I just looked at the list of the top ten billionaires. It includes: Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook (one hit wonder) Jeff Bezos: Amazon (one hit wonder) Bill Gates: Microsoft (one hit wonder) Larry Page: Google (one hit wonder)
Not a single one of these hit billionaire status via a one-hit-wonder. Every single one of them did so via a pattern of exploitation.
Sure, some of them might have had a one-hit-wonder that resulted in their first few million. But to keep climbing past a billion required steady, consistent, methodical, unethical exploitation and anti-competative practices. These are the poster-children for exploitative billionaires in our society.
You say that a small business can’t grow to be a multi-billion dollar business? Tell that to literally any of the above.
I didn’t say that. I said that (the overwhelming majority of) small businesses cannot become a billionaire company without a pattern of exploitation.
the only point I’m making is that it’s in fact possible to become a billionaire without exploiting other people’s labor…If we agree on that point, then we are fully in agreement.
Sure, it’s theoretically possible. But that might account for less than 1% of currently living billionaires, if any at all. Do we agree?
Heh Canonical is a funny example, considering most Linux users steer clear of it because of it’s arguably exploitative practices in an effort to remain profitable.
I do think most, if not all billionaires have convinced themselves the ends justify their means. Zuck thinks he’s “connecting the world”. Bezos probably thinks the same thing Sam Walton did. Musk thinks he’s ushering in the next stage of humanity. On some level I’m sympathetic to Ubuntu’s cause; all tech companies harvest your data for profit, why not leverage that technique in order to bootstrap the prevalence of a FOSS platform.
But the point is, that’s just what has to happen to amass that level of wealth in the society we live in. You can be as noble as you want, you can get lucky and find yourself in a pile of cash, but to steadily climb that ladder to the billion+ territory will require you to exploit or be exploited.
Absolutely I’m willing to agree to that.
I am only pushing back on the statement, “it is impossible to amass a billion dollars without exploiting the labor of the working class.”
I certainly don’t think that’s the majority of billionaires. If your definition of exploiting the labor of the working class includes “having any employees that aren’t part owners of the business,” then of course the number of billionaires who can say that is vanishingly small.
But they do in fact exist, and I think the majority of people are aware of that. Therefore, making statements like “all billionaires exploited labor” makes the average person think your position is uninformed at best and disingenuous at worst.
I think there is a slightly different claim we’re each making, and it’s confused by the term “billion”. I think we both agree that it’s an arbitrary value that was used in the interest of an oversimplified claim above, but I think we can disambiguate the points we’re making if we generalize it.
Your statement that “it is possible to be an X-aire without exploitation of the working class” is technically correct for the value of X=billion.
But I think the claim I’m making (and the oversimplified claim that was originally made) is that: for any given point in time, in any given capitalist society, there is a value X beyond which you cannot reliably amass and retain wealth without unethical exploitation.
The post above set X at a billion, maybe it’s not a billion, maybe it’s 100 billion. 100 years ago maybe it was 100 million, and in 100 years it’ll be 100 trillion. But the point is that there exists a value beyond which ONLY exploitative practices can get you; or in other words, you will never be the richest man in our late-stage capitalist society by winning the lottery or through steady, ethical investments.
Man, I feel like we reached an agreement and now you’re trying to walk it back. :P
And while I don’t necessarily disagree with the point you’re making, it feels like a setup to goal shift. Like, any example that gets brought up to counter the narrative can now just be dismissed as, “oh, but he’s not enough of a billionaire.”
And let’s be real, a billion dollars, right now, is almost certainly beyond that arbitrary dollar amount X you speak of. There’s only 3000 of them in the world! The *world! There’s 8 trillion of us. How much more selective do we need to be??
Yeah, I know it sounds like a goal post movement, but I didn’t make the original claim, and in fact thought the original claim was oversimplified, but that there was a truth to it. I think that in order to best illustrate that truth, “billion” had to be removed as it was a red herring.
And yeah the first half of it sounds like I’m setting a variable X, where X makes me right, but the fact that such an X exists is the point I’m making. If you agree then we’re on the same page. The alternate claim would be that it’s possible in our late stage capitalist society to be the richest person using purely ethical, non-exploitative means, which I don’t believe is possible. And for a value of X=a billion, I think it’s just very unlikely.
I mean, I certainly think it’s possible to become the richest man on earth through purely ethical means. It’s wildly, incredibly unlikely, but strictly possible.
You could become a recording artist that self publishes your own music, only distribute online, and become unprecedented levels of popular. Sell each mp3 for $5 and sell a few trillion of them.
Is that likely? Absolutely not. Exceedingly unlikely. But becoming a muliti-billionaire in general is exceedingly unlikely. This is one of the lesser likely ways for sure, but it’s fathomable, at least in the sense that it’s a coherent narrative that strictly could occur.
What about that scenario is strictly impossible?
Not vanishingly unlikely, but literally could not happen?
I assume you’re going for the “is it impossible, or just highly improbable” route again. Is the musician example intended to be something that is possible? Do you think that example is possible? I think that even healthy, sustainable competition would prevent that example from ever happening. Which is part of the point: if you only have ethically run businesses, you’ll always have healthy competition, and thus none of them can ever reach such an absurd amount of wealth over the others.
But let’s say you’re an unethical multi billion dollar corporation in the music industry whose bottom line is being impacted, and you’re willing to do whatever to get part of that. Let me ask you, what would you do to get your piece of the pie? Feel free to just look around for inspiration :(. You’d likely start by offering to buy them out. If they refuse you have several options: creating a copycat that sounds similar, but pump out 10x more tracks to flood the market, pay off all “radio stations” (whatever companies you pay to stream music in random stores and clubs, etc) to prioritize your music, pay SEO professionals to ensure your products appear before yours, pay lawyers to find something to litigate over to stun your ability to make any more music. Someone who is actually in the music industry could probably come up with better ideas than me, but the point is, a company willing and allowed to play unethically will always beat out the ones that aren’t.
Not a single one of these hit billionaire status via a one-hit-wonder. Every single one of them did so via a pattern of exploitation.
Sure, some of them might have had a one-hit-wonder that resulted in their first few million. But to keep climbing past a billion required steady, consistent, methodical, unethical exploitation and anti-competative practices. These are the poster-children for exploitative billionaires in our society.
I didn’t say that. I said that (the overwhelming majority of) small businesses cannot become a billionaire company without a pattern of exploitation.
Sure, it’s theoretically possible. But that might account for less than 1% of currently living billionaires, if any at all. Do we agree?
Tempting to agree on the less than 1%.
Regarding millionaires, not billionaires, I can only think of one who sold a business and then started a Linux distribution : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth
Heh Canonical is a funny example, considering most Linux users steer clear of it because of it’s arguably exploitative practices in an effort to remain profitable.
I do think most, if not all billionaires have convinced themselves the ends justify their means. Zuck thinks he’s “connecting the world”. Bezos probably thinks the same thing Sam Walton did. Musk thinks he’s ushering in the next stage of humanity. On some level I’m sympathetic to Ubuntu’s cause; all tech companies harvest your data for profit, why not leverage that technique in order to bootstrap the prevalence of a FOSS platform.
But the point is, that’s just what has to happen to amass that level of wealth in the society we live in. You can be as noble as you want, you can get lucky and find yourself in a pile of cash, but to steadily climb that ladder to the billion+ territory will require you to exploit or be exploited.
Absolutely I’m willing to agree to that.
I am only pushing back on the statement, “it is impossible to amass a billion dollars without exploiting the labor of the working class.”
I certainly don’t think that’s the majority of billionaires. If your definition of exploiting the labor of the working class includes “having any employees that aren’t part owners of the business,” then of course the number of billionaires who can say that is vanishingly small.
But they do in fact exist, and I think the majority of people are aware of that. Therefore, making statements like “all billionaires exploited labor” makes the average person think your position is uninformed at best and disingenuous at worst.
I think there is a slightly different claim we’re each making, and it’s confused by the term “billion”. I think we both agree that it’s an arbitrary value that was used in the interest of an oversimplified claim above, but I think we can disambiguate the points we’re making if we generalize it.
Your statement that “it is possible to be an X-aire without exploitation of the working class” is technically correct for the value of X=billion.
But I think the claim I’m making (and the oversimplified claim that was originally made) is that: for any given point in time, in any given capitalist society, there is a value X beyond which you cannot reliably amass and retain wealth without unethical exploitation.
The post above set X at a billion, maybe it’s not a billion, maybe it’s 100 billion. 100 years ago maybe it was 100 million, and in 100 years it’ll be 100 trillion. But the point is that there exists a value beyond which ONLY exploitative practices can get you; or in other words, you will never be the richest man in our late-stage capitalist society by winning the lottery or through steady, ethical investments.
Man, I feel like we reached an agreement and now you’re trying to walk it back. :P
And while I don’t necessarily disagree with the point you’re making, it feels like a setup to goal shift. Like, any example that gets brought up to counter the narrative can now just be dismissed as, “oh, but he’s not enough of a billionaire.”
And let’s be real, a billion dollars, right now, is almost certainly beyond that arbitrary dollar amount X you speak of. There’s only 3000 of them in the world! The *world! There’s 8 trillion of us. How much more selective do we need to be??
Yeah, I know it sounds like a goal post movement, but I didn’t make the original claim, and in fact thought the original claim was oversimplified, but that there was a truth to it. I think that in order to best illustrate that truth, “billion” had to be removed as it was a red herring.
And yeah the first half of it sounds like I’m setting a variable X, where X makes me right, but the fact that such an X exists is the point I’m making. If you agree then we’re on the same page. The alternate claim would be that it’s possible in our late stage capitalist society to be the richest person using purely ethical, non-exploitative means, which I don’t believe is possible. And for a value of X=a billion, I think it’s just very unlikely.
I mean, I certainly think it’s possible to become the richest man on earth through purely ethical means. It’s wildly, incredibly unlikely, but strictly possible.
You could become a recording artist that self publishes your own music, only distribute online, and become unprecedented levels of popular. Sell each mp3 for $5 and sell a few trillion of them.
Is that likely? Absolutely not. Exceedingly unlikely. But becoming a muliti-billionaire in general is exceedingly unlikely. This is one of the lesser likely ways for sure, but it’s fathomable, at least in the sense that it’s a coherent narrative that strictly could occur.
What about that scenario is strictly impossible? Not vanishingly unlikely, but literally could not happen?
Maybe in general, but it’s impossible in our current late-stage capitalist society.
Because anyone who tries to do it would be quickly usurped by someone else willing to be unethical.
How do you unethically usurp a popular musician’s fame in a way that lets you earn more money than them, given the parameters of my above example?
I assume you’re going for the “is it impossible, or just highly improbable” route again. Is the musician example intended to be something that is possible? Do you think that example is possible? I think that even healthy, sustainable competition would prevent that example from ever happening. Which is part of the point: if you only have ethically run businesses, you’ll always have healthy competition, and thus none of them can ever reach such an absurd amount of wealth over the others.
But let’s say you’re an unethical multi billion dollar corporation in the music industry whose bottom line is being impacted, and you’re willing to do whatever to get part of that. Let me ask you, what would you do to get your piece of the pie? Feel free to just look around for inspiration :(. You’d likely start by offering to buy them out. If they refuse you have several options: creating a copycat that sounds similar, but pump out 10x more tracks to flood the market, pay off all “radio stations” (whatever companies you pay to stream music in random stores and clubs, etc) to prioritize your music, pay SEO professionals to ensure your products appear before yours, pay lawyers to find something to litigate over to stun your ability to make any more music. Someone who is actually in the music industry could probably come up with better ideas than me, but the point is, a company willing and allowed to play unethically will always beat out the ones that aren’t.