Richest people in the world 1990-2020

Not exactly OT, but people I know on wealth.

My Mother said: "I don't like these self-made men. They think that just because they did it, anybody can."

Larry Niven dedicated his first book to his Grandfather "...who left me enough oil stock to live on for 18 months and pile up rejection slips until I sold a story."

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Originally Posted by jh9

You'd better be counting their money, because they're damn sure counting yours.

The growing and incomprehensible gulf between the average American and the swelling billionaire class didn't happen by accident. They're not going to stop until you're an indentured servant getting paid in company scrip.

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I doubt that outcome...

...and frankly, I'm a lot more concerned what our society would be like if the left gets to "redistribute" wealth. What could go wrong?

(And I want to see what motivation remains to take on highly complex, technical occupations when they are remunerated at the same rate as a supermarket stock boy.)

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Originally Posted by blues

I doubt that outcome...

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And yet, it's happened before. Company towns paying in scrip and private paramilitary violence against workers that got uppity aren't fiction.

It can absolutely happen again.

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(And I want to see what motivation remains to take on highly complex, technical occupations when they are remunerated at the same rate as a supermarket stock boy.)

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Extreme ends of the spectra aren't the only positions available. I'm certainly not advocating for Soviet style redistribution and collective ownership of everything. Even if I do prefer credit unions to banks and co ops to Wal Mart. But I am saying that left unchecked having individuals like Bezos become so wealthy they can, as individuals, exert more control over the levers of democracy than the people at large is going to be a problem.

If you want a case in point, go look at Washington State and I-1639 i.e. their version of a new assault weapons law. Scroll down the funding part where the largest donors were Paul Allen (Microsoft), The Hanauers (tech VC) and the Ballmers (also Microsoft) spending a total of $1.2 million among the 3 families. Compare that to the sum total donated to the opposition, where the largest donor-- the NRA-- spent $200k.

If you don't see that as a problem then IDK what to tell you.

I think I have a pretty good handle, (from both study and from employment), on the dangers facing society from the extremes.

And I'm not shy about sounding off about it either regardless of where it emanates from.