zabouti |||

2020-02-2 Hate the sin, not the sinner

2020-02-23-Billionaires

Wikipedia says there were 621 American billionaires in 2019. I took a quick look through the list to see if they’re all as evil as the leftists in my party seem to think.

I made a quick list:

I have a good impression of these billionaires

  • Bill Gates
  • Elon Musk
  • George Soros
  • Jim Goodnight
  • Steven Spielberg
  • Warren Buffett

I’m not sure about these billionaires

  • Jeff Bezos
  • Sergey Brin
  • Steve Ballmer
  • Larry Page
  • MacKenzie Bezos
  • George Lucas
  • Eric Schmidt
  • Mark Zuckerberg

I have a bad impression of these billionaires

  • Carl Icahn
  • Charles Koch
  • Larry Ellison
  • Rupert Murdoch
  • Sheldon Adelson

I haven’t decided about this billionaire

  • Michael Bloomberg

My takeaway

It bothers me to hear Bernie and Elizabeth demonize billionaires as if being one is some kind of character defect. Some billionaires do tremendous good and others terrible evil.

I imagine that most of them advocate low taxes on their wealth the way Bloomberg does, but that’s an effect of having that much wealth. Our personalities and values are affected by our circumstances even if we all like the illusion that we have some kind of true self”, a fixed set of values and morals that are unaffected by our friends, family, mob, class, wealth, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.

I generally agree with Elizabeth and Bernie that the rich skew our political process in ways that increase general suffering and inequality. But I don’t think that saying that wealth is a character defect is either very accurate or very helpful except perhaps to galvanize people on the left to hate the rich.

I think that the wealthy should be much more heavily taxed on income and accumulated wealth, not because they’re evil but because it gives these individuals too much power and deprives too many others of theirs.

I think that corporations should not have individual rights because that gives them too much power.

I think that some monopolistic corporations should be broken up in some cases because that gives them too much power to stifle competition, charge unreasonable prices and influence our political processes. (I think some monopolies, particularly regulated ones, do provide a benefit that only monopolies can provide.)

My $0.02

Up next Barry Saunders I went to Denise Allen’s exhibit this afternoon at the Carrboro Century Center, where Ms Allen gave a wonderful talk about her life and work. In the Heather Cox Richardson on the Democratic nominating process 2020-03-05-Heather-Cox-Richardson source There is a lot of news about both the novel coronavirus and politics tonight, but I’m going to let it rest
Latest posts Timothy Snyder’s History of Ukraine Fake Email Senders More on language learning Effect and Cause Soros is my Co-Pilot Note à une chère amie Arnold Schwarzenegger Why Purim upsets me I was a Programmer Who Swore Constantly I perceive new things as my nerves slow down B&N’s new president Learning French with the FSI Method Release time Xtian education in public school The Bastard! He doesn’t exist! I used to have so much fun cutting pictures and words out of magazines and newspapers Photoshop brushes drive me crazy! I warn people about confusing Dropbox behavior 2022-01-12 Tunisia’s spicy Harissa gets UNESCO heritage status Today is Thanksgiving 2022, aka Turkey Day. Proposed Driving Itinerary of the Cathar Region How you know when your volleyball-playing days are over Saeed Jones Why history moves in cycles Shopping lists Frédéric Bruly Bouabré « L’alphabet de l’ouest africain » American Anti-Government sentiment Proof that the Earth’s Climate is Not Changing Our Poor Kitchen The NY Times has a Telegram channel Amazon loses my smile History versus the UNC Press fire of 1990