| > So you are saying "normal" people don't hire accountants to ensure they pay the minimal amount of tax while wealthy people do? Did I say that? Or did I specifically refer to slimeballs, loopholes, Paradise and Panama papers, bribing legislators etc. Do normal people do that, in your view? Because it seems pretty normal among billionaires. I don't remember any normal people paying thugs to bust up strikes, or paying to print anti union propaganda and rig unionising votes. You seem to be saying, might makes right; and that we'd do those things above if we were in their position. Even if that were true (it's not), that would be all the more reason to change the rules that allow such consolidation of wealth and abuse of power to exist. Going back to your original claim - that it's not obvious (to you) that billionaires care less about the common good than common people - here is a poem that has survived the last 250+ years. The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common But leaves the greater villain loose Who steals the common from off the goose . The law demands that we atone When we take things we do not own But leaves the lords and ladies fine Who take things that are yours and mine . The poor and wretched don't escape If they conspire the law to break This must be so but they endure Those who conspire to make the law . The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common And geese will still a common lack Till they go and steal it back |
With the exception of bribing legislators these are perfectly fine things to do. And in fact amount to having a smart accountant.
> I don't remember any normal people paying thugs to bust up strikes, or paying to print anti union propaganda and rig unionising votes.
I don't remember any billionaires doing that either. What I do remember is companies doing that might have a billionaire at the helm. And as far as I can see most companies helmed by a billionaire do not do that.
> You seem to be saying, might makes right; and that we'd do those things above if we were in their position. Even if that were true (it's not), that would be all the more reason to change the rules that allow such consolidation of wealth and abuse of power to exist.
That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying my default assumption is that the expected behavior of normal people and billionaires is the same. The billionaires outcome is simply different because they are billionaires, they have much more weight to throw around.
> Going back to your original claim - that it's not obvious (to you) that billionaires care less about the common good than common people - here is a poem that has survived the last 250+ years
Yes and we also used to believe putting blood sucking leeches on your skin to suck out blood would cure illnesses. It's always easy to blame someone in a better position then yourself. Something that exists in a poem doesn't mean anything.
What I'm asking of you is essentially do you have data/studies that shows very wealthy people have a fundamentally different psychological profile in regards to caring about society then non wealthy people. Because that is your claim.
There are also plenty of counter examples. Like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation or Azim Premji. Or the entire billionaire philanthropist archetype.