Sunday, August 3, 2014

"Behind Every Great Fortune There is a Crime"

Honoré de Balzac said that.

Stephen King said he is worth in-between 200 million and 400 million dollars, and he made it honestly. He worked for it by giving people what they wanted. And he's 66 years old.

J.K. Rowling is worth about a billion, and she worked for it.

The Kennedys are worth almost a billion, made it dishonestly during Prohibition, and none of them have ever worked a day in their lives. Instead, the wreck innocent people's lives.

Carlos Slim is worth $72 billion, and used the Mexican government to enrich himself by stealing people's money.

Bill Gates is also worth $72 billion, and anyone who thinks he made it honestly doesn't know much about Gates and his relationship with the government.

And governments? They are billionaires and trillionaires - and every cent is stolen.

I suspect an honest man, who is immensely talented, can't even make $500 million in his life. But over a billion? Dishonest every time, and made it through using the government to steal people's money, impoverishing everyone.

Not by giving people what they want, but by taking it from them.

I suspect these people are sociopaths.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it was Taki Theodoracopulos who wrote that, if someone gave him $1 billion, he'd find a way to give $750 million away to charity, because $250 million is the most you could possibly need to live a reasonably luxurious lifestyle and ensure your children were well-provided for in life. Having personally met many billionaires, he found that they were almost all extremely paranoid and vindictive. Even if someone did miraculously acquire a fortune of billions by honest means, that much money would almost certainly drive him slightly insane.

Unknown said...

If I got a billion somehow I'd give away all of it except maybe 50 million. If you can't have everything you want on 50 million you've got a problem.

Stephen King once said he bought a radio station that was ready to go out of business and had it play all the oldies he liked.

outsider said...

The way to get stinking rich is to get many other people to pay you in skills to pay them a pittance to work for you.

Unknown said...

The best way to get stinking rich is to use the government to steal people's money.