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I sure hope the internet isn't a reasonable indicator of how the general public feel about CEOs and billionaires. There are in fact many fantastic CEOs and billionaires who donate and focus their time and money and corporations to benefit communities. There's more than a reasonable argument that without billionaires, the planet would be suffering more.
This movement of hating on the mega wealthy is misguided. It's not like billionaires are actually hoarding wealth - they don't have billions stuffed under their bed. They own companies and stock in companies that are worth money. The money is used to create or buy other companies, to invest in other companies, to create new opportunities, to create jobs.
The Board of Directors are decreasing overhead and increasing profit margins to satisfy Wall Street's hunger. This is due to changing government regulations, mostly lead by Republicans. The Republicans want limited government, the dismantling of federal programs, an increase in private corporations, and greater opportunities for the wealthy to generate income off Wall Street speculation.
This act should be condemned and the murderer should be sent to prison.
Murdering one person isn't going to accomplish anything. Murdering all the CEOs isn't going to accomplish anything. It may feel good to you that this person's family has lost someone they love in retribution for all the families who have lost the people they love. But it's not going to prevent anyone else from dying.
Hopefully, after the crowd chills out from seething at the teeth, we can get back to discussing how fucked our health care system is. Oh, sorry - we just elected someone who explicitly says he's going to make health care worse and more expensive.
Maybe we should give a shit about our government and who we're voting for.
Maybe we should be shooting each other instead of these CEOs who present more as a symptom of the illness.
Edit: I'm going to take that back. It's clear that people are just angry about anything and everything. It doesn't matter how or why or its relevance. It's not just the internet, clearly. This is how we ended up with another Trump administration. Irrationality and fear are all that matter. Science, facts, context, intelligence, education; all passé. We are the mob standing by with pitchforks.
Sounds like you're making e/acc-like (effective altruism) arguments. Which basically is to make as much money as possible to use that money for positive change. It's very flawed, because 1) to make as much money as possible, you need to exploit workers, customers, or investors, and 2) it's authoritarian in nature. The wealthy are extremely out of touch with reality, and their priorities and ideal of what "positive change" is generally don't align with the populace, or what's needed most.
I don't think murdering CEOs is the answer, but I do hope the working class becomes more class conscious; the wealthy class sure is, and has never stopped waging class war.
Did I say make as much money as possible?
A business should make as much money as needed to cover overhead and make enough profit to meet their business plan. The better that company is at achieving that goal, the more valuable that company is.
I reject this notion that all businesses exist to exploit workers.
The wealthy people I know are all very involved with helping the poor and sick. They're genuinely good people from what I personally know of them. Are they doing what the people need most? I don't know. I know my own city has often invested in programs that weren't really helping those it intended to help. From what I learned this past year, it's striking how little government knows who is in need of what.
This is what we should be having more conversations about. How is it that we have this powerful tool to speak our minds yet so many people are being ignored? Or voting against their own interests.
That’s because you don’t understand the basic economic principles under which businesses operate. You think value is created out of thin air and is not a product of human labor.
It’s almost like governments do not operate in the democratic interests of the civilian populations they govern…. So strange. I wonder why that could be?
Value of a brand is created from consumer perspective. Value of a company is created by balancing operational expenses. There is nothing explicit in either of these that is exploitive and to suggest so is a broadly uninformed claim.
If human labor is involved in a company, why are you all so stuck on the concept that people are not being paid for their work? How is it that simply by being an employer, you are exploiting staff? I mean, I admit I'm totally being exploited at my current job but I've had other jobs where I was paid extremely well and given great opportunities. Are you talking about specific industries? Specific corporations? Is the guy selling kabobs down the street from me exploiting his staff?
You guys are either being dishonest with me or dishonest with yourselves. Or you really have no idea what you're talking about and just regurgitating what you've heard other people say.
Again, it seems like you have a really vague notion of what value actually is which is what makes you incapable of understanding the concept of labor exploitation. You need to understand the difference between marginal theories of value, which is defined by a circular logic where price determines value and value determines price, and labor theories of value, where people interact with the material world to modify it in some way that gives it added utility.
It’s not that simple. You can be an employer and not exploit the people that work for you. However, doing that means you will not have a profitable business. Profits come from exploitation. Please understand that when I use the word exploitation I’m not making an inherently moral argument about whether exploitation is good or bad. Exploitation is simply a material phenomena. I believe it only becomes a moral issue when undue suffering occurs as a result of said exploitation.
He might be. Small business are often some of the most exploitive workplaces because of how unprofitable they can be. It’s not uncommon for a small business to be forced into situations where they really have no choice but to exploit their staff if they want to continue operating. This is why so many restaurants in the US rely on undocumented immigrants who they can pay less than the minimum wage. It’s a flaw in the way our economy works.
This happens to a lot of people in industries where profitability declines. When profits are high, workers in those industries often get paid that they can afford their basic needs. However, as profits wane investors look to bolster them by taking more from their employees. What’s happening in the tech sector is a prime example of such a phenomenon. Unfortunately, this is a tendency that’s baked into the our economy. It prevents long term sustainable from being achieved in industries that are key to our economy but where the opportunities for new markets or innovations are lacking.
Have you thought that maybe you’re the one who’s more confident that you really should be? I get that a lot of what I’ve said may contradict vague notions about how the economy works that you may have absorbed simply because you exist within a world steeped in corporate propaganda. However, your beliefs are not ones that any worthwhile economist would take seriously.