In our current society money equals power over others. If you’re not the richest your not the most powerful and if you are you need to fight to proetct your power from other who are getting richer. It’s not about money but about determining the fate of others and rulership over society.
You don’t become obsecely rich by being a good person. Once you reach a billion dollars you most paobably already aquired a mindeset that leaves you no other choice than to look for another billion. Much like a hamster in a wheel which spins to fast to let it go off.
In the eyes of average humans (which I believe to be decent people, at least 80 % of the total population) this is insane… however the 10 - 20 % egoists are the ones we chose as our rulers.
Yet we chose candidates… even though the pre-selection is biased towards egoists.
Looking at the current rise of populism ''we" actually seem to deliberately chose the most egoistic ones available.
But nonetheless: Imho representation automatically leads to corruption by egoists so we should get rid of representatives all together (or at least try to rein them in by making it possible to remove them from office at any time )
That’s the other half of the problem I always see … it’s not just the insanity of a person or individual who is constantly chasing after even more astronomical amounts of money and wealth and power … it’s the 80% of everyone else including me and you who all just stand by and allow it all to happen and contribute to it and maintain it all
It’s like the whole Trump thing in America … sure Trump is an idiot … but there is an entire nation that either supports its, ignores it, maintains it or works for it, and all of them just accept it as normal
We can’t discount the classic dick-measuring contest that’s bound to happen when rich people compare their net worths to each other. I’d be shocked if some people weren’t at least partly motivated by having a bigger “number” than their friends do.
I had a boss who had a net worth around $10 million (I knew because he had hired me to trade S&P500 futures for him and he gave me access to his brokerage accounts as part of this). He owned a house, nice cars, and a temp agency that gave him an income around $25,000 per month, in a southern city where the cost of living was very low. By any normal standard he was living in the lap of luxury, but his best friends were all west coast vulture capitalists who were worth hundreds of millions and my boss’ jealousy of them just absolutely ate him up inside (this was the whole reason he was getting into futures trading in the first place).
We didn’t choose them, they or their ancestors were just more ruthless and bloodthirsty than the rest of us, and they coerced us at the end of a spear to go along with it or die.
In my opinion, egoists represent a clear minority and would not be able to suppress everyone else by force. The series of revolutions and democratizations that have occurred throughout history is, in my view, proof of this.
The majority holds the power, and the rule of egoists is only possible as long as the vast majority accepts it (because the disadvantages of being ruled by egoists are offset by sufficiently large benefits of cooperation).
To some extent, therefore, we must also take a good look at ourselves for accepting the status quo as it is and not wanting to change it because it would be too inconvenient.
Two things that come to my mind:
In the eyes of average humans (which I believe to be decent people, at least 80 % of the total population) this is insane… however the 10 - 20 % egoists are the ones we chose as our rulers.
We don’t choose egoistic people as ruler, egoistic people (and psychopaths) try to become rulers, regardless of the price or morality.
Yet we chose candidates… even though the pre-selection is biased towards egoists.
Looking at the current rise of populism ''we" actually seem to deliberately chose the most egoistic ones available.
But nonetheless: Imho representation automatically leads to corruption by egoists so we should get rid of representatives all together (or at least try to rein them in by making it possible to remove them from office at any time )
That’s the other half of the problem I always see … it’s not just the insanity of a person or individual who is constantly chasing after even more astronomical amounts of money and wealth and power … it’s the 80% of everyone else including me and you who all just stand by and allow it all to happen and contribute to it and maintain it all
It’s like the whole Trump thing in America … sure Trump is an idiot … but there is an entire nation that either supports its, ignores it, maintains it or works for it, and all of them just accept it as normal
America was founded on greed and ignorance
Nothing changed.
We can’t discount the classic dick-measuring contest that’s bound to happen when rich people compare their net worths to each other. I’d be shocked if some people weren’t at least partly motivated by having a bigger “number” than their friends do.
I had a boss who had a net worth around $10 million (I knew because he had hired me to trade S&P500 futures for him and he gave me access to his brokerage accounts as part of this). He owned a house, nice cars, and a temp agency that gave him an income around $25,000 per month, in a southern city where the cost of living was very low. By any normal standard he was living in the lap of luxury, but his best friends were all west coast vulture capitalists who were worth hundreds of millions and my boss’ jealousy of them just absolutely ate him up inside (this was the whole reason he was getting into futures trading in the first place).
We didn’t choose them, they or their ancestors were just more ruthless and bloodthirsty than the rest of us, and they coerced us at the end of a spear to go along with it or die.
I don’t think so.
In my opinion, egoists represent a clear minority and would not be able to suppress everyone else by force. The series of revolutions and democratizations that have occurred throughout history is, in my view, proof of this.
The majority holds the power, and the rule of egoists is only possible as long as the vast majority accepts it (because the disadvantages of being ruled by egoists are offset by sufficiently large benefits of cooperation).
To some extent, therefore, we must also take a good look at ourselves for accepting the status quo as it is and not wanting to change it because it would be too inconvenient.