Posted on 06/29/2014 8:45:11 PM PDT by hoagy62
You probably dont know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industriesfrom itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor.
--snip--
But lets speak frankly to each other. Im not the smartest guy youve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. Im not technical at allI cant write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?
I see pitchforks.
--snip--
But the problem isnt that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution. And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It wont last.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
So you know, the article at the website covers 4 pages. I read the whole thing though
Do you think he's right, or is he talking out his backside?
horse hockey
“The universe is eight billion years old, the last two billion of which have produced intelligent life. During this time not one hour of absolute equity has prevailed.” — Jack Vance “The Houses of Iszm”
“Capitalism allows the individual other options beyond that of being poor.” — Captain Compassion
I read this the other day. Afterward, I tweeted him: “I loved your memo, Jerry.” I couldn’t help myself. The level of stupid burns.
This has already been posted.
He’s got some weird feddish for pitchforks and his numbers are suspect. And he should give 10% of his income directly to the charities of his choice and not use the government to force everyone else to do so.
Amazingly nobody ever includes celebrities, athletes and political bigwigs in these predictions of revolution.
We will only kill the plutocrats that got there using bought government influence to change the rules for themselves like G.E. and Warren Buffet when the revolution comes.
If you earned you millions or billions honestly then you will be spared.
Which means that the liberal rich bastards will be at the top of the Treason List...
I can see a lot of anti-freedom Celebretards and Big Businessmen who are pushing amnesty being the “First against the wall”
I think he should be able to pay his employees as much or as little as he wants. If he wants to be generous, good on him. If he wants to be miserly, good luck finding good employees. As for having government set wages like “speed limits”—no way!
Exactly. When the revolution starts, do they really think they will be safe?
Backside.
ping
And he’s so modest, too!
Politico? Buhhh!
I read this to my wife. She mentioned that he failed to factor in one of the strongest forces out there: greed.
Greed is the bane of capitalism. It says “I want to keep what I got. What’s mine is mine, and it’s gonna stay mine.” Put a different way...”I got mine. F**k you.”
His idea won’t work for many reasons...but the biggest one is that people are greedy, whether they wish to admit it or not. This will NEVER change.
The “pitchforks” generally come as the result of oppressive taxation at the hands of government, and the victims are those whose wealth derives from government.
Yes. They really, actually do, with all their hearts.
And that is the evil of the effectiveness of the collective dream - that denial and delusion and narcissism and immaturity.
They simple refuse to grow up and take personal responsibility for their lives, and collectivism rewards them for their cowardice by calling them adults - literally for avoiding adulthood.
And so they believe it and will hurt others for it, because the alternative is facing themselves, and that they refuse to do.
Unfortunately, history has shown that by the time they realize that their moral temper tantrum doesn't work, the world can be left in a smoking ruin.
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