Yeah the point I was trying to get at is that he’s not wealthier than 140 countries.
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I fuckin’ knew it…
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The national bank of a rich country like Switzerland for instance, has an estimated wealth of 150 billions CHF in total assets. That’s one third of Musk’s wealth right now.
As a comparison, Pakistan’s National bank is at an estimated worth of 23 billions USD.
So, maybe he’s richer than 140 countries after all, in terms of total assets.
This is a fairly mainstream explanation for his trajectory as this was his jumping off point for getting involved in social issues so there was a notable public change in his behavior.
Ironically, he gets upset at people calling his company Twitter, but refuses to use his kid’s preferred name.
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That! Has to be AI generated right?
The shirt design and sponsors look dodgy!
Kill me now, if it is true! 
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Another billionaire… are they all like that?
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I’m not but then I’m not a billionaire either although I do aspire to be 
Buy United and cast them down to the 2nd division.
My theory is that you don’t get to be a billionaire without a certain degree of psychopathy.
It’s an immoral amount of money to be hoarded by one person, just having that kind of wealth while people are homeless, starving, displaced. Imagine the contortions and mental gymnastics you would have to go through to justify taking such a large slice of pie. Imagine how dehumanising it would be and lies about your fellow human beings you would have to convince yourself of.
I think to become a billionaire you would have to be detached from humanity in some way. You would have to be excusing yourself from the normal standards of morality and self reflection that keep the rest of us in check.
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If a millionaire spent his money at the consistent rate of £1 per second, it would take 11.5 days to exhaust his wealth.
If a billionaire did the same, it would take him 31 years to spend all his cash.
It would take Elon Musk 15,500 years.
And therein lies the problem. We are not capable, as a species, of visioning how much more a billion is than a million. We’re not very good at logarithmic thinking. We think a billion is sort of the next one up from a million. We don’t intuitively understand the magnitudes more it represents.
That’s why we tolerate these cunts.
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Tech Billionaires are a unique kind of fucked up.
The sector is still fairly young. Young enough that many of the early successful founders (defined as having got rich, not started companies we all know and use today) are not just still around, but created the entire ecosystem for start up and venture capital that the sector is built on today. There is an influential group of 5 or 6 of them who act as King Makers. They have heroic images of themselves and select their Kings based not on track records of success, great ideas, or great products, but based on who is able to present the heroic image of genius they have this picture of themselves of having been. So you end up with guys like Altman sucking off the Y Combinator tit for 15 years ruining everything he touches, but sounding confident and innovative as he does it. The company crumbles around him, but its structured so the people at the top still come out financially ahead and they then circle jerk each other marveling in their genius while planning what venture they can go and use their genius brains to accelerate (into the ground) next.
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Have you seen Glass Onion (sequel to Knives Out)? Does a good job at poking fun and the idiotic ‘disruptor’ crowd.
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I have, but I remember nothing at all about it other than Ed Norton is in it.
I have recommended some of his work before, but I’d highly Ed Zintron’s Better Offline work for anyone remotely interested in this stuff and he has a take down of the myth of Altman that is particularly excellent
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I don’t think we’ll tolerate them much longer tbh. There is a growing realisation of what you wrote above among the population, and their current arrogance might well be the first sign of their coming downfall. There will be a backlash at some point. All it needs is a few intelligent heads instrumentising the growing unease among the population, targeting them as the enemies, and using social media as they do, but in order to cultivate a sense of general hate against them. It coukld all go very fast if they aren’t careful. In the past, kings and queens ended being pilloried and killed by the populace, the same could happen to them.
The best scenario for everyone would of course be to tax them as they should be, but in some countries unwilling to do that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some billionaires’ heads on spikes in the future.
Tax them more for sure. But that ship has sailed in putting a stop to this. Only a massive socialist revolution will effect change. And it will have to be from the ground up because all governments and media outlets have been either bought or corrupted by the billionaires
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A wonderful quote. Things could be so much better if everyone lived up to it.
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I mostly agree with this, but I want to leave open the possibility for a benevolent billionaire. Hypothetically, let’s say I am a young entrepreneur, clever, working long hours, and I have an idea. I start a business and… KABOOM!
The whole thing takes off. I can barely keep up. I have a few bob, and I live well enough, but my money is tied up in stock for my business and my life and attention goes on building that business.
Now, because I am a benevolent person, I pay my workers really well. The sort of stuff you hear way too much about is not the culture at my business. It is actually a pleasant place to work, and very lucrative too for the best workers. I want them to win as well.
Fast forward a span of time. Now I am at a stage in life where I think about an even bigger picture. I’ve built a business, employed many people, treated them well, and I have become ridiculously rich doing that. I recognize my enormous privilege.
So now I make it my mission to give my wealth away. It needs a plan, and it is not as easy to do as people might think. But I am determined to do something about the causes that are dear to me (insert numerous things here).
I systematically reduce my holding in my company, sell it off, and give it away. I have to build an organization/foundation to do it well, and because of the sums of money involved, I actually employ quite a lot of people to help me give it away.
My children are not overlooked. They receive an inheritance so they are fine, but the vast majority of my wealth is not passed to them. The moral compass they got from me means they will live good and productive lives too. For all I know maybe they are involved in the foundation because they are excited about changing communities and lives with the resources we are able to give away.
Yes, hypothetical the whole thing…
But I see no problem with that, at all.
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[quote=“RedOverTheWater, post:563, topic:2396”]
I mostly agree with this, but I want to leave open the possibility for a benevolent billionaire.
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/buffett-refines-plans-his-fortune-donates-more-berkshire-shares-2024-11-25/#:~:text=N)%20%2C%20opens%20new%20tab%2C,two%20sons%20when%20he%20dies.
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Warren Buffet is a great example, thanks. Giving away 99.5% of his fortune. Well done that man. By all accounts he has lived a modest life along the way too.
On an anecdotal note, Mrs ROTW built up a little Pampered Chef business a few years ago. We got a few free trips out of it and a small residual income, and from time to time she touches it again as she loves the products and so on. She went to the leader conference in Chicago a couple of years ago and Warren Buffet was one of the speakers, as he actually purchased the whole company a while ago. My wife knew a few people who interacted with him (she did not personally) but they all reported how gracious and humble he was throughout, and how he had a lot of time for everyone, and was so down to earth and generally just made everyone feel like a million dollars.
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