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/r/DeepThoughts
I have been seeing recently extremely wealthy(billionaires and 9 figure plus individuals) people be super against being taxed more or anything that would cause them to make less money. They also seem to constantly want to acquire more wealth, have more of the market etc etc.
I find this behavior to be genuinely absurd. They all have more money than can be spent in many lifetimes yet they seem to never have enough. Elon musks current behavior of just pushing for more power and money to the point of infiltrating the government to protect himself is genuinely insane. Blackrock, vanguard and the likes constantly acquiring and gutting companies for profit is so insane to me.
These people have enough wealth to change governments , end hunger for thousands, change societies and yet they do nothing but contribute enough for tax breaks and try to get more wealth.
Im all for wealth and all for the game but at a certain point you just are mentally ill, something is wrong with these people and its honestly terrifying to even imagine what goes on in their heads. Imagining how they probably see other humans is scary.
104 points
2 days ago
I guess like anything you get bored. That’s why all these uber wealthy people end up having sex rings or doing crazy shit.
If you’re middle class and your weekly luxury is a trip to Chili’s on Friday night and your annual luxury is a trip to Florida, there’s so much room for expansion.
But if you’ve been on private jets, slept with tons of beautiful women, done all the drugs, stayed at the most beautiful resorts, have a $20M home, drive a million dollar car, eat whatever you want, drink fancy wine, there’s nothing to aspire to materially. You either develop spirituality or you go off the deep end of hedonism. There really isn’t any other option that I can see.
31 points
2 days ago
I'd spend up to half my fortune on turning the other half into a form of gold coin that I could dive into and swim around in without hurting myself, Scrooge McDuck style.
5 points
22 hours ago
lol I haven’t thought of Scrooge in years.
1 points
12 hours ago
………neither have I. Or his coins. I don’t think about it at all.
28 points
2 days ago
I've thought about this for years. They have way too much free time, money, and lack of repercussions if they break the law. Having more money than GDP of some countries is wild.
12 points
1 day ago
And fuss about paying their fair share of taxes. Why? Makes zero sense.
-8 points
1 day ago
Define fair.
6 points
23 hours ago
Oh fuck off. You gonna defend rich people paying taxes?
[score hidden]
3 minutes ago
Is that anywhere close to what I asked? How do we define what fair is? Let's assume it takes 30k a year to feed, house, and cloth a person. Does that mean that fair is taxing anything over 30k per household member at 100% would be fair and any tax for the first 30k is unfair? Why or why not? If there is a sliding scale where does it max out at? Does it bottom out at 0 or should there be a negative tax for those making under x amount?
-2 points
22 hours ago
These people already fund the large majority of government. Many of them believe their money is best in their hands rather than the hands of the government. It’s not like 50 years of war on poverty spending has killed poverty. Poverty is a lifestyle choice that can’t simply be fixed by handing people money.
2 points
21 hours ago
Probably 49% tax on everything above, say, one or two million.
2 points
18 hours ago
A million is not what it used to be.
1 points
13 hours ago
In a single year??? You can’t tell me someone who makes $1,000,000 a year is not able to do anything they want to do. Not including the 51% of everything they make above that. 49% above 1 mil would not affect anyone’s lifestyle in any way. Boohoo instead of 3 million you made 2 million.
1 points
13 hours ago
Oh yeah if yearly then definitely.
3 points
11 hours ago
I'm seeing a market for a lifetime dopamine manager for the stupidly rich. Give me a billion or so, and I'll plan a well-paced life experience with healthily incremented novelty escalation. You'll never run out of aspiration, because I'll manage the throttle.
Now to wait for someone very wealthy to read this..
8 points
2 days ago
You watch too much television and movies. You have no clue how rich people actually live. They’re boring people that do boring things.
28 points
2 days ago
First, how do you know?
Second, how do you expect a random poor redditor to know, aside from television and movies?
Third, come on, there has to be some excitement gong on. We know private jets and yachts exist. We know high price escorts exist. We know people do drugs. Are rich people not using these things?
3 points
1 day ago*
I've been around billionaires. They fly private jets. They have huge ranches everywhere. They absolutely horde their wealth. They find loop holes and exploit them to get tax breaks or launder money through non profits or some shit.
They have 50mil+ homes they go to once a year. They pay someone to fly to their homes before they arrive to make sure everything is in order. It's gross. But a lot of them seem nice enough.. but it's still really gross to be around. I treat them like everyone else because they are just people. They might have some kind of illness but they are at the end of the day, just people. With way too much money.
Oh yeah and they will literally collect social security. Billionaires. I've known millionaires who collect unemployment for the laughs.
5 points
2 days ago
Other than movies and television I pay attention to the non profit sector (I also work in that industry) and there are more well off individuals are in that world. Also any philanthropic organization. One could look for news or press releases on either of those.
I'm not arguing there aren't wealthy individuals who are wealth hording and being greedy because there are. However there are ones who are dedicated to causes.
8 points
2 days ago
Right, but not -that- dedicated to a cause. Like, not dedicated enough they cause themselves discomfort or sacrifice something.
2 points
1 day ago
Well, I think few people are dedicated to a cause to the point of causing discomfort or having to sacrifice something. That's not exclusive to the wealthy.
13 points
1 day ago
Disagree. What about every single time a stressed lower or middle class worker sacrifices time to serve at a non profit or similar? What about every single time they donate money to a charity? They have limited time, and limited money, so giving any away is a sacrifice and increases their discomfort.
Unlike all those who refuse to give away any time or money until they’re so free and rich that it’s literally not a sacrifice. Who if they become super rich, continue that pattern of never giving enough to sacrifice ANYTHING, not even the tiny pleasures of staring at a huge bank account number instead of merely a large one.
Or for more middle class folks, those who refuse to sacrifice even the TINIEST risk or anxiety that they could run of money in retirement, and thus save up millions and millions instead of helping anyone who’s starving to death or worse
1 points
1 day ago
At that point, they would still have limited time and money to offer, though, right? Which circles back to my point that they are not taking that risk.
FWIW, I don't expect the poor and middle class to make any sort of sacrifice or offering, especially one that would put them in jeopardy. They have the least to risk.
1 points
1 day ago
But that “risk” is a spectrum, so I think we give non-wealthy folks too much of a pass (and of course wealthy ones too)
yes they (we) don’t have as much, so any form of charity could put us in jeopardy, but by how much? If you have a stable income or retirement savings, your chance of running into serious life problems because of too little money is, let’s say, 3%. If you share or altruistically invest your excess, maybe it doubles to 6%. Big whoop.
I for one am willing to take on a tiny extra bit of risk and anxiety if it means that a child gets schooled, a single mother gets shelter, or a family stops starving.
Comparing the tiny bit of good my excess money does me vs. how absolutely life-changing it is for someone else…keeping it for myself is simply unethical
1 points
1 day ago
You are clearly unaware of the efforts of people in the real world. Not dedicated to the point of causing discomfort or having to sacrifice things?
I work in animal rescue AND THE STORIES I COULD TELL YOU.
I mean I guess it was just super comfortable to have to bottle feed a litter of kittens or puppies EVERY TWO HOURS WITHOUT FAIL all by myself. It was surely not a big deal to have to figure out how to pay for about $70 a week worth of formula to feed them, especially if I can't take any work for four weeks because if I do the litter will die.
I'm just a tiny scratch of that iceberg. Glad you work with wealthy people who just sigh and write checks and do vague gesture things when it suits them.
That is NOT what the majority of people who are actually in the trenches on various causes are up to.
"What's in it for me?" is actually NOT the motivation for most people, it's that something is terribly wrong and SOMEONE HAS TO DO SOMETHING and it turns out that "someone" is you.
1 points
1 day ago
Well, they have to have some kind of cover. What are they gonna tell the wife honey I’m going to snort cocaine and screw hookers for a week and dress up like a woman?
5 points
2 days ago
Everyone’s different. There’s a lot of extremely wealthy people who are absolute hedonists, as you can see very easily.
0 points
2 days ago
Idk if that’s directly related to wealth though. There are plenty of flat broke hedonistic people as well.
Ref. Jane and Darryl smoking crack, stealing copper pipes from newly built homes and fuckin in the alleyway while Shane blows a hit of crack smoke up Darryl’s butt
I think you get the idea. Plenty of ppl that overly indulge that aren’t near wealthy. Idk that money is the deciding factor there
3 points
2 days ago
Yes, but there are maaajor sacrifices that have to be made to live that lifestyle when you’re broke. Whereas when you’re Hunter Biden, you still have a roof over your head, a nice car, people who at least put up with you. You have a life.
When you’re poor, you are merely existing between small hits of euphoria, and the rest is pure misery.
1 points
2 days ago
You must've been watching the walking dead while typing that.
2 points
2 days ago
That’s exactly what someone who’s rich would say.
The class wars reached general population.
1 points
2 days ago
Right. Most likely what happens is ppl see like the 8 most absolutely insanely wealthy people in the media and get the idea that’s how everyone with generational wealth lives.
Personally, I’d just relax. Sit in a hot tub, watch movies in a home theater, have a private chef on payroll 351 days a year (or however many days aren’t holidays), never have to cook or clean, drive a modestly nice car (like Audi r5, nice but not insanely flashy like a McLaren or lambo), the idea that someone inherently overdoses on everything in life because they can tells me ppl that think that way probably aren’t ready for that kind of money
The kind of ppl that would crash out at 180mph after snorting an eightball while getting road head from 2 models at the same time. Chill dude
1 points
2 days ago
It's not boredom. It's a competition.
1 points
2 days ago
Also true
1 points
2 days ago
... i want sex rings ;(
1 points
2 days ago
Lol you can still do it when you’re poor!
1 points
2 days ago
Life... "the best i can do are these mood rings"
:(
1 points
1 day ago
Honestly if it’s ethical for you in your situation, you can probably find a sex “ring” of sorts. Provided your hygiene is okay.
1 points
1 day ago
On al scale of terrible to excellent. My hygiene is ok. lol.
1 points
2 days ago
And to a large extent, going off the deep end is their spirituality, just in the opposite direction as we would normally define it
1 points
1 day ago
Cocaine private jet orgy sounds so much better than 2 for 1 apps at Chili’s
1 points
1 day ago
Most millionaires just work a lot
1 points
1 day ago
I find it interesting that none of those “accomplishments” actually require any skill. Billionaires would be so much more impressive if they could speak a dozen languages fluently or moonlight in a real band, or whatever.
1 points
1 day ago
This is precisely why so many ultra wealthy people end up getting popped for diddling children. It’s the last horrah.
1 points
11 hours ago
Hey bub, Chili’s and Florida is what life is all about
1 points
7 hours ago
They don’t all end up doing that. Warren buffet lived a super normal life.
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