3 Comments
⭠ Return to thread

He could make all the medicine that he offers through cost plus drugs 100% free and he would not be any less wealthy. Having so much money when so many people have so little is obscene and immoral.

His net worth is 5.7 billion. That is so much money that it is hard to understand how much more it is than the average person's net worth. If you earned a dollar a second it would take you 10 days to become a millionaire, 31 years to become a billionaire and 180 years to earn 5.7 billion

Expand full comment

Good points, but it's worth noting that most of these billionaires and plutocrats didn't "earn" their billions. In a country with sane tax laws, a strong labor movement, and an engaged citizenry, we would have far fewer billionaires and our democracy would not be under attack by the ultra-rich and their Republican Party puppets.

Expand full comment

we should have no billionaires not fewer because as you said no billionaire (or even a multimillionaire) ever earns their wealth. they steal it legally. extraction and exploitation are baked in. One does not need to be a business owner to understand that you would never hire someone and pay them more than the value of what they produced as you would be losing money. You would also never pay them exactly how much they produced because why would you put in all that effort to hire, train and support them if it did not make you more money or the potential for more money. You systematically and legally pay them less than what they produce, that is literally how capitalists create "profit" and "value".

Expand full comment