[pohl]

I wonder why he didn't argue against the point by using an actual billionaire to illustrate. Instead he chose someone who is not a billionaire, and imagined them becoming one with nine and a half months of constant 93% growth. Couldn't his counterargument become stronger without the underpants gnome logic?

[nostrademons]

He is probably the actual billionaire in question, but doesn't want to highlight that point given the populist backlash against billionaires.

[chasd00]

Funny that it use to be the millionaires everyone hated. I guess there are too many millionaires these days and vilifying them means turning yourself or someone you know into the villain. That’s probably a little too uncomfortable.

[SpicyLemonZest]

Well, I would reframe it. A comfortable retirement nest egg is now over a million in most parts of the US, and the people who used to rail against millionaires were never intending to argue that people shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

[swiftcoder]

Inflation has made so many "millionaires" (8% of US households), and at the same rendered it a meaningless title - a salaried worker who paid off their 30 year mortgage and has a little in their 401k is quite likely to cross the million net worth threshold.

A million is hardly buying mansions, yachts, and champagne-filled swimming pools in the current economy

[deaux]

Popular, or "common", rather than populist.

[nostrademons]

I actually meant populist, meaning affiliated with populist ("of the ordinary people") political parties on both right and left.

[deaux]

Meaning is derived from real usage, not from dictionaries. Descriptivism has won. And in the real world, it's simply used as a cheap shot to claim that certain policies or thoughts are only for the winning of votes rather than well thought out or other "ideology" based.

[beepbooptheory]

Do all the non politically affiliated people who hate billionaires not count? Or why is the granularity here important? Your point is stronger the other way!

[nostrademons]

Populism is a "thin" political ideology that often gets layered on top of other political ideologies, both left- and right-wing. It simply means "policies that appeal to ordinary people" (vs. a rich and perceived corrupt elite). By definition, someone who hates billionaires simply because they are billionaires is a populist. They might hate other populists that have attached themselves to other political ideologies (and have different scapegoats or preferred policy prescriptions to rectify the inequality), but they are still a populist.

[deaux]

> By definition, someone who hates billionaires simply because they are billionaires is a populist.

You've ascribed to them an ideology they don't hold. They don't hold that view "simply because they are billionaires".