| A lot of the billionaires do spend it on worthwhile things. Elon works on transportation and energy. Bill Gates tackles climate change, wiping out polio, sanitation, revolutionizing nuclear energy. These guys take huge risks on multi-million dollar projects that no other people would do. Then you have Warren Buffett, who buys stocks that plummet from hype, probably preventing or dampening recessions. On the other end you do have the monopolists who use their wealth to choke competitors, and Trump, who got lucky a couple times, but otherwise make the world a worse place. For the most part, billionaires rarely do nothing with their money. They get there by being willing to take big risks, being good at taking risks, and they do things that no billion-dollar CEO would be willing to do. I'd say a huge reason USA is so rich is because of the spirit of taking risks. If you get rid of billionaires, you lose that. From a practical angle, how would you outlaw that? It's not like a billion dollars in gold or cash lying around somewhere. Much of it is in stocks that go up and down. What if they put $100 million into a failcoin, which drives up the value of that failcoin? What if they put half a billion into buying ancient Roman busts? What if they invest $1 million into a startup, and then "donate" $100 million into it? I doubt a FAANG founder would just sell his shares if there was such a legal reason, because it's still a cash cow. It's easier for them to just milk it to hit a quota then throw away the milk. |