kepic's ramblings

addiction

I published this originally on April 1st on Facebook. Some grammar and wording has been corrected.

WARNING: a long rant about #wealth.

Couple of days ago (that means within the week, probably) I had an interesting conversation with my wife about my rather extreme dislike (“hate”) of #rich people. I'm a #richist. Prejudice is a bad thing, but is it prejudiced to hate fascists or slavers?

Oh, yes, our conversation covered everything from “some rich people really deserve more than others” to me comparing rich folks to Nazis and slavers.

You see, it's not the fault of some heir or heiress that they're born to #privilege. Just like it wasn't the fault of any child to be born to a #Nazi or #slaver family. But when you're presented proof that you're doing wrong (or even #evil), then it's on you to change. Neither slavers nor Nazis could do it themselves, the change had to be forced on them. I wonder if the rich can change before that's necessary?

There's literally no reason for a #good person, an #ethical person, to be rich. I'm not talking about comfortable incomes when you don't have to think about #money before spending it on personal stuff — I'm talking about the kind of wealth you really can't even use sensibly on personal stuff. Why the heck would anyone need five homes, three yachts, or four jets?

Regardless, the rich (and I'm not talking about individuals, I'm talking about the group as a whole) consume and pollute many times over what the non-rich do. Their mere existence drives up #inequality, creating unsafe environments, and their #hoarding actively removes #money from circulation. Sure, maybe it's invested somewhere and whatnot — but not all of it is, and those investments in today's capitalist world do not usually improve our lives.

Money is #power. It buys #airtime, #advertising space, #visibility. It can be used to #lobby politicians, and even when it's not actively used to change #policy, the passive effect of “keeping the money in” means many politicians are biased towards money anyway. Political candidates with better financial backing have bigger and better campaigns, and they reach more people.

There is a form of domestic abuse called #EconomicAbuse. In it the one(s) controlling money use it to bend the other party (or parties) to their will. The rich do this to the rest of us, often without trying or any conscious #malice. It doesn't change the fact that it's wrong and abusive.

Back to that comparison to slavers and fascists. We can claim that one can't really be blamed about not knowing better, and one way that can happen is by being born to an environment where keeping slaves or being a fascist is normal and good. But once they are made aware that slavery or fascism is bad (evil), they themselves lose whatever claim they had to morality. Then, if they don't change their behavior and/or circumstances, then they are guilty of being bad (evil).

The same can be said about being born to wealth. There is practically no way the rich don't know their actions, hoarding, or just being passively rich doesn't harm the rest of us, either directly through unlawful business practices (in case of the rich actually doing something for their wealth), or indirectly through environmental damage or increasing inequality.

Some do realize that being rich in itself looks bad, and soothe their consciences with donations and #charity work. This rarely achieves anything of significance, as they are unlikely to give away enough to lose their multimillionaire or #billionaire status.

“What about #investing?” is something I hear whenever this topic comes up. What about it? That's been going on hundreds of years (if not more) even without billionaires. If anything, the current situation is worse in many aspects. The big companies already entrenched on the market can easily buy out or otherwise get rid of a smaller competitor if they become troublesome (look like they might actually grow to be significant competition). That's nothing new, either. What is new, is that at the top of the pyramid are just a few very, very, very rich people.

It's even worse when we're talking about short-term aggressive investments (#stocks, #derivatives, all that shit). People make daily huge financial decisions that affect hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people. The most aggressive are usually the most lauded. The best can make huge profits consistently. They, however, play mostly with other people's money, taking surprisingly little risk themselves. It's like #gambling on steroids. You have all this abstracted data you go through obsessively and then make educated guesses with huge stakes. Get it right, you get rich. Get it wrong, and, well, it really wasn't your money, was it? Sure, there are consequences, but the risk vs. reward is firmly on the side of reward.

Why isn't everyone a #StockBroker, then? Because for the most people that kind of work isn't work, and for the most people that kind of gambling isn't really gambling, either. But for those who get the kick out of that #addiction… Stock trading is a specially created heaven full of tasty brain chemicals.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/071713/downward-spiral-trading-addiction.asp

And the #WealthGap between the rich and the rest of us is growing. Absolute poverty is getting rarer, sort of. But it could have been abolished. The rest of us are stuck, get poorer, or, mostly through luck, get actually richer.

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/as-inequality-killed-millions-top-billionaires-doubled-wealth-during-pandemic/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/12/global-income-inequality-gap-report-rich-poor/

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/01/richest-one-percent-gained-trillions-in-wealth-2021.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wealth-inequality-billionaires-piketty-report/

Studies have shown that often the wealthier person is, the less capable they are of #empathy. After a certain point, the benefits of having more money face diminishing returns in terms of quality of life. After that money is just points on a score board, and sometimes collecting more becomes an addiction.

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_money_changes_the_way_you_think_and_feel

So yes, I'm a #richist. I'm also a #socialist (or a #communist, depending on where you're looking from), which makes sense. I'm also #feminist, #AntiFascist, #AntiRacist, #AntiEthnonationalist, and many other things a sensible #FarLeft nut job is supposed to be. I stand for #FreedomOfThought and #FreedomOfExpression, for #NonViolence, and #HumanRights in general. I end this with a question: is it wrong of me to strongly dislike the rich?


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