Rich People are Evil

[Robovski]

I'm having to move as my landlord wants to do something else with the house (that is use it herself); I could totally use $100,000.00 instead of finding a place before getting that money. Such an absurd amount of money would probably influence decisions barring other effects like rent inflation.

[TGLS]

Hopefully their not doing this.

[Robovski]

Hopefully their not doing this.

The landlord is a relative and she's divorcing, and her soon to be ex is pressing on the conditions she is providing for her kids when they are to stay there. So she needs the room I rent in that house (used to have the whole house but I started splitting with her when they separated). So I'm on the outside and it's fine, her kids make way too much noise for me working at home anyway so I'm getting an apartment while I settle my long separated international divorce before joining my serious gf in LA.

Life is complicated; but it'd be much easier with $100,000.00 instead of having to budget my new place and wait out this divorce in Tucson. But then my ex would probably want a lot of that money too instead of just my half of our house in Scotland...

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

This took a surprisingly personalized turn.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Jeff Bezos could end homelessness by giving every homeless person $100k and it would take less than 1% of the money he owns. But he doesn't. Because he's evil and worthless.

Your moral opinion aside, there are a few practical problems with that. Most homeless are temporarily homeless, meaning all those homeless would be met by another set of homeless. But he can just keep giving away money, right? Well, Mr. Bezos's net worth about $71 billion. Over the course of the year (October 2009 – September 2010), the 2010 Annual Homeless Assessment Report found that 1,593,150 individuals experienced homelessness. 1,593,150 people x $100,000 comes to 159,315,000,000, which is more than 1% of Mr. Bezos net worth, in the sense that $159 billion is more than 100% of $71 billion.

The number of chronically homeless people was about 123,000 in 2007, a more manageable figure. $100,000 x 123,000 would be $12,300,000,000, which is obviously more than 1% of $71 billion.

I stand corrected. My bad.

[ORCACommander]

No it would not be sexist as long as the woman received the same 100k.

another tangent on the homeless problem, give a person a house and now they are liable for the property taxes. Taxes that person may not have the means to pay.

I am sick of the argument of Stocks counting as money being used. If you are not buying stock from an IPO you are not helping any business. You are just playing stakes gambling that may offer quarterly dividends. Non government bonds i know next to nothing about so will not comment. Government issue bonds though are a good use of money since that is money that gets pooled into the general budget. So indirectly increasing funding for public works, infrastructures, education...

Personally, Why have any liquidity outside an emergency fund and a play/misc spending fund? that is just money that is not going to use.

[Nevix]

I disagree with the premise of this argument.

Rich people's choices on how to spend their money is their own choice. That they do not live up to someone else' standards of how much they should give, and where they should give, and what causes others feel they support does NOT make them evil.

It is not my business, nor is it your business, or ANYONE'S business to police how people spend their money and judge them upon not meeting a specific standard.

That is, in my view, a form of Envy, Wrath, and a certain amount of misplaced Pride, which is a very toxic combination.

Also, if a rich man buys a Ferrari instead of donating to an indiegogo, the Ferrari Company gets that money, and uses it to pay for workers to build the car, maintenance on equipment to make that car, facility fees, the equipment itself for manufacturing, and a host of other interconnected payments for that.

If they save their money, the bank gets that much money to leverage for more business transactions.

If they invest it, the companies that get the investment get that money to use to operate and pay workers, buy equipment, etc.

The ONLY rich people that we should be judging are ones who are scamming people, like Bernie Madoff, and a few others who have been proven to be scammers. Note: I say PROVEN, not simply accused. And that should also go through legal channels.

As long as they are doing business honestly, it's their money. It's better to focus on doing what you can, because focusing on the monetary choices of others is primarily going to frustrate you and make you rage at people you don't have much control over, if any control at all.

It's much better to focus on and be happy with what YOU can do, even if that is only a little each month, and retweets/shares for people you want to help, as that's how YOU can do good.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Nevix, the company will likely not use that money to pay workers. Only a tiny portion of the money large companies have go to their workers. The money goes to benefit shareholders. This is so commonplace that shareholders in an airline actually complained about the outrage of money going to labor first instead of them.

It is their choice how to spend that money, and that choice reveals their moral character. I am judging them by what they choose to do, and what they choose not to do. If you walk past a man passed out drunk who is choking to death own his own vomit, and don't even try to roll him onto his side to prevent that, you are an evil person.

The rich person chooses to buy a Ferrari...even though they have a private garage full of Ferraris they never use, while people die in faling cars because they can't afford to get them repaired or miss a single day of work. They buy houses many of which they will barely live in, even though they already have plenty of vast mansions, while the homeless die in the cold. They benefit massively from a society that they contribute so little to, when they have so much power.

No empathy. No compassion. No sense of fairness or justice.

[Karha of Honor]

I disagree with the premise of this argument.

Rich people's choices on how to spend their money is their own choice. That they do not live up to someone else' standards of how much they should give, and where they should give, and what causes others feel they support does NOT make them evil.

It is not my business, nor is it your business, or ANYONE'S business to police how people spend their money and judge them upon not meeting a specific standard.

That is, in my view, a form of Envy, Wrath, and a certain amount of misplaced Pride, which is a very toxic combination.

Also, if a rich man buys a Ferrari instead of donating to an indiegogo, the Ferrari Company gets that money, and uses it to pay for workers to build the car, maintenance on equipment to make that car, facility fees, the equipment itself for manufacturing, and a host of other interconnected payments for that.

If they save their money, the bank gets that much money to leverage for more business transactions.

If they invest it, the companies that get the investment get that money to use to operate and pay workers, buy equipment, etc.

The ONLY rich people that we should be judging are ones who are scamming people, like Bernie Madoff, and a few others who have been proven to be scammers. Note: I say PROVEN, not simply accused. And that should also go through legal channels.

As long as they are doing business honestly, it's their money. It's better to focus on doing what you can, because focusing on the monetary choices of others is primarily going to frustrate you and make you rage at people you don't have much control over, if any control at all.

It's much better to focus on and be happy with what YOU can do, even if that is only a little each month, and retweets/shares for people you want to help, as that's how YOU can do good.

What about judging crony capitalists?

Also i would like to see some more activity to deescalate the culture wars as noblesse oblige.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

It's much better to focus on and be happy with what YOU can do, even if that is only a little each month, and retweets/shares for people you want to help, as that's how YOU can do good.

And to an extent, I'm doing that. I honestly don't know where next month's rent is going to come from, but I still make sure to donate to relevant nonprofits during my holy days, even if it's just twelve bucks, or five bucks. I signal boost friends and strangers who have been cast into peril by a broken down car, a rise in the price of insulin, or who are living with an abusive father who beats them and threatens to kill their cat because it's the only way they can survive, and sometimes I break down and toss a few dollars their way. On the rare times where I have some stable, above-subsistence level source of income, I donate a fixed percent of that on top of everything else.

But it's sort of because of that, I am so frustrated for rich people. I feel worried and guilty about buying a slice of pizza when I'm hungry on a downtown errand, even necessities feel like overly expensive luxuries, I want to do so much more and help so much more and I still feel the pain when I give $12 to fix the environment that a very small portion of the population have fucked up for profit. And here these people are sitting on their piles of wealth, with cars they will never drive and houses they don't use, pushing money into lobbyists to make sure even more of it filters back into their coffers and fighting against the human rights of the people who sling their lates and raise their children and grow their food. The chronically ill, abuse survivor, starving artist friend I have...they could buy that person a house and cover their food and medical bills for life and literally not even notice the difference in their quality of life. They make more over one paid lunch break than I ever will in my entire life, no matter how hard I strive.

That's what REALLY pisses me off. I try to help people, I want to help people, but I am so limited in my power, and those who have the power to affect REAL, large-scale change...sit on it and do nothing, or hurt them even more.