I have pretty much zero problem with someone like Musk being a Billionare.
Most billionaires made their money in finance or via generational wealth. Seeing a scrappy immigrant (Even with a $200k business loan) go from practically nothing to the richest man in the world, while doing things that actually have a positive impact on society is pretty much the epitome of the American Dream.
"Scrappy immigrant" whose father was a half-owner of an emerald mine in Zambia. I can't think of a more on-the-nose example of the evils of generational wealth.
Probably less than 0,1 per cent of his net worth today. Possibly less than 0,01 per cent.
Multiplying your net worth by a factor of several thousand is fairly rare, regardless of the circumstances you start in. Most people can't do it, even if they start reasonably well off. For example, Musk's own brother Kimbal couldn't.
> Multiplying your net worth by a factor of several thousand is fairly rare, regardless of the circumstances you start in
lol. No it isn't, maybe if you are born wealthy, but plenty of people have a negative net worth at 20 (no savings yet and student/car loans) and are home owners by 40.
Fair enough. But you are basically agreeing with me that those with non-trivial positive net worth in their youth will find multiplying it by several thousand times harder.
And we should rule out massive inheritance to be fair, too. That can cause sudden large jumps in net worth.
A person having 10 000 USD in their youth (far from wealthy, just not poor) would need to aggregate something like 50 million USD in their fifties. Possible, but rare.
Your phrasing here is odd -- is it a moral wrong to have lots of money? Does having lots of money change the amount someone should be defended on arbitrary issues?
In the context of our society and with "lots" meaning billions - yes it is immoral. I'm sure we've all seen a number of graphics/chats/whatever trying to show wealth inequality, but this is the best one I've come across. Would recommend giving it a look and then asking yourself if having a lot of money isn't immoral.
Billionaires have far more rights than normal people. Their wealth affords those rights to them. "Rights" without ability to achieve actual results is just bullshit meant to placate the rabble.
What does it mean to talk about rights? Who cares if I have the “right” to buy twitter and change the way the entire world talks to each other when I have no earthly chance of ever doing it?
