
It's Basically Just Immoral to Be Rich - blackbagboys
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/03/its-basically-just-immoral-to-be-rich
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jdenning
The problem with this argument is that "being rich" is relative. Anyone want
to wager that the author's "maximum moral income" is approximately the same as
his/her income?

Isn't someone who makes $50,000 /yr extremely wealthy from the perspective of
someone whose income is ~$5,000/yr (like a lot of people in India[1])?

Come on A.Q. Smith - how can you justify even owning a computer when people
are starving? Is it immoral to waste money on dinner and a movie when that's
more money than some people make in a week?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_(PPP)...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_\(PPP\)_per_capita)

(Edit: slight rephrase)

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mmcconnell1618
What about the fact that pursuit of wealth can drive innovation that benefits
the whole world. The creation of mobile phones has allowed many parts of the
world access to information and opportunities they didn't have before. The
motivation to work hard and create new product is lessened if you know that
all your money over $250K will be taken by force. Innovation would still take
place but likely at a much slower pace.

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Y_Y
Do you think that inventors will ransom their genius? And if they can't get
super rich then they'll just sit on their hands?

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mmcconnell1618
No, but I think there is a difference between having the great idea and
putting in the work it takes to bring it to market on a global scale.
Fantastic ideas won't go away, just the motivation to put in the hard work of
turning an idea into a product.

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thatswrong0
I'm going to interpret this as an accidental piece of satire. It is so shallow
in its analysis, overlooks so much, and makes so many mistakes that it is
absolutely devoid of worth if interpreted as a serious piece.

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jordancampbell
I thought it was satire.

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flexie
Take Musk. He got rich from selling Paypal. Had he spent the money on charity
as this post suggests (or demands) we would have had no Tesla and no SpaceX.

I think the world is often be better off by rich people doing more of what
made them rich in the first place.

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CuriouslyC
Maybe that just means that current charities need to be disrupted.

Part of the problem is most charities throw money at symptoms rather than
addressing the root causes.

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Y_Y
The root of an awful lot of the problems charities try to address is that
people are poor. They aren't poor because of Elon Musk, but there's a good
argument to be made that if it weren't for capitalism (now, not historically)
we could have developed nations where there were no poor.

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CuriouslyC
I don't think capitalism itself is the problem. Capitalism is basically just a
policy of individual freedom extended to control of production, which honestly
is hard to argue with. The main problem in my mind is that as a culture we've
bought into the mistaken notion that more goods and services mean more
happiness. Of course, this notion is primarily the result of the capitalist
propaganda machine we call advertising. If we restricted advertising it would
do a lot to tame the beast. Another problem is that we've walled everything
off, so if you want to live you need to play the capitalist game. People
should be able to opt out if they want.

That being said, while I'm mostly pro-capitalism, I'm also in favor of income
redistribution. Happiness from wealth has hardcore diminishing returns, and
visible inequality directly creates unhappiness. Based on these facts,
significant income redistribution is really a moral imperative.

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antisthenes
I'm as fiscally liberal as they come, but holy shit, the arguments presented
here are bad.

Besides the obvious and tired appeal to some arbitrary notion of morality, a
good portion of the article is just tautology.

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greg7mdp
And it is immoral as well to use your immense wealth to swing elections and
impose your views on what should be a democracy, but increasingly is becoming
a pay-to-play oligarchy.

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jordancampbell
Words cannot describe how much I disagree with this article.

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peterbraden
And yet words are the only way you can describe how you disagree with it. Try.

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LyndsySimon
I'd just like to point out that this article was written by a journalist
living in Baltimore, Maryland - someone who is doubtlessly earning in the top
10% of all incomes worldwide; someone who enjoys a standard of living far
above what most in the world could reasonably hope for.

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yehosef
I think it's immoral to call other people immoral.

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loco5niner
Maybe I'm just bad at spotting satire, but I'm pretty sure this is satire(?)

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jamesmp98
That's cool, it's an imperfect world anyway.

