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While Musk is undeniably a massive dickhead, let’s not devalue space exploration because of him. Many things we rely on today such as GPS, certain types of medical treatments and drugs, even eye surgery, were only possible due to the advancement of space technology.
Rocketships don’t help people directly, but for isntance, they put satelites in orbit that help farmers have a more precise control and understanding over their crops, putting more food on our plates.
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It is a meritocracy … whoever can be the most ruthless, greedy, selfish, egotistical, ignorant, arrogant, immoral, unethical and wicked can more easily become enormously wealthy.
For someone with a bit of ability, knowledge and training, they can easily make thousands fleecing the elderly, poor people, widows, or the mentally challenged. It takes a really ruthless person to do it but it is relatively easy money.
You can also become a drug dealer and buy trade and sell illegal, immoral and life destroying drugs and easily make a lot of money fast.
Someone in a developing country can also start a small business based on slave labor, children or indentured workers paid little or no money.
And that’s just the bottom of the barrel. Professionals in first world countries deal with these people to generate wealth for themselves. Then billionaires sit on top making more money on those below them … all the wealth if you follow it is based on taking advantage of weaker individuals. The whole system is based on taking advantage of lesser people.
It’s a meritocracy … a meritocracy of immortality, whoever can become the most depraved gets to win the world.
EDIT: … it’s amazing because I just finished watching this the other night
https://youtu.be/-FcRj3HHS7I?si=-7hua35Ad3npmsoo
Basically a con artist that stole money from elderly, physically disabled and mentally challenged people, made millions and now lives the lap of luxury outside the country and no one can do anything about it. The infuriating part of it is, it wasn’t just him, there was a whole chain of lawyers, bankers, financial people and professionals that either enabled him, supported him or just allowed him to do what he did because everyone was making money … off of poor people!
The rich don’t magically get rich by being nice to others … they get rich because they abandoned their morals a long time ago and collect their money from as many poor people as possible, either directly, indirectly, secretly or distantly. And the wealthier they become, the more easily it is for them to do it and get away with it.
The system is built for abuse and moral depravity … is it any wonder we are destroying ourselves little by little.
While the system does select for psychopathic behaviors, it’s not a meritocracy because you don’t need to be exceptional at being ruthless, greedy, selfish, egotistical, ignorant, arrogant, immoral, unethical and wicked to become enormously wealthy. There are plenty of deplorable people who never make it big under capitalism. It’s mostly just a birth lottery. People who are lucky enough to be born into money, who end up having family connections, and are plugged into the oligarchy are the ones who statistically make it.
And there are actual studies showing that luck is the major factor
Seriously. Jeff Bezos got super-rich by literally being bad at his job.
How?
He was VP of a hedge fund, and assigned the project of investigating the potential of online commerce on the nascent Web by the company. He did so, and concluded that there was enormous potential, but after his report, the company decided to pass on it.
Clearly, he was right about the potential. If he’d been better at his job/more persuasive, D.E. Shaw & Co. would have invested in the Web, and he would not have had reason to leave and start Amazon.
That’s a pretty stupid conclusion to draw. You have no idea why the hedge fund passed on the investment, and the only reason you conclude it’s because Bezos was bad at his job is because you personally don’t like him. And more to the point, because you want to get upvoted in this thread.
It’s just an amateurish, embarrassing argument. If you want to skewer billionaires there are plenty of legitimate gripes, but it’s self-evident that most billionaires are pretty damn good at their jobs, hence the success. Sure they’re also lucky and privileged, but there are tons of other people with the same privileges that accomplish nothing.
This meme is just pure brain rot tbh. Do better Lemmy 😤
I don’t know who or what hurt you, but I hope tomorrow is better.
Fuck off bootlicker
I mean the super rich generally did a lot of things on their way there. The wake up call is usually around the things they do and people they exploit, not equating the difference to dumb luck.
Millionaires often worked for their money. Billionaires often worked for their first millions too. Problem is, difference between a billion and a million is about a billion.
On the other side of the argument, the amount of people that work harder and smarter than any given billionaire and have nothing is simply staggering. If it wasn’t down to luck, they’d all be billionaires.
So yeah, it is dumb luck. Randomness is not uniform, and someone ends up being close to the time and place of a local spike.
Except life is much more complicated than that.
Working hard and being smart doesn’t equal to having lots of money.
Luck also doesn’t equal having lots of money. How many “lucky” people have won the jack pot? And lost it all in a manner of months/years?
Not saying luck doesn’t play a part maybe even a huge part but it just seems silly to attribute someone’s success to luck.
Please reflect on the fact that until you joined the discussion, we didn’t talk about equating success to luck.
Afterwards, you will likely notice that your jackpot argument reinforces mine.
Please reflect on the fact that until you joined the discussion,
Please lets not be condescending here. I will rephrase, instead of success I will say wealth. I used the two interchangeably as many people judge your success based on your wealth.
we didn’t talk about equating success to luck.
Didn’t you say this here.
On the other side of the argument, the amount of people that work harder and smarter than any given billionaire and have nothing is simply staggering. If it wasn’t down to luck, they’d all be billionaires.
Wealth itself is a stronger predictor for future wealth than individual performance.
That quote of mine doesn’t talk about success, nor wealth itself for that matter. You’re ignoring everything in the message to argue against a statement that was never made in the first place.
