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“Cis is a heterosexual slur” Tweets Elon Musk, Who Halved Twitter’s Value — Assigned
(www.assignedmedia.org)
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Tis a hard thing to keep in mind, but keep it in mind we must.
You can be wealthy and a good person, maybe even rich (up to a point) and a good person, but when you reach the level of Bezos, Zuckerberg, Musk, and other titans of this second Gilded Age, it is nearly impossible.
I wouldn't say impossible, but so improbable due to the inherent corruption of the sheer wealth of the position they're in that it takes a titanic level of inner willpower to maintain one's humility.
Most people at that level of wealth—hell, most people—are not that strong.
A wise person once said, "It's not possible to make a billion dollars in a year. It is, however, possible to steal a billion dollars in a year." You have to be stealing value from somebody along the production chain to be accumulating that kind of wealth.
For some reason, Lemmy is not letting me see your comment outside of my inbox. Weird. However, yeah, I agree completely with what you're saying.
Lemmy moves in mysterious ways. It is not our place to question the actions of a higher being such at this. 😄
I don't even think it's about inner strength or humility. Competitors will force you to make unethical choices in order to succeed. Your own empathy will get in the way of accumulating that kind of wealth. I call it impossible because the actions needed to be taken in order to acquire such wealth are inherently unethical ones. It demands exploitation; It demands narcissism; It demands that you not have empathy. Bezos would not be where he is if he actually paid his workers and let them take piss breaks. Musk would not be wear he is if not for his family emerald mine fortune, and for his delusions of grandeur, taking credit for the inventions he payed people to have. None of these people would have this kind of wealth without political dealings with shady figures, and without lobbying against worker's rights
So is it impossible? Well not technically, but if someone does get to those levels of wealth without the exploitation and lobbying and ruthless business practices, they won't stay there for long anyway, because the other billionaires won't let them
That's what I was saying. It is not, strictly speaking, absolutely impossible. But so improbably as to be nearly not at all possible.
Although, that being said, you made a lot of good points in that comment, to the point where I have to change my mind a bit and say that I agree with you. Humility can take you far to preserve a sense of empathy, but the sheer corruption of the decisions you have to take to become that wealthy inherently make it infinitesimally improbable that you will come out the other side even half as good a person as you went in.
In short, technically improbable but not impossible, yet practically impossible.