That’s not the point. If Jeff Bezos wanted to spend 1 billion dollars today he could. Like maybe he couldn’t walk out of the bank with 1 billion dollars in cash, but all he would need to do was sign a piece of paper and that 1 billion is on its way to a new owner. That 1 billion on its own is more than enough for you and your family to live extravagantly for your entire lives, and you still wouldn’t touch half of it. After spending that 1 billion dollars, he’s got 184 more. It may not be cash, but it’s value that can be traded, spent, or used as collateral.
The form that this wealth takes is irrelevant. What matters is that if it were redistributed, it could change thousands or even millions of lives, and instead it serves only one person.
Oh sure, and money isn’t actually stuff, it’s just an approximation of the stuff that you could buy. You can’t just buy anything you want with it.
If you want to actually convert it into stuff it’s a decade long process to take the raw resources and process them into the desired end product.
(Sure it’s not “real money” the same way money, laws, government, etc. aren’t “real” but they’re enough of a shared psychosis that it provides the ability to shape reality. Smugly pointing out that it’s just another socioeconomic abstraction layer deep doesn’t change the material effect on reality.)
That much wealth for a single person who have no use. But no money for dying or needy people. Humanity is fucked.
It’s not real money, it’s just an estimation of the stuff they have with how much people are likely to pay for them.
If you’d actually want to convert it to real money, it’d be a decades long plan. Like what Gates is doing.
That’s not the point. If Jeff Bezos wanted to spend 1 billion dollars today he could. Like maybe he couldn’t walk out of the bank with 1 billion dollars in cash, but all he would need to do was sign a piece of paper and that 1 billion is on its way to a new owner. That 1 billion on its own is more than enough for you and your family to live extravagantly for your entire lives, and you still wouldn’t touch half of it. After spending that 1 billion dollars, he’s got 184 more. It may not be cash, but it’s value that can be traded, spent, or used as collateral.
The form that this wealth takes is irrelevant. What matters is that if it were redistributed, it could change thousands or even millions of lives, and instead it serves only one person.
Oh sure, and money isn’t actually stuff, it’s just an approximation of the stuff that you could buy. You can’t just buy anything you want with it.
If you want to actually convert it into stuff it’s a decade long process to take the raw resources and process them into the desired end product.
(Sure it’s not “real money” the same way money, laws, government, etc. aren’t “real” but they’re enough of a shared psychosis that it provides the ability to shape reality. Smugly pointing out that it’s just another socioeconomic abstraction layer deep doesn’t change the material effect on reality.)