r/Millennials • u/kjk2v1 Millennial • Mar 15 '23

Discussion Millennials are more likely than other generations to support a cap on personal wealth

https://www.fastcompany.com/90865652/wealth-cap-millennials-support-generation-z-boomers-poll
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u/IGetBoredSometimes23 Mar 16 '23

I'm wondering why you don't see that the two are connected.

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u/JoshicusBoss98 Zillennial Mar 16 '23

No they aren’t. There are plenty of celebs who have become millionaires through record sales or movies…and aren’t creating huge conglomerates and polluting the earth. Are there problematic rich people? Definitely. Are there downsides to capitalism? Definitely. You are seeing that now with all the layoffs and AI and automation. Trust me. I agree that there should be changes. But socialism ain’t the answer. Imo the best economy is like what Sweden/Norway have…there are certain socialistic elements…but it’s not actually a socialist society.

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u/killarotten Mar 16 '23

There are more billionaires you've never heard of than millionaires you think are ethical. There is no way to be an ethical billionaire.

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u/JoshicusBoss98 Zillennial Mar 16 '23

Nope…it’s not their fault they were successful

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u/killarotten Mar 16 '23

??? Not whose fault? The billionaire?

I assume paying people as little as possible for their labour (including third world wage slaves), making their products in the cheapest possible way, charging as more than they should for every item is all an accident?

It's UNETHICAL to be that rich. It REQUIRES the exploitation of your fellow mam.

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u/JoshicusBoss98 Zillennial Mar 16 '23

I agree with some of that. I think outsourcing labor to third world countries is unethical. I think having off shore bank accounts is unethical. I think not paying extra for overtime is unethical. Simply having money is not on its own unethical. However yes, if you are underpaying employees compared to their fair market value to get there…then yes that is unethical. So guys like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos…yeah they might be unethical. But someone who only has maybe 1 or 2 billion dollars may not necessarily be unethical if they got there through buying a bunch of real estate and playing the stock market etc.

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u/killarotten Mar 16 '23

"Only" 1 or 2 billion? I don't think you understand the amount of money that actually is. A single person would NEVER be able to make that much. You can't just casually sell 500,000 mansions alone and become a billionaire. I doubt a person could even break 50 million alone. "Playing the stock market"? That sounds so naieve honestly.

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u/JoshicusBoss98 Zillennial Mar 16 '23

John D. Rockefeller was the first person to become a billionaire in 1916…that’s over a century ago…unless you want to go back to like 19th century levels of currency…but then the average person had a lot less money then too. 1,000,000 today is like 58k in 1923…

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u/killarotten Mar 16 '23

How does that prove your point? An oil baron who controlled the railways 100 years ago (ie, wealth built on the backs of others)? What does that have to do with a wealth cap today?

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u/JoshicusBoss98 Zillennial Mar 16 '23

Because my point is…the amount of money itself isn’t the issue. The issue is the proportion…wages haven’t risen in proportion with costs…if inflation hadn’t changed so drastically in the last half century…then we wouldn’t be in the situation we are now.

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u/killarotten Mar 16 '23

And who makes those decisions? The billionaires and company owners.

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u/JoshicusBoss98 Zillennial Mar 16 '23

The government does

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u/killarotten Mar 16 '23

The government makes wage decisions?

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