I was gonna include a third option about how money is easier to achieve without considering the morality of your actions but that’s not really a philosophy as much as it is an objective fact.
I was gonna include a third option about how money is easier to achieve without considering the morality of your actions but that’s not really a philosophy as much as it is an objective fact.
Both but I believe to a certain degree a person can have a certain amount without it corrupting them. Beyond that point, everyone is corrupted. There are no truly benevolent billionaires because a person must engage in various questionable practices to keep growing their wealth at such an exponential rate. Basic market economics dictates that a business entity competing for a limited market share must repeatedly find new ways to make more profit by using strategies their competitors aren’t. This includes but is not limited to skirting around regulations and laws, and somebody unquestionably runs those companies.
I also think most people massively underestimate the impact that conditioning puts on a person’s outward demeanor, but that leads into a deeper tangentially related discussion. Regardless, people are complex creatures.
—To put it simply, to become a billionaire or even a typical* megamillionaire a person must invariably step on someone else.
*The only exception I can think of are SOME lottery jackpot winners.
Lotteries are no different than stepping on people. They have to buy into the process, but the amounts allocated from lotteries for education or other grants is outpaced by what is given up in prizes. And many lotteries engage in games and mechanisms to keep people in the feedback loop of pouring money in. It’s a tax on the stupid and the poor.
I can’t say that I agree. If lotteries don’t bring in more money to fund public services than they pay out, then that’s a failing of a political nature. That means it could be a failing of an entire state population if that state represents a democracy, or it could be a failing of a states corrupt political class if that state isn’t a democracy. Regardless, it’s not necessarily a corruption of the winner which I was referring to earlier. Additionally, I’ve heard the “tax on the stupid and the poor” concept multiple times before, and the level of condescension towards the lower class in a discussion about financial ethics has never sat right with me. It also ignores the entertainment aspect of playing the lottery. If we really want to do away with a tax on the poor as well as the foolish, then perhaps it’s more important to end excise (AKA sin) taxes, but that’s also beside the subject.