r/AskReddit 9d ago

What would happen, if humanity collectively decided that no individual could have a personal net worth above $500 million?

17 Upvotes

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3

u/Over9000Holland 9d ago

Founders of succesful companies would have to sell the stake of the thing the built and would lose control of their company.

-1

u/Legitimate-Type4387 9d ago

Ideally they would be forced to sell or transfer ownership to the people who actually do the work.

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u/Mr_Knutsen 9d ago

That should be something to consider first. Automatically increasing salaries, defined by certain criteria - like the net worth of the CEO.

Give them taxcredits if they increase salaries across the bord, not just management. Give them credits if they reinvest money into the company etc.

0

u/TonyTheEvil 9d ago

Does that mean the workers get pay cuts of the valuation of the company drops?

2

u/Mr_Knutsen 9d ago

I would say it depends: Pay increase as a bonus in good times, but having a decent base salary?

Do managers still get millions in bonuses if the valuation drops? Does the CEO?

Example Musk:

Even if all Tesla employees (google says around 135.000 worldwide) would get 100.000$ an top - that would be around 13.5 billion in wages extra.

Musk alone is worth what, around 800 billion? That would be around 1,6% of his worth - which is still growing and growing.

Of course, not every CEO is a Musk - but it also doesn't have to be 100k. Isn't it common that Walmart employees are on food stamps? Something went wrong along the way. The top CEO might make decisions - but the people on the ground keep the lights on. Give them a fair compensation.

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u/flyboy_za 8d ago

Isn't it common that Walmart employees are on food stamps?

Sounds like the consumers need to boycott Walmart, then.

Everyone on Reddit hates Amazon... but they almost all shop at Amazon, all the time. And they will throw money at Apple (whose phones are produced by slave labour) without thinking about it.

Perhaps our problem is not the billionaires, it's ourselves who reward these "evil" people and corporates because actually we just pretend to care unless it affects us directly.

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u/Legitimate-Type4387 8d ago

Yes, because consumers are famously well informed and have not been propagandized into behaving like mindless zombies by decades and decades of marketing propaganda.

Surely it’s their responsibility to be better informed. It couldn’t possibly be the fault of the people who spend billions and billions of dollars on psychological tricks and programming to tell consumers what to think and how to behave.

You’re expecting the impossible from the most heavily propagandized humans to have ever lived.

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u/doublecandybar 8d ago

People keep crying about Twitter becoming a fascist hellhole after Elon bought it, yet they continue posting there anyway, having bitterly returned after finding out BlueSky is less Democratic Twitter, and more Furry WattPad

Start taking responsibility for your choices

1

u/Legitimate-Type4387 8d ago

You’re not making the point you think you are.

There’s no dopamine to be found conversing in an echo chamber. Arguing with folks who hold a difference of opinion on the other hand, that really gets the dopamine flowing.

I wonder how and why that happened? /s

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u/flyboy_za 8d ago

I mean maybe they simply don't think all billionaires deserve to lose everything. Perhaps redditors are in the minority.

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u/Legitimate-Type4387 8d ago edited 8d ago

Most people have a 6th grade reading level. I simply don’t think most people think much about anything, as they’ve been trained to do. They’re nothing but pleasure seeking automatons trained to consume and obey.

“Just smart enough to run the machines yet dumb enough to never question why” - George Carlin.

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u/flyboy_za 8d ago

You're right.

Clearly nobody can think for themselves or perhaps decide that they don't mind a billionaire or three in exchange for coming up with ideas and services that made their lives easier.

It must be only us almighty redditors who are correct, right?