• WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Oh, it’s so much worse than that. They are rational actors. Terrifyingly rational actors.

    Once you get past a certain amount of wealth, the only purpose of money is status, prestige, and power. Imagine you gave Elon Musk two choices, two different worlds he could live in:

    1. A world where he had 200 billion and everyone else had 10 million.

    2. A world where had 100 billion and everyone else had 100,000.

    He would choose the first option. Why? Because status. In a world where everyone was independently wealthy, he wouldn’t have people fawning over him all the time. Few people would willingly work for him, as they already had all of their their needs met. In order to really enjoy his billions, he needs millions of poor desperate people he can exploit for labor and adoration.

    Milton figured this out in Paradise Lost way back in the 17th century.

    “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      I don’t disagree with anything you said, except your classification of those actions as rational. I think framing the world and responding to it the way you described is completely irrational.