[philodelta]

I worry about the unaccounted soft power of someone with that much money. Through lobbying and market consolidation, the extremely wealthy hold disproportionate political and economic power. At least with corrupt politicians, in a liberal democracy there is some amount to which they are accountable to the people. The power of the wealthy is without account except through government action. laisse-faire capitalists like to hand wave and imagine this power is "not a problem" when it very clearly is, with people like the Kochs wielding their power to sow political propaganda. They did not "earn" that power, or at the very least I don't think people deserve that power even if they were skillful businessmen. For me, it has nothing to do with sour grapes, I don't care that they have more money then I can imagine, other than they can use that money to have a greater voice than me.

[izzydata]

I agree with this. I don't care when someone has 1000 cars or 100 houses and owns a jet plane or whatever. I do care about how it enables them to unfairly direct other peoples lives to their personal agenda. I also care when people have too little that they can barely feed themselves and have nowhere to live.

I feel like there must be some way these two problems can help solve eachother.

[tomcam]

How has your life been badly affected by someone who owns 1000 cars?

[izzydata]

It probably hasn't very much which is why it doesn't bother me. Which is what I said.

[tomcam]

Should a large labor union, nonprofit, or a non-governmental organization have exactly the same voice as you?

[tomcam]

How much money should people be allowed to have?

[I-M-S]

No more than it would make others envy you, no less than it would make them pity you.

[tomcam]

How do you measure the envy level of citizens such that you can control their income?

[mbg721]

Tree fiddy, certainly.

[tomcam]

Analysis: true