• Croquette
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    There is no ethical billionaire because to amass a billion dollar means other people that produced that much value did not get paid properly. Simple as that. If you inherit a billion dollars, it was still made on the back of workers.

    • NAK@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s just not true.

      Let’s say a person became a billionaire running a consulting firm. The going rate for consultants at every other consulting firm is paid $100/hour. Our billionaire paid their consultants $200/hour.

      Are you saying that wouldn’t be ethical?

      • Croquette
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        No because if a person a billion dollars by paying someone 200$/h, it means that the worker produced way over that in value for the billionaire.

        That’s fine that a company takes a cut on that, but to get to a billion dollars, that means that the the company brings in way more than that.

        Usually, the salary of someone is roughly half the cost of the employee, so let’s say it cost the employer 400$/h for one employee. If the employer add a profit of 10% on that which is pretty reasonable, it would take 25 000 000 man/hour to get a billion dollars in profit. Or roughly 2800 years working 24/7, everyday of the year.

        For a more realistic scenario (40h/week, 52 week a year), that’s 12 000 years.

        That’s a scenario where there is only the billionaire employer taking a cut. Add other C-suites taking a chunk too and it gets more ridiculous.

        It’s not because other companies pay less that means that the company paying more is ethical.

      • Mnemnosyne@lemmynsfw.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, that wouldn’t be ethical. It’s not a question of paying more than others, it’s a question of taking more for yourself personally than the value of the work you personally do.

        Let’s skip the consulting firm thing because that sort of business has a lot of ethical questions inherently, and just say they became a billionaire selling widgets. Let’s also posit that widgets are a useful, quality product that enhances the lives of those who purchase them in some way. And we’ll stick with your proposition that they pay $200 an hour to their employees.

        If they became a billionaire, it is still unethical. It means two things: their employees wages should have been even higher, and/or their product should have been less expensive. It’d have to be more than a vague hypothetical to pinpoint where the most unethical stuff is happening, but it IS happening, because a human is not capable of doing work worth a billion dollars in their lifetime.

        Inheriting a billion or more is not inherently unethical because you didn’t necessarily have a hand in accumulating it. However, few people will remain ethical after that, because it is difficult to possess that level of wealth without some of it being used unethically. Perhaps if you converted it all to cash and put it in a money bin, Scrooge McDuck style, you could know that your wealth isn’t out there doing unethical things, but there’s few other ways.

        • Tangent5280@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          I hope you try to practice what you preach brother, and not just type down long winded comments on lemmy on why your brain is smarter and your heart wider than all the rest of us sinners.

          • Croquette
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            What are you babling on about. I am not a billionaire and will never be.

            You have jack shit to say to you resort to insults. I’ll go low too, go back to sucking the dicks of billionaire and justify their horrid impact on human misery.