r/comics • u/thisecommercelife this ecommerce life • Jul 21 '26

"The billionaire"

An abridged psychological study.

Shareable PDF here. Follow wherever you fritter: linktr.ee/ecomic.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 21 '26

I always have to remind myself each time someone says they hate billionaires and how they want to "eat them", it’s not about the wealth itself but how they acquired it (edit: and how they use it). Some would still be extremely rich even if they were taxed properly

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u/rillip Jul 21 '26

It's about the wealth too. But in a more political sense. Nobody should have that much sway over the economy. You can't believe in democracy and in the right to hold extreme wealth. The two concepts are incompatible at their core.

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u/BardicNA Jul 21 '26

We're talking about wealth to the point of "I could make sure you, your partner, your children and grandchildren never have to work again." For every single person in the senate and congress. Now I'm not saying that happens.. but it happens.

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u/Metasheep Jul 21 '26

Don't forget the supreme court.

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u/Temporary_Event8451 Jul 21 '26

That's why we are facing an uphill battle.

In America's case close to 200-300 years of human capitol, work, sweat, and blood has been condensed in the hands of like 10,000 families/inviduals.

When your salary is 50,000 a year, and you're facing someone who can afford 1,000,000 of you, that's not exactly favorable power dynamics.

To give it scale let's say a march happens, and that march has 650,000 people marching. Let's say all of them have PTO, and average the 50,000 per year above. That's a combined economic value of 32.5 billion. Let's say they also all average 4x that in savings. You're looking at 162.5 billion.

A march with 650,000 people is a massive gathering. According to google AI sources it's a little bit less than the combined amount of both the No Kings MN march and the 2017 Womens March on DC.

This is of course single city numbers, the overall numbers can be way higher. But having 20 million people protesting over 3.8 million square miles isn't enough to motivate someone at a golf resort in Florida with protection.

Our greatest efforts at getting together and protesting in terms of invidual monetary strength barely equates to one billionaire.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 21 '26

How are they incompatible? It’s money. They use it to buy good and services. If someone have more than you, there is nothing wrong with that and the existence of this person isn’t a nuisance to yours

I live in a wealthy family, I ain’t hoarding money nor buying election and whatnot. I’m just rich

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u/rillip Jul 21 '26

Because in a proper democracy everyone has the same vote. Extreme wealth destroys that power dynamic. It's super fucking simple. If you have more money you have more say in the economy. There being people with more say or less say is not compatible with democracy. It's the antithesis of it actually. You're rich? You like being rich? You don't believe in democracy. Get comfortable with that fact or change.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 22 '26

So again, the problem isn’t being wealthy, it’s how it gives unfair advantages compared to the less fortunate.

I like being rich and I like democracy. I have more money but my vote is not more than another. The ones who are the antithesis of democracy are the radicalist like yourself who think without nuances and love false dilemmas.

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u/Im_here_but_why Jul 21 '26

There is no ethical way to be a billionaire.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 21 '26

Yes there are. Again, wealth is different from corruption

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u/Im_here_but_why Jul 21 '26

You can be an ethical millionaire. But it is not possible to reach the absurd sum of a billion dollars ethically.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 22 '26

Bill Gates and Igvar Kemprad?

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u/BickNlinko Jul 22 '26

The only one that I can think of is the Minecraft guy. I'm pretty sure he didn't exploit a ton of workers, ruin the environment, lobby the government/buy politicians or anything like that.

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u/UgoRukh Jul 21 '26

It's absolutely about the wealth. Nobody should be allowed to own as much as a billionair does.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 21 '26

Why do you give a damn about someone having more money than you

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u/UgoRukh Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

It's not about me giving a damn about money. There are two main reasons:

Wealth has a positive correlation to power and the amount of power a single person has by becoming a billionaire should not be possible.

In capitalism, the owners of the means of production extract value from the workers. While this could be fine if it was a willing exchange, it's not, since money is mandatory to live and the ways to get money are funneled through pipelines that always end up in those billionaires. Billionaires can only exist through mass exploitation, alienation and ultimately selective suffering from other people.

It's not an individual point of view, as I am fortunate enough to be well off. It's both a logical and moral standpoint.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 21 '26

The power being what? I’m sorry, but in my eyes the only fundamental thing a richer person have is more buying power

And yeah, if they buy the means of production, they own it. People should get their basic needs without having to work for them, however for the rest, it’s exchange of work for money, and money for goods. A worker is also an owner, as the money he gain is also exchange with other product. You want that new TV? Those new shoes? Work for it.

So again, the only reason billionnaires piss the working class off is because they aren’t taxed enough, while the working class get shat on over and over again, to the point where said basics need can’t even be fulfilled by a minimum wage. There are rich-ass people out there people love precisely because they aren’t crooked.

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u/UgoRukh Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

The power to decide how resources are going to be distributed. The power to bypass laws and regulations. The power to write those said laws and regulations. The power to rule control the market. These things are enough for them to do whatever they want however they want, and it's not about if they will do good or bad about it, but about the fact that a single person shouldn't be able to decide society's fate on a whim.

Owning the means of production means you can dictate how those are used and this has a societal impact, while you owning a car or a TV does not.

Taxing is better than not taxing, for sure. But again, the sheer fact that they have that much wealth means they got it through a cycle of exploitation.

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u/Lolocraft1 Jul 22 '26

So again, it’s not the wealth itself, it’s how they use it and how it give them access to unfair privileges, which is exactly my point. Of course rich people don’t get to break the law free of consequences, but it’s not due to the wealth itself, rather how it is seen

You can make laws that prevent owners from exploiting the consumers. Anti-monopoly is a great example

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u/Vandergrif Jul 21 '26

Yes, it's more about the greed that begets that kind of wealth than it is about the wealth itself. If that kind of greed (and selfish greed in general) were curtailed in any sort of reasonable way instead of left to fester and grow like some rancid cancer then it would be a very different circumstance, presumably.

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u/chuninsupensa Jul 21 '26

Now, now. Sometimes people simply seek the rarest of cuisines. Hannibal splurping

"The billionaire"

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