Why do people feel they are entitled to the money of others?

“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”

Thomas Sowell.

They are the biggest winners, in a game designed to create winners and losers!

Whenever one of these guys gets to this lofty position in life, where they have so much wealth that their life essentially just becomes a bit meaningless, you invariably get an army of plebs in society trying to paint them as some demonic comic book style villain. Hell bent on world domination and subjugation of the masses in some giant half baked conspiracy theory.

Bezos, Gates, Musk, Soros etc etc. It's just a lazy caricature at this point.

Don't create an economic system, and then lose your sh!t when a bunch of clever feckers become really good at playing the game.

If you don't like the system, change it. Design a better system.

I agree nobody NEEDS $200 billion. And it would be better if wealth and resources were more evenly spread across society. But that's not the fault of Jeff Bezos. He played the game and came out a big winner!

Now he's 57, obscenely wealthy, probably incredibly bored too by the looks of it. So he builds a space program, like a bored kid might build a tree house or go-cart etc. Mid life crisis billionaire style! lol

Good luck to him. I don't envy famous or rich people, they're still human beings. They are subject to human emotions and human problems / weaknesses like everyone else. Depression, addictions etc. Being rich and famous looks like a bit of a curse to me - a lonely place, where you are surrounded by the worst type sycophants and leaches.

Plus, I genuinely enjoying working hard to achieve modest improvements in my life. I don't know that I would really gain much gratification from having so much money, that I had no reason to even get out of bed in the morning. Creating a space program just to alleviate my boredom. No thanks!

These huge corporations do not exist in a vacuum. They can exist because of the legal and social framework that allows them to exist and make money. That legal and social framework costs money to create and maintain. They should contribute to that.

They also have more talent and ability than 99% of the taxpaying population.

Which is a big part of the reason why they're more successful than 99% of the population.

Like them or not, their businesses drive economies. Most people could not build or run amazon, they would be hopelessly under skilled to pull it off.

If you don't like Bezos or Musk, then don't engage with their products. You are the consumer, you built their wealth by making their products successful.

When people pay 1,000+ euro for a new iPhone, you are saying "thank you Mr Apple corporation for making my life so much better with this barely indistinguishable upgrade from the last iPhone".

Most consumers are idiots. Idiots deserve to be parted with their money. People like Bezos and Musk are experts at giving these greedy idiots what they think they want / need. It's a game and they play it very well.

When the capitalist system is taken to this ridiculous level, everyone is greedy. The only difference, is some people are greedy and smart. While others are greedy and stupid.

The 'if you don't like X then don't use X' is a foolish argument.

When a company such as Amazon has such a dominant position in a market they limit people's options. The suggestion that they can't or shouldn't be criticised is interesting. It raises them up to another level, giving them church like qualities. Let's be clear, Bezos might be more clever than 99% of the population but that does not entitle him to be wealthier than 99.99999999 of people. This is especially true since he has leveraged his place in the market to give himself an advantage.

Why can't he put his money towards not charging people who have cancelled amazon prime?

It's not as simple as giving everyone 50k,supply and demand would drive up the cost of everything and the purchasing power of your 50k would level out to what you had before.Not to mention you will have people who will save the 50k and it will just be on a balance sheet or people who will blow the money on something trivial/unnecessary. Personally I think if someone's earned their money then it's theirs and it's not up to them to look after people who lack motivation or work ethic

I'm most definitely not 'far left'. It's a classic fallacy to dismiss an argument based on who is making it (or worse, who you assume is making it).

There are two glaring points here:

1. Money is power, and handing unchecked power to people does not usually end well.
2. They can only make money based on the society that supports them to do so. They need to contribute to that society in fair measure. Amazon or Apple wouild not have gotten very far without patent law, postal services, roads, literate workers/customers etc. etc.

It is possible to admire Bezos's business acumen and still think he should pay more taxes. He is a member of society and relies on that society for his business and should therefore contribute to it, and no paying **** wages doesn't count.

I'm always amused when people decry scroungers living off social welfare but then praise billionaires who pay minimal tax and take advantage of government subsidies.

Wealth shaming? Gimme a fúcking break