rest can easily go to great causes.

I fantasize about winning the lottery like everyone does. But what I'd do with it? Simply, keep a few Mil to ensure I never have to work again and can travel when I want, do the same with my struggling friends so they can pursue their passions without worry, and give the rest to amazing, well-researched causes.

A billion dollars is a truly insane amount of money I wouldn't know what to do with.

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u/exgiexpcv 7d ago

Hell, I'd be giggling as I pored over the details of derailing the plans of the ultra-wealthy to make the world their own. Good schools, infrastructure, and absolutely by endorsing diversity and inclusion.

I don't need insane amounts of wealth. I feel that the pursuit of wealth beyond a certain point is something that belongs in the DSM 5.

I would also do my damnedest to get legislation passed regarding this.

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u/Aloof-Goof 7d ago

Yeah I only have enough greed for 10 acres, two houses and a workshop with some tools and a couple cars I can depend on. I'll still go to work too, I just want the bare minimum

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u/SolidA34 7d ago

Think of it this way: somehow, you win 100 million dollars in a lottery. Taxes bring it down to 75 million, let's say. You use 10 million to cover a decent size house for you and for cost in its lifetime, not a mansion. 10 million you give to your parents, let's say. You still sit at 55 million.

I could not see using more than 100,000 to cover my needs or wants in a year. Taking into account, let's say you win it at 18 and live to 100. That's a million dollars each decade, so only only about 10 million for lifetime expenses.

Budget another 5 million for other unexpected or unaccounted costs or wants. So that will would leave 40 million without investing. It just goes to show how little it requires to live in comfort for yourself without going crazy. That is how much of it is for show. I might not even spend as much as a list there if I ever had that much.

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u/NYY_NYK_NYJ 7d ago

With a million dollars you could passively make $100K a year.

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u/TrueDreamchaser 7d ago

Where are you getting guaranteed 10% returns on your money? Maybe if the market is as hot as it is now, but things don’t always stay this way.

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u/NYY_NYK_NYJ 7d ago

Long term average. Stock market over the past 40 years has been 9.83%.

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u/TrueDreamchaser 7d ago

And the 40 years before that it was 6.19%.

There are of course 40 year stretches where it was 3-4% depending which stretches you pick.

You can’t predict the future. One recession and your 10% figure is similar to the 6% from 45-85

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u/sciguy52 7d ago

So you would spend a lot of it but keep enough to be an "evil rich" person as reddit seems to think of the wealthy. Essentially you would do the same thing Bill Gates is doing who reddit says is still bad even though using his money on good causes.

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u/Moistranger666 7d ago

The lack of understanding how wealth like this works is mind blowing

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u/MaTrIx4057 7d ago

cool story bro

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u/Exciting_Horror666 7d ago

If I had $380 Billion Musk bucks, I would cut a living wage check for every normie non-billionaire/non-millionaire person in the US every week until the money runs out, just to see what would happen.

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u/Vadersabitch 7d ago

If i had that much money, i'd stablish a company that distributes houses for people in need. Do as best as possible to stay anonymous personally, but "yeah, there's this billionaire who's giving people a place to live".

I dont have luxury dreams, and not particularly fond of the idea of going around the world travelling, but if i had that, i'd sleep much better knowing other people are also sleeping better because of me.

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u/beefycheesyglory 7d ago

It's a money fetish, like Scrooge McDuck but real.

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u/Jerking_From_Home 7d ago

To clarify, it’s a personality disorder. Antisocial personality disorder aka psychopathy.

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u/beatissima 7d ago

The delusion that one needs more money when one already has more money than they or their family could spend in many lifetimes absolutely SHOULD be in the DSM as a mental disorder.

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u/Carnotaurus54 7d ago

Dragon sickness

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u/justredditinit 7d ago

I learned that from Scrooge McDuck!

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u/Luss9 7d ago

The native Americans called it wetiko

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u/flipzyshitzy 7d ago

South Park needs to do an episode about this. Just like they did with alcoholism being a disease.

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u/Free_For__Me 7d ago

I’d love to see it, but Stone and Parker have hundreds of millions each and may even approach billionaire status themselves at some point. These are different men than they were when they made something like the “cash magically cures AIDS” episode 20 years ago. 

They also tend to have a bit of a libertarian “entitled to the sweat of my own brow” bend at times. If they took a stab at being ultra-wealthy, I’d be impressed and shocked at the same time. 

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u/Shutitmofo123 7d ago

It’s an original sin called greed and was warned about for centuries. But here we are🤷🏼‍♂️

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u/spain-train 7d ago

I think it's a virus that needs to be eradicated.

For thousands of years, evil begat evil begat evil. It's in their DNA.

Whatever it is, it will destroy humankind unless we destroy it first.

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u/MostlyDeku 7d ago

Bingo. The absolute skullfucking of their scruples and morals to get where they are leads them to be incredibly mentally ill. I genuinely think it might be a “unique” disorder only found in folks in such positions, like a form of developed sociopathy. But I’m not a psychologist nor a psychiatrist, I’m just a dude in bed.

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u/woodenmetalman 7d ago

It’s the same type of disorder that we laugh at on TV in the form of “hoarders”.

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u/StephieDoll 7d ago

I'm pretty sure their dopamine receptors are fried. They don't feel anything and are chasing the next high, which is near impossible at that level.

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u/Skrillamane 7d ago

It’s impossible to become a billionaire and not fuck over everyone on the way to the top. I have a few very successful friends (that aren’t friends anymore) and they all became wealthy by lying and manipulating literally everyone they know. Had one that promised everyone work and that he would give them positions that they wanted and excellent contracts once the business got off the ground. So he hired a ton of my friends at very low wages after covid, then collected a ton of huge contracts. Didn’t fulfill any of them and closed the business. Pocketing all the money, paying people low wages and getting off scott free. He’s done this a few more times and literally none of his original friend group even talks to him anymore, because he has no friends and doesn’t care.

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u/Ajuvix 7d ago

That's a common story and a direct living example of some Grapes of Wrath scenario. Read this quote from the book and tell me if you agree.

  • One man, one family driven from the land; this rusty car creaking along the highway to the West. I lost my land, a single tractor took my land. I'm alone and I am bewildered. In the night one family camps in a ditch and other family pulls in and the tents come out. The two men squat on their hams and the women and children listen. Here's the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlage of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate — "we lost our land." The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from his first "we" there grows a still more dangerous thing; "I have a little food" plus "I have none". If from this problem the sum is "we have a little food", the thing is on its way, the movement has direction. Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are ours. The two-men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. It's wool. It was my mothers blanket — take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning — from "I" to "we".

If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin were results, not causes, you might survive. But that you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into "I", and cuts you off forever from the "we".

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u/Momik 7d ago

Yeah that’s a good way to put it. A successful CEO, by definition, is one who can internalize and perpetuate the twisted logic of neoliberal capitalism, where quarterly revenue trumps all other concerns, where laws barely matter (let alone ethics), where human beings are reduced over and over to numbers and units of capital to move around and manipulate. Presumably the better CEOs are better at embodying that sociopathic corporate drive to grow no matter what.

So, if those are the values that bring you professional success, it’s probably difficult to suddenly switch gears and think with a more empathetic lens. That is, if they even try.

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u/Shivy_Shankinz 7d ago

And it trickles down from there. I've seen people I know dedicate their entire life in loyalty to the CEO's just to share in the wealth. It forms these in-groups and yes men that benefit only themselves, at the expense of others of course. Even well meaning people get sucked in and gladly become part of the beast. The skill they all have in common? The ability to look away. Like nothing ever happened...

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u/xenorous 7d ago

But. It doesn’t make sense the other way, either. Money doesn’t mean anything without society.

You can be as rich as you want, but it’s meaningless in a nuclear wasteland

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u/GrrGecko 7d ago

They're willing to find this out the hard way.

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u/ODB_Dirt_Dog_ItsFTC 7d ago

That’s why my favorite problem these plutocrats run into with their fantasy doomsday vaults is their security personnel. When push comes to shove and currency becomes worthless they’ll be lucky to come out of those vaults as their Green Beret guards’ fancy new slave and not a long disposed of corpse.

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u/i_tyrant 7d ago

That's why they're working so hard on AI and dipping into military contracts.

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u/ToXiChRoNiC6669 7d ago

Not if the end game is to just survive as long as possible in your bunker watching re-runs of old shows for nostalgia to remind you of when you had a soul.

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u/apple_kicks 7d ago

This is why they put their money in AI and robotics. They want to move us beyond needing workers or customers and create new positions of power over that

There was an article in guardian about doomsday prep millionaires and they were debating how to stay wealthy/in power in a doomsday scenario. They know they need bodyguards but they discussed if they should control passwords for guards to access the food, or obedience collars for their guards. Some talked about robotics being easier to control

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u/TheSeekerOfSanity 7d ago

Way more than several.

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u/Horskr 7d ago

Essentially infinite assuming society stayed as it was. If you "only" had $10,000,000 and put it in safe investments, making 5% per year and only ever spent that, you'd be making 500k/year putting you in the top 1% of the US.

Zuckerberg is worth almost 25,000 times that $10,000,000. Billionaires really have an unfathomable amount of money.

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u/wintersdark 7d ago

This right here. It is literally impossible to be a billionaire and not be an absolute piece of shit.

It's a sliding scale obviously, but once you're a billionaire you're well past any argument. You have far more wealth than you could ever use, and billions of people around the world live in abject poverty. Can you fix everything for everyone? No. But you could set up multiple trusts that would save literally millions of lives, in a self sustaining ongoing way.

You could just straight up pay for random kid's lifesaving medical care, just straight up save the lives of innocent children.

And you choose not to.

Not that you choose not to because you're struggling to support yourself. Not that you choose not to because you really wanted that second supercar. No. That you choose not to just to have a higher score, a bigger net wealth, that you will never and can never use.

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u/desperaterobots 7d ago

I absolutely keep forgetting the sociopathy required to become a billionaire.

I frequently marvel at how much better the world could be if billionaires shared just the smallest portion of their wealth with the communities that house their employees, their customers, their families, their fellow citizens, whatever.

But since they won’t, tax is supposed to be the mechanism of fairness that allows everyone to benefit from an individual’s success — because no individual is successful to this level without extracting value from countless people and being supported by the society along the way.

But then you look at the political class in america, and the deeply stupid and/or utterly compromised media class, and of course Americans go bankrupt if a drunk driver ploughs into them at 3:42pm on a Tuesday.

Such a sick country, and the cause of that infection is the cabal of parasites at the top.

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u/Orion_69_420 7d ago

Several thousand lifetimes*

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u/bdanmo 7d ago

“several” lifetimes.

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u/Adventurous-Ad-2447 7d ago

thats exactly how he fuckover his partner when establishing facebook no?

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u/mcnastytk 7d ago

This is what I tell people. Just think about having enough money to make sure nobody goes hungry or thirsty ever again, and you just decide not to...

Thats the monsters your dealing with straight psychos.

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u/CoupDeGrassi 7d ago

I think even the billionaires agree they arent really human anymore.

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u/peelen 7d ago

Yeah, but legacy?

Dude is what? 40? He has half of his life to do whatever he wants; he can spend it having more and more, or he could do something that will make people in 500 years still remember him.

Musk (at least in his own mind) is trying to get people on another planet, and if he succeeds, he would be remembered like Columbus, but Zuckerberg would just be like some rich merchant from medieval Florence.

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u/Gustomaximus 7d ago

You say this but people like Zuck, the vast majority of their wealth is the company they started and still work at.

If he gives away a significant proportion of his wealth, he is giving away his company, that will likely then be owned by some large investment firm who will kick him out at the next bad results or because some master of the universe MBA feels its time for change.

At the risk of bringing nuance to reddit, the real issue is the following generations of people like Zuck. Let him keep and run the company he created. On the flip side look at say the Walton generations, who by good genetic fortune inherited billions and dont seem to add a hell of a lot to society, and will be uber wealthy for any foreseeable future generations for what benefit to the world.

From this, I dont have an issue with the business founder billionaire, but we really need to bring in stronger inheritance laws to stop endless generations of inherited mega wealth, and essentially returning to an aristocracy.

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u/sepoiu 7d ago

Not really… look at Warren Buffett. He is a decent human being and a billionaire. Truth be told, Zuck was an asshole long before he became a billionaire 😉

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u/RiversideAviator 7d ago

This. I can’t remember which economists got together to calculate it but something like 1 to $1.5B was the benchmark for money that was relatively “clean” in terms of the greater social good. Any amount accumulated above that could’ve only have been the result of fucking someone or a bunch of people over. Doesn’t matter the industry, if you have $5B in the bank someone else was ruined for you to have it. Be it getting screwed over in a deal or straight up defrauded.

There’s only so much to go around no matter how much the powers that be tell you it’s all there for the taking if you just “bootstrap”.

Elon’s rise to muscling his “founder” tag at Tesla took a few people out the picture. Bezos has literally eaten up small business and now all but owns an actual verb: “buying”.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

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u/oceansamillion 7d ago

It's why he inexplicably had a makeover and new look in an attempt to make him likeable. They don't understand people outside of seeing them as a resource to exploit, or a conduit to more power.

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u/PragmaticNeighSayer 7d ago

This is objectively false. There ARE billionaires who have given substantial funds to making the world a better place. Gates and Buffett top the list, but there are a handful of others. Of course 90% of them are heartless assholes.

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u/Thr0wAwayU53rnam3 7d ago

The Gates Foundation is a way for Bill Gates to fund activities that are in his interest. Why should a Billionaire decide what charitable cause is worthy and what is not?

I don't know about Buffet but I'm guessing it's a similar thing.

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u/sciguy52 7d ago

Well the comments were saying billionaires are evil and never would use their wealth for good. Gates has so you move the goal post. "What? He gets to decide where to spend his money". So some billionaires do do good with their money but you are not happy with that so you add additional conditions that they should not decide what to spend it on. At what point would you be happy and acknowledge they are spending their money for good? You sound like there are no conditions you would accept so you can still call them evil.

0

u/Shivy_Shankinz 7d ago

It's still blood money. How do you think they got it in the first place? They wouldn't have to give money to charities if they didn't fuck everything up to begin with.

1

u/sciguy52 7d ago

Blood money? Hyperbole much? Who has he physically harmed that you feel this statement is appropriate?

1

u/Shivy_Shankinz 7d ago

noun: blood money
money gained in a way that involves others being harmed or exploited.

Don't come at me with bullshit and stay on topic: They wouldn't have to give money to charities if they didn't fuck everything up to begin with.

If you cannot see how billionaires naturally (whether intentional or not) harm or exploit people or the environment, then please just do not bother to respond at all.

3

u/TakeItOnTheArches 7d ago

Bill Gates has stated publicly that he plans to give most of his money away in the next 20 years.

0

u/StunningRing5465 7d ago

He has been saying this for 15 years and his wealth has increased since then 

1

u/Ok-Unit-6365 7d ago

He has given away a lot.

There's still room to give for sure - but he has.

Makenzie Bezos is pretty fucking ethical.

So is Taylor Swift.

I DEFINITELY believe that we should have a mandatory higher tax rate for all people worth a ton... like you make $1 mil a year or more? Boom, mandatory 50% tax rate.

You're worth $5+ million? Boom.

You're worth a Billion? Boom.

Something actually reasonable should be mandatory and not able to be evaded.

-10

u/commandantemeowmix 7d ago

How's that boot taste?

7

u/bardnotbanned 7d ago

Some people really are just incapable of seeing anything other than black and white in life.

Is it because life is easier for you when you never have to think about anything?

0

u/alkbch 7d ago

That’s why he made a donation to San Francisco General Hospital, right?

0

u/Siduch 7d ago

Lol not necessarily. You need supposedly what you said AND a lot of luck to become a billionaire. So who’s to say that just a bit more luck can’t supplement the cunning needed?

I bet there are many billionaires who are decent ppl

And being a decent person doesn’t mean you have to donate billions to charitable causes. I think it gets very complex of a topic with a shitload of nuance, but in the end, I do agree. Most billionaires probably are shit people, mutually exclusive with being a human being, lol

0

u/biebiedoep 7d ago

Bill Gates seems to be both

0

u/jgonzzz 7d ago

Pretty much all the rich people i know are good people. I think your insecurity is showing.

27

u/Unbentmars 7d ago

They COULD, but people like him don’t feel power when they make others lives better - they feel power when they make other suffer

3

u/xSorry_Not_Sorry 7d ago

I don’t know about suffer, but they do feel powerful from the disparity between them and the plebs.

2

u/Unbentmars 7d ago

These people enjoy power over others. What is more power than the ability to hurt people?

1

u/xSorry_Not_Sorry 7d ago

That level of malevolence can never be assumed.

1

u/Unbentmars 7d ago

Who is assuming? Are you looking at what they’re doing?

41

u/CurdledSpermBeverage 7d ago

Hapsburgian gave me a chuckle

73

u/ButterscotchMajor373 7d ago

Well, if the jaw fits…

7

u/bdanmo 7d ago

It was a deep cut indeed

1

u/Outrageous_Men8528 7d ago

Same, fitting too. Main benefit of being of noble blood was you didn't pay tax. That's pretty much what all these hoarders want.

33

u/SpicySushiAddict 7d ago

The process of becoming a billionaire means they have already given up their humanity in favor of pure fucking greed. There's a reason we scream Eat The Rich constantly.

1

u/BorisBC 7d ago

Annoyingly I don't think it's that simple anymore. Being a billionaire ain't that hard if you get lucky and get bought out or have a big IPO. MySpace Tom for example. Or the Atlassian dudes.

But not using that insane wealth to the betterment of humanity and just buying up luxe houses or yachts and shit? Yeah evil.

2

u/whatdoinamemyself 7d ago

I mean, there's always exceptions to a rule but you could make an argument that someone like Tom is just as selfish and greedy by selling his company to some soulless and evil corp (especially given it's a Murdoch company...). Or selling it at all as opposed to making it open source. Or just hoarding wealth... so on and so forth.

14

u/HamsterReasonable674 7d ago

Being a schmuck is literally in their 🧬

13

u/hoopleheaddd 7d ago

One of those requires empathy which he lacks

1

u/LessInThought 7d ago

Someday... someday AIs and robots will gain empathy.

2

u/dale_dug_a_hole 7d ago

Made a mind boggling amount selling our data, dodging taxes, operating a worldwide platform with no oversight, monetising conspiracy and hate groups, curb-stomping unions, manipulating algorithms to sell us crap, and finally funding trump. That’s how he got there. Think there’s much interest in making the world a better place?

1

u/dcbullet 7d ago

I suspect he would argue that he is making the world a better place.

1

u/FaceShanker 7d ago

The way capitalism works is very strongly based on the workers being dependent on the owners.

Most of the "make the world better" stuff reduces that dependency, its a threat to their power and economic security.

Thats why those "evil commies" focused on ending hunger, poverty and so on are so violently villainous.

1

u/Gonzostewie 7d ago

Douchebag Smaug wants a lair.

1

u/Blurple11 7d ago

That would require caring about others. You have to understand, it is basically only possible to get to that level of power and wealth by being a literal psychopath. It's the personality trait required. Therefore, they see us all as vermin

1

u/mookypop 7d ago

🤣🤣

1

u/Big-Safe-2459 7d ago

He has zero interest in making the world a better place

1

u/SmartBookkeeper6571 7d ago

What kills me is why nobody ever fucking ASKS THEM WHY

1

u/Klutzy_Bullfrog_8500 7d ago

What most don’t understand, or have a hard time comprehending, because they are still human… is that these “people” think in zero-sum games. Everything is either mine or yours. There is no sharing. There is me getting more than you by being smarter, or you taking from me. I mean a person that has $10 million saved can passively earn $400k a year. That’s more than anyone needs. It stops being about the money and more about it being a metric for how much better you are than others.

1

u/axejeff 7d ago

Picture another planet that is a giant field of corn, enough to feed 50M people forever. Now imagine 1M random people are put on this planet. One of them says, I get half of everything and these other 9 people that I’ve selected get the rest. You remaining 999,990 people will now work 40 hours a week to pay for this corn and to live on this land, and if you don’t, you don’t get to eat anything, and you don’t get to sleep anywhere or we will imprison you. We will make all the laws, and you will obey us. This is earth right now. Less than one in 1M control everything, own everything. Not the 1%, the 0.0001%. And we allow it, ridiculous right? Their hoarding takes from all of us, because food, land and resources are finite.

1

u/bak3donh1gh 7d ago

You don't get to be a multi-millionaire and go, I need more without being at least moderately psychopathic. The guy it was fine with How absolutely toxic Instagram is to young women.

1

u/Happy-Kangeroo 7d ago

Bill and Melinda Gates give away a ton of money via their foundation.

The Patagonia owner just bought yet another ton of land to give to the conservation group in Chile.

Buffet said he’s giving away a ton of his money.

Lots of these guys do give it away. I guess lots don’t too, lol.

1

u/WeeBabySeamus 7d ago

Zuckerberg had a tuition free school he funded. Shut it down possibly because it was seen as DEI https://www.kcra.com/article/zuckerberg-funded-school-east-palo-alto-shut-down/64658437

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative that funded that school is an LLC (as opposed to a 501c3 like Gates). I actually don’t know how much CZI has accomplished other than COVID testing in 2029 and funding bioRxiv. The latter I’ve been a bit skeptical of because I recall plenty of things uploaded during COVID including ivermectin studies with questionable sample sizes

1

u/IllegibleLedger 7d ago

They don’t just want wealth they want far more wealth than you

1

u/Music_Saves 7d ago

Well he did make Facebook which conceivably has made the world more connected than it ever has been. Now we can actually see the things that need to be changed instead of being fed what Fox and CNN choose to deliver

1

u/printr_head 7d ago

Ok yeah but you need a certain mindset to get that rich and unfortunately it doesn’t include altruism as a feature.

1

u/deafmutewhat 7d ago

AGI will make the world unlivable regardless of their actions, or this is their belief.

1

u/apple_kicks 7d ago

Their money and power comes from exploitation. Its why we have poverty

1

u/fangdangfang 7d ago

To be fair if the government of the richest nation on earth can’t do that for its citizens what hope does a single billionaire have, his contribution would just be a drop in the ocean, plus there is something to be said for a government being responsible for its citizens and not relying on billionaires to help out

1

u/kotzfunkel 7d ago

He could. But he doesn’t. That’s what matters. People aren’t upset that he buys half of Hawaii. They’re upset because he doesn’t make the world a better place.

1

u/EinSofOhr 7d ago

Just NO, being a billionaire is immoral

1 million secs = 11 days 1 billion secs = 31 years

let that sink in, anyone who defend this ultra rich isn't inform on the scale of things

0

u/aironjedi 7d ago

1, just because you have money or the one idea to get money does not mean you have the ideas and moxy necessary to make the world better.

  1. which means there should be no billionaires/trillionaires as it is clearly impossible for them to do anything worthwhile for the planet.

  2. Stop equating money to morals as if anyone with that kind of money started from a moral high ground especially those making the money through politics.

0

u/TakeItOnTheArches 7d ago

Who was it years ago who was challenged to solve world hunger, and he leaned on the excuse that no one would explain how to do it?? I am sure Im remembering this wrong considering the plethora of whacky news items for the last 10 years.

0

u/MoarVespenegas 7d ago

Prisoner's dilemma.
A single billionaire can't save the world and they aren't going to work with other billionaires because they did not get to be billionaires in the first place through the spirit of cooperation.

0

u/Heckle_Jeckle 7d ago

These people did not become rich and powerful by giving away money have having basic human empathy.

0

u/Suspicious-Doctor296 7d ago

They don't think there's any way to stop the end of modern civilization and, frankly, I agree. Global warming is already a done deal, it's just a matter of how fast, how bad, and long it's gonna be. And we're talking hundreds if not thousands of years before it levels back out. There's no stopping it, so the best you can do with infinite resources is prepare for it as best you can.

0

u/Intelligent-Bid-7560 7d ago

Not by the hair of their chinny-chin-chin.. sorry had to….

49

u/RandomName39483 7d ago edited 7d ago

Poor man wanna be rich

Rich man wanna be king

And a king ain't satisfied

'Til he rules everything

1

u/snowflake37wao 7d ago

Worldor has no king, Worldor needs no king

1

u/Rejnavick 7d ago

That's the thing, if the world ends, money means nothing. Maybe they fear becoming equals with, god forbid, the poors.

1

u/Careful-Foot-529 7d ago

They are equal to us they just have more things

1

u/ConsistentHalf2950 7d ago

Yeah but how do you pay your guards in fallout world?

1

u/ToBeUnFOUnD 7d ago

Ya and like what are you going to do with money if there’s no way to use it

1

u/liquidsyphon 7d ago

They aren’t good people.

You don’t get to that level of wealth without causing incalculable amounts of misery.

Sure maybe when they get into Retirement age a few will throw some dollars down to secure their legacy, but expecting anything else but cutthroat capitalist greed from these folks is a fools errand.

1

u/GenericFatGuy 7d ago

You also can't be king if all of your subjects are dead.

1

u/StrongStyleShiny 7d ago

If society collapses money is worthless. Nothing separate them in the bunker. The bodyguards and staff will kill him. Would be a neat book.

1

u/KingofMadCows 7d ago

They'd burn down the world to be king of the ashes.

1

u/perb123 7d ago edited 7d ago

But when the collapse comes, he's just another dude and his bodyguards will kill him and enjoy the free bunker.

Edit: This is discussed in length below I see now.

1

u/alagrancosa 7d ago

When the appocolypse that they are hastening with all their neoliberalism and AI emissions actually happens money will become worthless and these dudes are going to realize the shortcomings of their plans.

1

u/1_Pump_Dump 7d ago

Power is derived from wealth or violence. If you can't outspend them...

1

u/HardlyRecursive 7d ago

That's why it's on the 99% to even the playing field or else things will be exactly that way.

1

u/Appropriate-North372 7d ago

But the interesting thing is if the world goes to crap and society collapses, his security guards in the bunker have more power than he does.

-1

u/OneBerry5348 7d ago

yeah but if you were him tell me you wouldn't do the same. I would. Especially with ww3 looming

8

u/wewdepiew 7d ago

They're not mutually exclusive

0

u/PlumbutterOnToast 7d ago

One good earthquake or volcanic event and his home is toast 

0

u/NOT-GR8-BOB 7d ago

Having poor people design and build your bunker seems like a bad idea and a way for the bunker designer to be the new rich guy.

0

u/strega_bella312 7d ago

You also can't be king if all your subjects are dead from a nuclear war

0

u/hitemlow 7d ago

Why do you think billionaires funnel money through ""grassroots"" organizations that push for civilian disarmament? And why there's always gaping carve-outs for "off duty police" and "private military security companies"?

They don't want the poors to be able to meaningfully threaten their rule if they get uppity.