It remains striking to me that anybody could convince themselves that it's possible for any individual to deserve millions or billions of dollars, for any reason. To believe somehow all that money rightfully should belong to him because of something he personally did to earn it. As if one person could do anything so important all on his own to be entitled to that much money, when the opportunity cost of retaining all that money is to deprive others of basic necessities.
Of course, I think most people are dimly aware that's all nonsense. According to this view, the ballooning rise in profits since the 1970's is the natural outcome of certain individuals becoming exponentially more worthy of wealth, doing more and more of whatever they had been doing to deserve it before, while the entire working class made no improvements whatsoever to their worthiness. That's the logical implication of thinking all those riches are rightfully, deservedly the property of the few people who have them.
None of that can be defended, obviously, because what really happened is that wealth was generated in the same way it always is under capitalism, through exploitation. So, in a very real sense, there has always been ample justification to "get those bastards", because they never earned most of the money they possess.
I can see people deserving/earning millions, but not thousands of millions (billions). If you have enough to live out your natural life without financial worry, that should be enough. If you can assure the same for your immediate offspring, that's more than enough (and it will probably hurt them). I don't see anyone needing personal fortune of more than 10m, even with a large family.
That said, we're talking today's dollars. I just started looking at some FB clickbait about places you can "retire comfortably with just $200,000"... #2 was Costa Rica... Rent somewhere nice as low as $1200/mo, pay $10-15 for nice meals, $150/mo for State health insurance, plus transportation needs, utilities, insurance (if you own anything), entertainment/recreation* etc... anyhow I added it up in my head and unless that 200k is earning a really good return, you'd probably be on the street in 7-8 years. Welcome to retirement! A million bucks isn't what it used to be.
* (Surfboards look like they are running $700 for a decent basic custom board these days, to near $10k for an exotic. My first custom board by Renny Yater ran a hefty $110)
https://t.co/AL9q6yuBuH" referring to the Green New Deal, and how it might get to the House as early as next week.
thank you all for your continued support as we navigate and learn in these early days & beyond!… https://t.co/8pqP3mDl6N"
