Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#61

Post by eli_gottlieb » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 1:59 PM UTC

jdimov wrote: post #54

ukigumo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's talk about the ingredients you need to make your cookies shall we?

Yes, let's do that! Here's a wake up call: I don't have access to any ingredients that everyone else doesn't also have access to! Because it's not the ingredients. It's how I see them and what I do with them. You choose to cry all day long about scarcity and injustice. I choose to rejoice in the abundance and the unlimited opportunities given to me. This is what makes me wealthy and you poor. Not the government. Not…

So, just to be clear, you are claiming that power and chance are the ultimate justice in this world?

Are you the villain on a cartoon for 12-year-olds?

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#62

Post by ukigumo » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 1:59 PM UTC

jdimov wrote: post #54

ukigumo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's talk about the ingredients you need to make your cookies shall we?

Yes, let's do that! Here's a wake up call: I don't have access to any ingredients that everyone else doesn't also have access to! Because it's not the ingredients. It's how I see them and what I do with them. You choose to cry all day long about scarcity and injustice. I choose to rejoice in the abundance and the unlimited opportunities given to me. This is what makes me wealthy and you poor. Not the government. Not…

I'm sorry, my previous comment was not an attempt at changing your functionalist, would-be-objectivist and elitist view of the world but just a veiled reference to space cookies because you seem to be high on something. Maybe it's a big white horse, who knows?

If it matters to you I'm not poor, at least according to HMRC it's quite the contrary.

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#63

Post by disputin » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:00 PM UTC

jdimov wrote: post #49

disputin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't share your cookies, we will revolt and take your cookies, and everything else you have while we're at it.

And you will still die poor and miserable, because try as you might YOU CAN NOT TAKE this which I have and you don't. You will just never have it and I always will.

Can you explain that to this lot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebelli...

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#64

Post by slowblood » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:01 PM UTC

Hard for me to feel anything other than sympathy of anyone who has to ride a bus to work.

"Elite" and "riding a bus" are two concepts that are "living in a parallel universe." Not the same one.

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#65

Post by whoisthemachine » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:04 PM UTC

I'm not sure what I just read - it seemed like a bunch of disparate points drawn together with a tinge of rage at something, for the sake of having rage at something.

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#66

Post by jdimov » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:04 PM UTC

ukigumo wrote: post #62

jdimov wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, let's do that! Here's a wake up call: I don't have access to any ingredients that everyone else doesn't also have access to! Because it's not the ingredients. It's how I see them and what I do with them. You choose to cry all day long about scarcity and injustice. I choose to rejoice in the abundance and the unlimited opportunities given to me. This is what makes me wealthy and you poor. Not the government. Not…

I'm sorry, my previous comment was not an attempt at changing your functionalist, would-be-objectivist and elitist view of the world but just a veiled reference to space cookies because you seem to be high on something. Maybe it's a big white horse, who knows? If it matters to you I'm not poor, at least according to HMRC it's quite the contrary.

No, you're poor. Make no mistakes about this. I don't care what HMRC says.

You are poor because you don't believe in yourself. You are poor because you think someone owes you something. You are poor because you think others got lucky and you didn't. You are poor because you REFUSE TO SEE THE FUCKING DAYLIGHT but are more than happy to bitch about the wrongdoings and villainity of those others and drain all your energy doing this instead of CREATING the life and the WEALTH that you are here to create!

That's why you're poor.

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#67

Post by maxerickson » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:07 PM UTC

jnbiche wrote: post #18

sgift wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or Piketty (quoted in the article). The book also contains ideas how to solve the phenomens described.

Is the book readable, as in well-written? Edit: I just read a detailed synopsis of the book (I know it's not the same as the book). I strongly agree with his diagnosis, but not his cure. I think two things have gotten us into this mess: (general commentary, my remarks are not aimed at parent comment) 1) Corporations (as in the legal construct) and all the legal and financial benefits they enjoy, which allows capital…

You've managed to glibly assassinate the character and ability of thousands of people in the same sentence that you pat yourself on the back. Well done.

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#68

Post by EliRivers » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

jdimov wrote: post #45

EliRivers wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is incorrect. In the typical modern liberal democracy, the right to vote and other such forms of political expression is not tied to how much wealth one generates.

No, that's how disgruntled people WANT it to be. Luckily, it isn't and it never will be.

I can look around me and see unemployed people voting, and I recall the top tax rate was once 90%. Where do you live?

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#69

Post by rwmj » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

I'm intrigued by what the alternative would be. Google can't stop developing better search / self-driving cars / etc because some other company would do it instead. It seems as if the author wants everyone to hold back on change voluntarily, a kind of digital Luddism.

Re: Google and tech’s elite are living in a parallel universe – John Naughton

#70

Post by aragot » Sun, Feb 22, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

jdimov wrote: post #34

aragot wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm worried about the form of the redistribution. In France, we have small taxes in many places. Just one example: We dealt with copyright issues by creating a tax on storage mediums, from a few cents to 20-40€ depending on the container, the size and the volatility - more than 40 different tax levels (see tables here [1]). Obviously they included the bureaucracy feature, where if you're a company you can send back a…

Re-distribution?? Ex-cuse-me?? These aren't YOUR cookies, you bum! Make your own cookies and THEN worry about re-distribution! When someone else has made the cookies, YOU DON'T GET A SAY in how they are distributed, do you get that?

Whether you like it or not, redistribution is the basis for most of the laws of my country (and certainly yours). It's not up to you or me, it's how the People think. In fact, that's what the OP is about.

It is besides the point to know which side I am. In fact, I've just said tax complexity squashes new enterprises. I've written an article about how an entrepreneur in France loses 70% of his income in tax-and-administrative-burden [1]. So guess whether I enjoy redistribution or not?

[1] http://adrien-ragot.me/why-i-say-70-percent-tax-in-france/