• 0 Posts
  • 8 Comments
Joined 6 months ago
Cake day: June 13th, 2024
  • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.iotomemes@lemmy.world•The only good billionaire
    192·
    4 days ago

    If you’re wealth is in stock that have voting rights and you founded the company, getting rid of the stock is risky as it reduces your control over the company. In that case, if you sell you stock to lower your wealth, a bad faith actor could come in and depose you. If you’re a “good millionaire” then this could then have the effect of lowering your charitable giving potential.

    Stocks are essentially people putting bets on you and your company. Most billionaires don’t just become billionaires by themselves…the public anoints them.

    And I think the public should be able to rescind that if the person does more public harm than good.

  • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.iotoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•What are your thoughts on billionaires?
    23·
    7 days ago

    Conflicted. I’ll give you my top 4 considerations.

    • Pro 1: The reason a lot of these folks become billionaires is because they are able to sell an idea and execute on it. I think that’s admirable. I think it’s aspirational. I think that is part of the human condition.
    • Pro 2: Additionally, they’re billionaires because society made them billionaires. Often, they founded a company (or got in on the ground floor), then issued stock to investors. More and more investor’s piled on. It’s a bit like winning the lottery, only that you (the aspirational billionaire) have some effect in the outcome. Again, I think this is part of the human condition. Civilizations, tribes, companies, whatever you call them, for some bizarre reason that I personally don’t quite grasp, prefer to have a leader, or at least will defer to one.
    • Con 1: Many people can be millionaires. It’s not easy, but with the right vision, gumption, financial know-how, time and a bit of luck, someone pursuing this effort can do so. But, it takes a certain kind of person to be a 100+ millionaire or even billionaire. I think we have enough historical evidence of the type I’m describing - greedy, predatory, manipulative, aggressive, sociopathic. These traits can flourish in business, but I don’t think that these are traits that we should encourage in society as a whole. It gives me some gratitude that, for every 1 megalomaniacal billionaire in the world, there were 1000s of lookalikes who flailed.
    • Con 2: Rent-seeking behavior and loot dragons. Nothing pisses me off more than a self-entitled dumbass whose entire being is resting on the laurels of a family legacy. I think once the great person’s first generation passes, that most of their remaining horde should be returned for the public good. While I do think a certain amount should be endowed to the next generation so that they are equipped to pursue their own marvel, I do think society resources made these people and society should be able to take them back.
  • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.iotoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•What's the greatest videogame of all time?
    3·
    9 days ago

    Final Fantasy 1 - It wasn’t the first RPG, but it pretty much defined the series. It still has tons of playability, I revisit it more or less every 5 years. I still have yet to beat Warmech, and only have encountered him a handful of times.

    But most of all, it’s the game that saved Squaresoft. If it had failed, we would have missed out on so many great games, including ones also mentioned in this post.

    Runners up have to be Donkey Kong, which brought us Mario, which in turn restored vitality into the at home console game industry, and Double Dragon, which brought us PVP and Co-op combat.

    Honorable mention would have to be that Simpsons arcade game where Marge can fight with the vacuum cleaner and TMNT 2 - Two classic, very difficult, drain your change jar games. I’d throw Mega man 2 into that mix as well.