“The only concrete proposal he provides is to get rid of billionaires—or, rather, their billions, suggesting that an individual’s net worth be capped at $500 million: “there’s no reason we as a society have to put up with the continued existence of billionaires,” who he argues help “fringe philosophies” thrive.”
I have to absolutely and without reservation agree with that one concrete proposal. The recent parade of mega-yachts into Venice, and the incredible damage Musk has done, which I foresaw 15 years ago, is evidence enough to convince me.
I am not a “communist”, I am a New Deal Democrat. One of those people who understand that democracy is essentially about keeping billionaires from happening. Just as in ancient Greece, the citizens of Athens and other city-states, collectively chose (voted) that oligarchs were no longer going to run their price-fixing schemes and incidentally impoverish many citizens into selling themselves into slavery (that was how debts were settled). Oligarchs gamble with their vast holdings and crash markets, start wars, pass laws to make themselves immune to prosecution and eventually make themselves demi-gods. The inevitable result as wealth concentrates upward to fewer and fewer being a very few own everything and everyone.
The fundamental truth of democracy is that nobody owns anything or possess any wealth unless the rest of us let them. The fundamental question of democracy is how much WE allow the individual to keep as a safeguard against them destroying democracy. Thus, the ultra-rich have only one agenda: to evade the taxation and regulation (laws) that limit their accumulation of wealth. We have been brainwashed for over a century by the media with propaganda making democracy into theft from ”the best people.” The problem being no day of work by a single person can be worth hundreds of thousands of days of work by another person. That is the idea of all created equal that billionaires will not tolerate being entertained. The idea that “The world turned upside down” at Yorktown was that no more kings, oligarchs, or dictators, would make a people into slaves, subjects, serfs, wage slaves or whatever term signifying the end of freedom. Freedom is not greed.
That a citizen can only be allowed to have so much wealth, which equates to power, to safeguard the rest of the citizenry, is as valid as the idea that humankind must leave Earth and expand into the cosmos if we are to survive.
“Space, of course, was never going to be the only solution to all our problems, but the idea that it is useless is equally flawed. Most of the space industry has avoided those false extremes,-“
“Well….the fundamental problem has always been, in my view, our finite lifespan, and I have long held that an individual indefinite lifespan is the only way we will survive collectively as a species. There is some connection with space as the most likely method of travel to other stars will be to freeze people (without cellular damage) for centuries long voyages. Anyone frozen and embarking on a “slow boat” may be awakened mid-journey by a “fast boat” and be given a course of treatment to reverse any age-related effects. Alternately, we may very well continue to worship Mammon and destroy the environment…and go extinct.
Setting aside Terror Management Theory, I have found myself believing that Space is, in fact, a solution to almost all threats to our species. I do not see it as a false extreme. Name most any problem (beside death) and Gerard K. O’Neill’s vision of space colonization usually makes it go away.
The problem is that Musk and some other techbro’s are now a worse threat to humankind than nuclear war or a meteor or comet impact. In fact, Golden Dome and AI, along with the abomination that are megaconstellations, is the most likely path to nuclear Armageddon. Becker is correct in identifying the Silicon Valley accelerationist ideology as a threat that must be addressed before spending energy on space colonization.”
“Futurists very often completely miss the mark while a very few, like Jules Verne, get nearer to the bullseye. Gerard K. O’Neill and NOT Elon Musk was the Jules Verne of space colonization. O’Neill hit the mark with all the critical elements like an economic engine (Space Solar Power) an imperative (Climate Change which O’Neill mentioned) and habitats instead of Mars or other natural bodies as second homes due to the requirement for 1G. An immense state-sponsored program to use lunar resources as the key. Musk and NewSpace went in essentially the opposite direction and, as I have stated hundreds of times, is the worst thing that has ever happened to space exploration and colonization.”
“On the contrary the pendulum is soon to swing back, and it is not going to stop in the middle. We the People ended the oligarchy of the gilded age once before and then after the inevitable boom and bust of the great depression a 90 percent tax rate came into effect for several decades. History rhymes and it seems quite likely the billionaire class is about to be taxed and regulated into oblivion.
45 billion for alligator Alcatraz prisons and trillions more in debt while essentially ending taxation for oligarchs is the writing on the wall. Most of those who decided not to vote for a black woman will be actively voting to end the party of the rich from now on.”
“What “group” did the Panama Canal? The Hoover Dam? The federal highway system? The Rural Electrification Act? What group has funded basic science in the university system for the last century? What group directed the Apollo program and landed humans on the Moon? The Ayn-Rand-in-space-libertarian NewSpace crowd have nothing but satellites and oligarchy in their future. Only an immense state-sponsored energy project is going to guarantee our species survival. Entrepreneurs are likely to end us.
Billionaire hobbyists have shown us their wonderfully bizarre ability to lead humankind in the wrong direction. Presently their Roman salutes are pointing us down the road to autocracy and fascism. People like Gerard K. O’Neill have shown us the best path to a bright future. The Silicon Valley tech Bro accelerationists have shown us how to self-destruct.”
The very worst analogies are to be found applied to space. The novelty of paying to float in a radiation bath and vomit while looking out a window to earn fake astro-not wings is going to wear off. Once you get going in space no propellants are consumed and no refueling stops are needed. As for the 747….commercial air travel has always been subsidized by the government. It is classic corporate welfare.
“One of the few applicable comparisons is the Kennedy speech about setting sail on a new sea. We will have to take a small ocean of water with us as cosmic ray shielding for human missions to the outer solar system. A fact that NewSpace supporters instantly react to with wailing and gnashing of teeth when it is mentioned. There is no cheap.”