Imagine being Elon Musk, or Donald Trump, or Boris Johnson. You have more money than you know what to do with. You could literally afford to go to whatever paradise you want and spend the days of your one life doing whatever you please.
They came so tantalisingly close to having more fulfilling and carefree lives than 99.99% of humans who have ever lived, but instead they want the masses to fear and adore them.
And they are utterly miserable, because nothing will fill the void, and the more they try, the more they debase themselves in front of billions, and the people they most need to respect them probably think they’re losers.
Idiots. Fools. Losers.
Musk is the worst of them. Read some Iain M Banks books, didn’t understand any of then, decided to save the world by becoming a solar power and electric vehicle magnate with space colonies.
But instead he is approaching old age as the proprietor of a bankrupt nazi chat room, and none of his kids will speak to him.
How can you have so many advantages and yet fuck up so amazingly completely?
like this
reshared this
Sarah Brown
in reply to Sarah Brown • •Irony is, it’s entirely possible to win at life and get the adulation and respect they so deeply want, while leaving their impact on the world.
Just look at Dolly Parton.
But their egos get in the way. They all want to be Julius fucking Caesar.
like this
Alexandra Lanes likes this.
reshared this
skry, Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC, PNW Deb, Shiiko, dAVE Inden || attks th drknss, Bernie Forcefully Does It, Hen Gymro Heb Wlad, Charles Castleberry :pika:, fmosca, Crewman Six, Snack Viking 🪓, Sampath Pāṇini ®, Ken M, Dana das Grau 🧝♂️🇺🇸 and LaDonna 🍀🧚♂️🌱🌷 reshared this.
Blake Leonard
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Matthew Daly
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •MySpace Tom has the right idea.
His wealth isn't enough for a personal space program, but it's enough he's free from ever having to worry about money again as long as he doesn't waste it on crap like super yachts. Now he has multiple homes across the world and spends his time travelling and enjoying himself. That's a much more mature approach and I would wager he's far, far happier than Elon Musk will ever be.
Sarah Brown likes this.
Sarah Brown
Unknown parent • •Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • •@Angie 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇵🇸🇺🇦 Well quite, but that has the prerequisite of being a well adjusted person.
And these clowns … ain’t.
like this
Alexandra Lanes likes this.
reshared this
@pineywoozle and Glitzersachen.de reshared this.
@pineywoozle
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •🤣 🤣 🤣 👍
Guitarsophist
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • • •screambiogenesis
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • • •@angiebaby Back when one of the lotteries was over a billion USD, I did some math.
Based on giving up a ⅓ or a ½ of it to taxes initially and putting the rest of it into an account with shite returns (I think it was 0.5%), you could donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity every year and keep a ¼ million for yourself... and never touch the initial money.
That kind of money is unfathomable, and most of the people who have it are SO unimaginative and sad (if not horrifying).
Earthy in EV heaven
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • • •The Pensioner at No 24
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • • •It's the one idea that keeps me, too, wishing for a massive lottery win. What I could do for others with it.
Selena
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • • •@angiebaby
That's kinda how I try to live: I want to keep enough money for me to live a comfortable life, but have no desire to acquire 'bragging wealth' (big car, big house, expensive travel, etc)
It would be fantastic if it wasn't just €10 or €100, but I could just give €10k to some random homeless person or fill up a GoFundMe.
But that could only happen (to some extent) if I won the lottery. Because I support high taxes and other measures that pretty much preclude billionaires.
Bernie Forcefully Does It
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • • •Fluffy Kitty Cat
in reply to Angie 🇵🇸🇺🇦 • • •Paul 💙
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •So true .. the fact is all these wealthy people will eventually die and rot away
They will leave their kids wealthy, but in a world a bit shittier because they existed.
Their kids have a choice of emulating their parents or trying to repair the damage for their kids.
So it will continue until they either die trying to make the world better or die with their money being of little value in a future shithole
Bob Thomson
in reply to Paul 💙 • • •Paul 💙
in reply to Bob Thomson • • •@bobthomson70
I like to think of Nobel who saw his obituary in error when he was still alive
If they could see how the world will perceive them when they are dead... It might rip their arrogance away from them
Very few wealthy individuals are going to be thought of well after they are dead.
The people who suck up to them now... Won't give them a thought in death
Sarah Brown
in reply to Paul 💙 • •Paul 💙
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •@bobthomson70
Well general to most ordinary people, yes/no... Although ... I wouldn't like people to think I was a total arsehole... But I would like to think family will miss me and if they speak of me it would with fond thoughts
But I think.. it matters to wealthy people... How they are perceived by society
Bob Thomson
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Paul 💙
in reply to Bob Thomson • • •Kinene
in reply to Paul 💙 • • •Also, from the 16th century:
Sarah Brown
in reply to Bob Thomson • •Paul 💙 reshared this.
Eric Lawton
in reply to Paul 💙 • • •@PGBeattie
In order to save them from the struggle, we should have a 100% inheritance tax on anything more than the median annual wage.
@goatsarah
☠️ Maggot McFear ☠️
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Steve Rehrauer
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •“How can you have so many advantages and yet fuck up so amazingly completely?”
His wealth insulates him from the consequences of his mistakes and dumb-fuckery.
@pineywoozle
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Dave
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •I often think they're cursed... they acquire money and power *because* of their innate thirst for money and power. But when they're accumulated more money and power than anyone will ever need, they can't stop because that innate thirst doesn't go away.
I like to imagine that if I was a pro footballer earning 5 million a year, I would work for a year then never work again. But that is why I will never ever be in that position.
TinheadNed
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Jack William Bell
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •> How can you have so many advantages and yet fuck up so amazingly completely?
One word: Narcissism.
I grew up with a malignant narcissist parent. I know this territory well.
Sarah Brown
in reply to Jack William Bell • •Jack William Bell
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Tristan Harward
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •It's stronger than, heroin
When you could look in the mirror like, ‘There I am’”
rainynight65
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Musk pretty much fell into money from his first business ventures. He started his first company with $200k, partly from his dad, sold it for $307m, his share was $22m. Then he cofounded x.com with $12m, it became PayPal, was bought by eBay for $1.5bn, he walked away with $175m.
That kind of quick money will do a number on most people. He wasn't even a good CEO, he was replaced twice but got the money by being a major shareholder.
ladyteruki
Unknown parent • • •Ged Maheux
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Nikkileah
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •ladyteruki
Unknown parent • • •Raging LibTarg 🐗✊🏾🤬
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •mos_8502 :verified:
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •radioactivestardust
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •TCatLikesReality
Unknown parent • • •@ndevenish
Each if these men got to this position with early advantage, luck and ... years of lying, cheating the system and cronyism.
Their grotesque wealth and power is the result of undermining the system for personal benefit. They've bent the system to promote (and foster) narcissistic sociopaths like themselves.
Billionaires are not going to help society. They are the proof it is broken.
WMK
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •How indeed?
It's almost as if concentrating wealth and power in the hands of flawed individuals doesn't produce outcomes that benefit humanity as a whole and may likely be a huge impediment to Democratic societies being able to confront and solve existential threats and shared problems.
Tax these myopic, irresponsible, and dangerous man-babies so that they can enjoy their lives of luxury without trying to burn down the world to satisfy their deranged egos.
Sarah Brown likes this.
Nicole Parsons
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •All these men are examples of people lacking the ability to read the room.
So they built a curated version of the room to cope & there's always those willing to utilize such men.
Fascist movements are born from insecure men exploited by a fossil fuel industry unwilling to yield power.
Musk:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2022/10/31/saudi-prince-alwaleed-becomes-twitters-second-largest-shareholder/?sh=60115860523a
https://www.accessnow.org/press-release/saudi-death-sentence-social-media-activity/
Trump:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/27/trump-saudis-influence-buying/
https://thehill.com/policy/4215912-saudi-crown-prince-suggests-investment-would-stay-in-kushner-fund-if-trump-reelected/
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/donald-trump-keep-the-oil-speech-iowa-rally-1234946548/
Boris Johnson:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/16/boris-johnson-upbeat-on-saudi-oil-supply-as-kingdom-executes-three-more
https://www.desmog.com/2023/06/16/boris-johnsons-honours-list-includes-climate-science-deniers-and-fossil-fuel-lobbyists/
Boris Johnson's Honours List Includes Climate Science Deniers and Fossil Fuel Lobbyists - DeSmog
Adam Barnett (DeSmog)Tom Pearce
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •I Research Economic Crime and Hang Out With Mexican Cartels
Kev Kharas (VICE)Mastodon Migration
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Joseph Heller, an important and funny writer now dead, and I were at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island. I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel ‘Catch-22’ has earned in its entire history?”
And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”
And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”
And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”
Not bad! Rest in peace!
— Kurt Vonnegut
Sarah Brown likes this.
Jay Stephens
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown likes this.
Sarah Brown
in reply to Jay Stephens • •Did you read Surface Detail?
He’s Veppers.
IainMac9 🇦🇺🏴
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Cheradenine Zakalwe
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •MugsysRapSheet 🔩🐑🐘
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •The "He didn't NEED to be president! He's putting himself thru this for US!" crowd is a huge part of why #TheOrangeMenace still has so many loyal supporters.
They don't realize HE WAS NEARLY BROKE before running for president in 2016 (only doing so to boost his profile after finding out NBC was paying Gwen Stefani more than him.)
#DarthTraitor refused a salary simply *to skirt financial reporting laws*, then made a fortune using his office for personal gain. #MafiaDon #Emoluments
Guitarsophist
Unknown parent • • •Misha Van Mollusq 🏳️⚧️ ♀
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •stratlantic
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •OpenDown
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Scott Matter
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Accumulating wealth mostly doesn’t satisfy us as humans - the example of these and so many people before them shows pretty clearly.
We (humans, in particular cultures) have this lovely myth that getting rich will make us happy, keep us satisfied. But once we start to get rich, we start to fear losing that wealth, and try to accumulate more to protect against that loss. And then we use some of that wealth to build up systems of exploitation and security, to try to keep us safe and to keep accumulating more.
The capitalist machine is this, on a system-wide scale.
Ian Hecht
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Natasha Taylor
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Heller responds,“Yes, but I have something he will never have — enough.”'
Chris Real
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •I think the REAL reason Musk stopped paying rent for his offices last year was just to feel what it's like.
A billionaire going slumming, for kicks.
Phil Rees
Unknown parent • • •Patrick Hadfield
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown likes this.
DirtWood
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •StarkRG
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •I think he liked the Culture series because it depicts a libertarian post-scarcity utopia and he latched onto the "libertarian" part, disregarding the fact that the "post-scarcity utopia" part can't happen in a libertarian society.
As for why people like that strive for public adoration, I expect the commonality lies in at least one of their parents' emotional unavailability.
Arthur_500
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •So only poor people can help others?
It seems to me a poor person is at an extreme disadvantage in being able to help others.
As one person tries to survive in the world, another is providing jobs for thousands of people.
I think the person who is able to cobble the resources, combine them with an idea, provide jobs for thousands of people, prob ably is a better administrator than a person who is barely capable of taking care of themself.
Why do you think sucess is a bad thing?
TheKillShot
in reply to ladyteruki • • •So you’d be McKenzie Bezos? I like it.
J35T3R KRV5H
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •3lon on that k hole.. ?
anti union
anti all kinds of .. things..
here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk#Personal_life
Notice how crazy crypto manure piles they get.. (actual court papers- transcripts - regards to buyout drama)
? majority shareholders are savdis ffs.
https://youtu.be/WYYXTGyvDmQ
Twitter buyout court transcript
YouTubePreston MacDougall
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •floydgump
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •CJ Paloma's ...account
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •deep down inside, every abusive sack of stuff... hates themselves.
And to deny their own self hatred, they keep trying to "prove" themselves… and patriarchy says they have to do that...by dominating over others.
They're so unaware they don't even realize they hate themselves -because- they keep trying to dominate in such stupid and futile efforts to feel "superior".
Dave SC
in reply to Phil Rees • • •Vir Cotto
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Lewis
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •I guess we should be thankful he's too weirdly formed to do 'the worm'.
Some Guy Named Chris
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown likes this.
Jimmy Havok
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Tut Willy 🔱
Unknown parent • • •Cats & dogs aren't broken. 🤓
Hypolite Petovan
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Tut Willy 🔱 • •like this
Alexandra Lanes and Hypolite Petovan like this.
mybarkingdogs
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to mybarkingdogs • •ArchangelZeriel
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Hear, hear!
Honestly, at this point in my life, I've long ago started looking askance at anyone who's even passed $100mil--at the point you have enough money that you could almost literally do anything even a moderately unreasonable person could want for the rest of your life, and then your kids could do the same, and still leave your grandkids a nice nest egg?
Anyone who has that, and KEEPS WORKING FOR A PROFIT is in my estimation not operating in a way I can even come close to comprehending.
Elon's Twitter purchase is a good case in point here for another reason. For the amount he paid when he paid it, he could have invested enough in SpaceX to make it worth almost 150% of what it was. And that's supposedly the company that's driving his dream/passion project!
mnemonicoverload likes this.
CassandraVert
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •pettter
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •a good time to plug 'You Are Jeff Bezos' https://philome.la/KrisLigman/you-are-jeff-bezos/index.html
Though I believe the amounts are from 2018 and no doubt is even more ludicrous now.
You Are Jeff Bezos
philome.laFish Id Wardrobe
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to Fish Id Wardrobe • •DeterioratedStucco
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •廃墟猫
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •I think Boris is not very good with money though. He makes a lot, he spends a lot.
Probably Trump too.
Musk is richest because Tesla is somehow worth more than Toyota? I literally don't understand how that works.
@neonbubble
enantiomer
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •Sarah Brown
in reply to enantiomer • •enantiomer
in reply to Sarah Brown • • •