On Billionaires and the Super Rich
There's a lot of discussion these days about billionaires. These are my thoughts:
If you paid everyone who works for you a decent wage, if you are respectful of the environment and pay your fair share of taxes without scamming to avoid them, if you Market your goods and services at a price that gives you a good profit but does not take advantage of people, in short if you've come by your money honestly without cheating or exploiting others, then I see nothing wrong in some people making a lot of money, even being billionaires.
On the other hand, if you got rich through taking advantage of others, paying people low wages, people who had no choice other than to accept because they had to feed themselves and their families and there simply weren't other choices, if you are constantly exploiting people, raising the prices of rents and Healthcare far beyond the realm of any reasonable profit; if you have been gaming the system in various ways, perhaps bribing politicians to give you the laws you want; if you have been pouring your wastes and poisons into the environment that we all share, thereby causing harm to others, then you belong in prison, not a mansion.
If you paid everyone who works for you a decent wage, if you are respectful of the environment and pay your fair share of taxes without scamming to avoid them, if you Market your goods and services at a price that gives you a good profit but does not take advantage of people, in short if you've come by your money honestly without cheating or exploiting others, then I see nothing wrong in some people making a lot of money, even being billionaires.
On the other hand, if you got rich through taking advantage of others, paying people low wages, people who had no choice other than to accept because they had to feed themselves and their families and there simply weren't other choices, if you are constantly exploiting people, raising the prices of rents and Healthcare far beyond the realm of any reasonable profit; if you have been gaming the system in various ways, perhaps bribing politicians to give you the laws you want; if you have been pouring your wastes and poisons into the environment that we all share, thereby causing harm to others, then you belong in prison, not a mansion.
