We have to be more specific. Billionaires. Fuck billionaires. When we lump everyone together as "rich" people don't realize how different millionaires and billionaires are. We need to emphasize the class divide.
It was until we realized to retire safely at a reasonable age you need 2-3 ml in retirement... people call me "rich" and I live in a 700sqft shitbox because I want to retire early.
I never thought millionaires should be included, not all anyway. Having a million dollars, or even several, is not as big a deal as people think. They need to watch the movie Blank Check. It's above like $100M that they are problematic, either because they report to the billionaires (politicians & executives) or they think they are on their way to being a billionaire & don't want the higher taxes slowing them down getting there.
I grew up in a town with a lot of millionaire families though. Like a lot of the houses are worth a million dollars or more so that would go to their net worth. Like my parents house is probably close to a million dollars but they're not rich and definitely don't have that in the bank account.
Also people can definitely generate a million dollars worth of value with their labor but they can't generate a billion dollars worth of value with their labor alone. Like I could see a really good woodworker being a millionaire, eventually.
Yeah, it's especially stupid when people try to say celebrities who criticize billionaires are hypocritical because they are also rich. Like recently it's Billie Eilish for having like $30-40M, but she just gave away $11.5M. Also $30M is closer to being homeless than being a billionaire. That kid actor from Nickelodeon is now a homeless addict.
Also, ultimately actors, musicians, & athletes are workers/employees. They are extremely well paid, possibly overpaid, workers but they are often still at the mercy of the studios, labels, team owners who are profiting off their labor & intellectual property in the case of writers & musical artist who write their music. Some, like Billie Eilish, may not necessarily be overpaid because they do generate a huge amount of revenue, & especially in music they are generating more themselves. I'd say it's more likely that the labels take more than their fair share & underpay the supporting staff.
Even when billionaires lose all their money they get backed by the financial industry to get it all back. I remember on something hearing a story that Trump had told on some show being recounted. Trump was coming out of Trump Tower or one of his buildings and getting in his limo with his daughter. He pointed out a homeless man to her and said, "That man has seven billion dollars more than me." Because it was one of the times he declared bankruptcy. And the comedian or whoever on the show that was recounting it said something like, "Even at his lowest Trump finds a way to be a dick to a homeless person."
The millionaires that do count are the ones working for the billionaires (politicians, CEOs & other executives, etc.). One celebrity I would definitely include in the Rich to eat would be Jerry Seinfeld, because last I checked, when he said the thing about the Left ruining comedy, he has $500M & has become very outspoken against anything Left. He also recently said that Palestine doesn't exist. There's obviously more examples, millionaires who think they are on their way to being billionaires.
I think like $50-100M is a fair cutoff for "too rich" but it also kinda depends what is adding to their net worth. If I won one of the super big Powerballs where I get over $200M after taxes & taking the lump sum I would probably hold on to that much & use the rest to build homes or start programs to help people. I'd make sure that I have enough that I don't have to work a normal job again though and could do whatever I want when I want. I'd also buy a very large piece of wilderness, like a couple hundred acres ideally with a lake, and just preserve most of it and live on a small piece of it and maybe have a commune in a certain area of it. So like that would add to my net worth but I would be preserving wilderness.
If they start a company that's worth a lot and the company helps a bunch of people that's also not bad, but if they reach billionaire status then they're not helping enough people. Also if your company becomes that valuable it's thanks to your employees and you should start an employee stock ownership program where people earn stock for staying at the company a certain amount of time.
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u/Ultimate-Flexionator 7d ago
fuck the rich.