One thing that previous societies definitely got right is to talk about envy negatively. Everything these days is about envy. It’s not enough for one’s life to improve. It has to improve relative to others or people get upset.

“Keeping up with the Joneses” is now couched in socialist rhetoric about inequality. We can tell this is the case because when wage compression occurs, people get upset at “inflation” and “it’s so expensive now”.

The bottom percentiles saw unprecedented growth in recent years relative to the middle. Rather than celebrate, people got upset because things got expensive. When poor labor gets paid more, they get more expensive. That’s how it works.

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Epa095 10 hours ago | parent [-]

No. I can be envious of people who are independently wealthy, and control their own time.

But that is not the same feeling I have for Bezos, Musk, and other billionaires. That feeling is fear. Fear for the power they have, both politically and over the economy. Fear that the rise of the oligarchie and the extreme wealth differences will be the death of democracy.

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renewiltord 9 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah, that fear is a way for you to feel envy without damaging your self-image.

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saulpw 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

No, these are orders of magnitude. It's like a short man who is 5 foot tall, standing next to a 6 foot man and feeling envy. But standing next to a 50 foot tall creature would be abjectly terrifying for any human of any height.

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hammock 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What are the mags for (actual, observed) human height then?

	▲	saulpw 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		All adults are mag 0 meters. Infants are mag -1 meters. Below that are zygotes. There has never been a human that's 10x taller.

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renewiltord 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Sure, because of physical danger. But I’ve stood next to billionaires and been at no equivalent risk.

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tavavex 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What you said is impossible to argue against. "I said you were envious, so you are. Anything else is just you trying to cloak your envy." You already decided that everyone must secretly want to become a billionaire above all else, and the sole and exhaustive reason why all of them spew hatred towards that class of people is "they hate us cuz they aint us".

	▲	cindyllm 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[dead]

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thrance 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Your armchair psychoanalysis is extremely distasteful. Can you engage with the other side without straw manning them?

It is perfectly explainable for someone to fear Musk, pouring billions into influencing elections to prop up an anti-workers candidate, who runs on hate of minorities and ends up severely impoverishing the country through huge tax cuts to the wealthy and the destruction of all remaining social nets.

No, I do not envy Musk. Frankly, he looks rather miserable on his own. A healthy man does not send 50 tweets a day, cheat at videogames on stream to boost his fragile ego, or consume 10 different drugs.

Same thing with the others.

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renewiltord 4 hours ago | parent [-]

We’ve had ten years of this cloaking of disgraceful sin in the language of vulnerability. It hasn’t yielded anything of value and now with hindsight we can affirmatively declare that it was an abuse of people’s desire to care for the vulnerable.

I couldn’t care less for this deceit.

Besides, the rest of your comment is some random screed that reveals your political inclinations as the primary motivation for your comments. This /r/MurderedByWords content is a telltale.

By all means, spend half of your comment replies on dunking on some guy who isn't here as a way to flash your tribal colours.

	▲	thrance 16 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		So no, you won't stop your armchair psychoanalysis. Got it. Note that your comment didn't say anything, it's just attacking my writing. I am making an effort, speaking in your language, I would rather you be charitable with me on that front.