• @misterfenskers@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    335 months ago

    I had a shower thought this morning:

    At a certain point in capitalism, a wealthy person can get enough money to live comfortably the rest of your life. If you decide to continue to grow your wealth from there, you’re essentially not just making money for yourself, but so others can’t have it.

    I have a feeling that number is well below a billion, but I’m no economist.

    • @DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      125 months ago

      It’s called hoarding and it’s an unhealthy habit so why isn’t anybody doing anything? Because if you give them enough of that money they won’t complain.

    • @CitizenKong@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      9
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      There was a study from 2010 that said that the happiness already plateaus somewhere around 75k annually. But more recent studies suggest that for some people, more money means more happiness well beyond that, and for some it doesn’t. Basically, if you’re generall an unhappy person, money doesn’t help much. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/does-more-money-correlate-greater-happiness-Penn-Princeton-research

      But I agree that owning more than 1 billion (or even 100 million) is just useless hoarding, since no one can spend that much money in a lifetime (at least without decadent spending for spending’s sake).

      • @themelm@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        45 months ago

        But you miss that having the money isn’t necessarily the point they have power and control over resources people and machines as well as influence in government

            • @CitizenKong@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              25 months ago

              Also not a psychologist, but attended a four hour lecture on psychopaths recently (out of interest). I don’t think happiness as a concept exists for actual psychopaths, because they don’t really feel emotions the same way.

    • @xenoclast@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      65 months ago

      Nearly all social animals would be punished in some way for hoarding resources from the group. Between loss of social status all the way to being killed. Our closest relatives like apes straight up murder individuals that do this.

      It’s a mental illness. We’ll probably find out it was caused by lead or micro plastics if our species survives this time.

      For now. I believe the correct call to action involves guillotines. We can dial it back if things get better.