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tome 7 hours ago

What AOC is trying to do here is shift the debate from extracting retribution on people who have violated specific laws (a fair and an honest way to enforce justice in a civil society) to extracting retribution on people who she insinuates "must have done something immoral" based on their net worth (a selfish, dishonest, envious and greedy way to run a society). It's a clever play, and unfortunately for the people of the world who value freedom and a high standard of living, it's going to work. There is enough of the population filled with envy and greed that they'll lap up whatever a politician tells them bogie man of the day is. Historically it's been the aristocracy, Jews, immigrants, but those don't work any more, so now it's generally "the rich". Billionaires are the thin end of the wedge. After them it will be business owners of all kinds, people with second homes, people who send their children to private schools, and generally anyone who has anything else that someone might envy. It's clear that the way society is going people are going to keep lapping this stuff up.

HN used to be open minded about people creating wealth. The change is shocking to me, actually.

ModernMech 3 hours ago | parent [-]

>There is enough of the population filled with envy and greed that they'll lap up whatever a politician tells them bogie man of the day is. Historically it's been the aristocracy, Jews, immigrants, but those don't work any more, so now it's generally "the rich".

I love how the billionaires hoarding resources to entrench their own power are not the greedy ones in your telling.

tome 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Oh, I don't know any of those. The only billionaires I know of are those providing service to consumers or businesses that people can freely decide whether to pay for or not. I just subscribed to another thing on Amazon for far less in price than the value I get for it. Thanks Bezos!

The selfish people I know of are politicians and online commenters who think they're entitled to the wealth built by other people.

ModernMech 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Okay but the quote in question and this topic generally is more than just the billionaires you know of and the value you personally get from them -- it's about how billionaires exist in the system as a whole, and what it takes to become one.

tome 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah, it should be about the value everyone gets from billionaires. I would love there to be more billionaires. It would be a sign that more and more wealth is being created in society. More billionaires should exist!