The Human Race Must Abolish Billionaires
Hello, letās have a talk. A talky talk. A talky talk about how and why Billionaires should not be allowed to exist, why we can, must, and should seize all of their combined wealth, and what we can do with it when we have it.
And maybe some cheeky ideas about what to do with that sorry lot once weāve plundered all their shinies and wealth, mhm! Oh yes.
Oh my oh my oh my! What is this!
It seems that 2,754 human beings on this planet we share have over $1,000,000,000 in wealth! This simply will not do, thatās far too many. But what Iād really like to do is draw your attention to the eye-gouging sum of their total wealth.
Truly a staggering sum. In fact, itās so staggering, itās achieved what really big numbers can do where they no longer really contain any conceivable value. It is truly difficult for the human mind to conceive of this kind of largeness, and it can even trick you into thinking, hey, this isnāt that much bigger than 9.2 million! Which isnāt all that much, really.
Iām so sorry but thatās wrong.
So how much is 9.2 Trillion?
A useful way to look at numbers is to use a scale we encounter every day: the second. I refer to this excerpt from a helpful letter to the New York Times written in 1986:Ā
āI found that 1,000 seconds ago was equal to almost 17 minutes. It would take almost 12 days for a million seconds to elapse and 31.7 years for a billion seconds. Therefore, a trillion seconds would amount to no less than 31,709.8 years.
A trillion seconds ago, there was no written history. The pyramids had not yet been built. It would be 10,000 years before the cave paintings in France were begun, and saber-toothed tigers were still prowling the planet.ā
Thatās just 1 Trillion seconds. 9.2 Trillion seconds is 291,730.16 years ago! Recorded history doesnāt even go back that far. The lost island in the North Sea Doggerland was still around back then. The land bridge between Russia and Alaska was still around. Starting to get how much money $9.2 Trillion is?
For the sake of argument, letās say that these 2,754 people are one person (and for the sake of humanityās scale, they might as well be), and decide to spend their cash. What can they do with $9.2 Trillion dollars?
What about a castle? Castles are cool! Iād like a castle. They gotta be expensive right?
TheĀ Devizes Castle, built in the 12th century, was sold for $3.2 million. On our time scale, thatās just about 39 days out of 291,730.16 years. But thatās not even close to the most expensive castle. Thatās probably the Asheford Castle, in Ireland, also from the 12th century, valued around $68m. Thatās a bit bigger of a chunk, coming around to about 3.2 years out of our budget of 291,730.
Okay, we have a swanky place to live. How about a plane to fly there? Or a boat? Letās buy the best ones of each.
Luxury jets are easy: you want a Gulfstream IV - clocking in at $38m. There are other, much more expensive planes, but they are more straight up commercial airliners or tactical bombers. For a single person, a Gulfstream is really where itās at.
Yachts? The choices here are way more varied. Technically, the worldās most expensive yacht is the History SupremeeĀ at $4.5 Billion, but this is just a mere 100-foot vessel coated in pure gold and platinum. Letās go bigger, but slightly cheaper, and get the Eclipse, a 536 foot long, $1.5 Billion dollar vessel that is sure to make all the less rich people envious.
Why not a car? The most expensive car is theĀ Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita, coming in at a mere $4.8 Million.
If we add this all up, itās $1,042,500,000. This is 33 years.
You can buy the worldās most luxurious castle, jet, yacht, and car, and only use 35 years out of the budget of 291,730.
In FACT: if every single one of the 2,754 billionaires could buy one of the most luxurious castle, jet, yacht, and car each, there would still be $6.3 TRILLION left over between them.
Starting to get the picture?
There is no logical, moral, ethical, or even comedic argument to be made for even 10,000 people to have access to $9.2 Trillion in wealth, much less 2,754. They simply cannotĀ spend this wealth on a meaningful, individual level. It can only be hoarded, and used to create more wealth.
Now, letās say we forcefully take their money, and liquidate all their assets, and we, the people, now have $9.2Trillion in fungible cash. Letās say, for the sake of argument, that the $200 billion that we need to drop to make this an even 9 gets lost in depreciation. Thatās almost 2%, so, I feel thatās not a difficult or even unfair argument to make.
So, letās say after seizing these bastardās wealth and liquidating it we have $9Trillion left over. What can we do with all of that?
It would only cost about $55 Million to fix Flint. Letās do that.
The most bloated estimates say it would cost $265 Billion to end world hunger and malnutrition. Letās do that.
What about education? What if we forgave all the American student loans? Thatās a hefty $1.4 Trillion, but, we have it to spare.
Reducing Greenhouse Gasses is a tricky one. Planting trees to offset carbon emissions is a good idea, so, letās fund some projects to do that.
āThe cost to plant a tree varies depending on the location of the project and the type of tree being planted, and ranges between approximately one dollar to three dollars per tree.ā - Plant a Billion Trees
So, $3Billion for a billion trees. Nice. Thatāll regreen the landscape quite a bit, and this is just one example of a single effort to reforest multiple lost jungles. Letās fund fiveĀ such projects, bringing the total to 5 billion trees and $15 Billion dollars.
What about Solar? What if we made a Solar Farm in the Sahara to cover the energy use of the entire planet?Ā The cost of the project will be about five trillion dollarsĀ assuming we could figure out the infrastructure to support it.
Whatās that got us, totaled up? Weāve spent $6.68 Trillion. Weāve got about $2.3 Trillion left over. Weāve ended world hunger, forgiven all American student loan debt, replanted billions of trees, and the world, in theory, is on 100% solar power now. Seems like a pretty rosy state of existence. And we still have 72,932 years of our time/moneyĀ left over. Thatās almost enough left over to buy every billionaire the most luxurious castle, jet, yacht, and car.
So, clearly, it is an illogical, immoral act for a billionaire to hoard all this wealth, when weāve seen what we can do with it. What should we do with them?
yousharknotpass
snowghoul
romaincrisis
dededos
turnnoffyourmind
