By our collective grace are people permitted to be so successful. Not one of our most successful billionaires would be where they are today without the people around them. The fairness/absurd thing doesn't really fly with me because of this.
>"By our collective grace are people permitted to be so successful"
While I fundamentally disagree with you, if this applies to rich people, why doesn't it apply to everyone? Why shouldn't the government take 90% of your income? The logical conclusion to your position is communism. Nobody may have more than another because we all helped equally to build Amazon (no we didn't).
The reason I disagree with your statement is that nobody participated in another's success unwillingly. It is not by "grace", it is by mutually beneficial transactions. Yeah you can make the argument that Amazon relies on the entire society around them to run: people to build and maintian roads, people who build and maintain and drive trucks, people who make cardboard and tape, people who buy from Amazon, etc etc etc. But here is the thing: all those people have been paid in the process. A fundamental principle of capitalism is that two rational actors only ever make a transaction if both people find it to be beneficial. Again, this is why I find it so entitled to claim some stake in Amazon's success when, by definition, you've already been compensated for your participation.
No. But I think that if Jeff Bezos wants to live in a world where people don’t climb over the gates of his mansion and eat him then he better make sure to contribute enough to ensure an orderly, well functioning, and somewhat equitable society.
This dynamic is as old as civilization itself. The rich can claim to be entitled to whatever they want, but it’s only by the grace of the masses that they avoid the guillotine. Literally.
People have made it pretty clear over thousands of years and seven continents that if you don't share the spoils of society reasonably they will eventually storm the castles, mansions, or government buildings and put everyone's head on a spike.
The rich should never get too confused about the fact that they are alive because the masses are choosing not to kill them and take their possessions, not the other way around.
Billionaires are pretty outnumbered, it's not a fair fight.
I think you malign the penguins, sir.