LogFAQs > #941534586

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-offshore-wealth-idUSBRE86L03U20120722
Super rich hold $32 trillion in offshore havens

Something I will never understand: the idiotic self-harm billionaires inflict upon themselves. As the general population becomes poorer, less innovation occurs. Fewer small businesses open, and fewer inventors are able to put cool products on the market.

If I was a billionaire, I would be pushing so hard for redistribution of wealth even out of purely selfish desire for more interesting stuff to buy.

Hell, if all the billionaires banded together and dedicated half their collective fortunes to some pie-in-the-sky project (for instance, extreme life extension, or the elimination/mitigation of aging) then they could all benefit from the rewards and not see their lifestyles change one iota for the worse.

It's pure, distilled greed. They want money for the sake of having money. They don't even seem to realize that they could selfishly benefit from a wealthier society.

It's so absolutely mind-boggling. They're trying to be selfish, but because they're so absurdly short-sighted about it, they're missing out on so much potential benefit.

Just to illustrate this point: would you rather be one of the richest people on the planet in the 18th century, or would you rather live a comfortable middle-class life today? I 100% choose the latter. I have access to modern medicine, the internet, video games, all kinds of sights and sounds that the wealthiest people on the planet could never have dreamed of 300 years ago. And the only reason it's all been possible is because we have millions upon millions of people with enough money and education to innovate. Imagine the kind of world we could live in if every single person currently living in poverty was instead afforded a middle-class lifestyle.

We could have eliminated age-related health problems and established a Mars base by now if the billionaires of the world could just be satisfied with a few hundred million dollars instead. No matter how selfish you are, the argument for wealth redistribution still benefits you.