Corrupt billionaires aren't the only parasites

https://youtu.be/mLBHjnF1_fs?t=292

Government doesn't just provide for corrupt megacorps through subsidies, contracts, and regulatory exemption. It also creates a vast class of small time parasites (in the private sector). These people are in moral principle no different from those ultra wealthy moochers.

There is a way in which economy degrades by increasing many unproductive elements.

This happens in Capitalism too, but somewhat less.

For example, more labor being wasted on advertising than ever. More labor being wasted on producing things which have no real use, but people just like them a lot.

You see in many poor countries that they actually have plenty of buisnesses, but these buisnesses arent producing food or houses or anything really. Fortune teller comes to mind now. People are being paid to produce nothing literally. They are being paid for mere mental effect. Same with singers too.

Poor and non-productive countries are just producing too much useless stuff.

Well oje moral principle is extent of damage and desperation in the individual. Furthermore there is a concept in morality known as intent and also the extent of capacity to not commit.

If a poorer person steals the same thing a richer does, it generally is less bad but the exception is if the richer lives in a place or has a life outside their ci trol (disability, needs specific foods due to allergy+intolerance etc) and especially if he/she even has other dependents.

You are trying to compare one mentally unwell theif (even if she faked one or more of the mental disorders mentioned, she likely actually has a mental disorder or 2 driving her to steal).

In Saudi she could get hand cut off depending on judge leniency and would be arrested regardless for dressing that way and speaking up to a male officer as a woman.

The Saudis will be happy to have you until they find out about your dog and you.

It is not a generally approved relationship. Maybe he lives somewhere where its actually legal.

Just the tiniest bit different punishment though.

Thankfully for him, four eyewitnesses to him doing it would be required. Oh the most merciful... Right.

Jealousy is what it is.

Every one is born with similar potential and opportunity. (Though I generalise with regard to "western" societies).

It's just that most people don't or can't realise their full economic potential, and then spend the rest of their lives running down and name calling  those that do.

As long as you have a roof over your head, a safe bed to sleep in and food on the table, then the 24 hours of a billionaires day is going to be pretty much the same as yours.

Wake up, eat, piss, shit, strive to do something then back to sleep again...And repeat...And then become decrepit and eventually die.

Excessive amounts of money in the bank, does not mean immortality, and neither does it guarantee contentment.

It just means you can buy all sorts of unnecessary gadgets to play with occasionally, and eventually get bored with.

Those are not enough.

one man's useless production is another man's useful entertainment. After the  2000 election [Bush/Gore] effectively decided by SCOTUS for Bush, and all the Florida chads controversy, I made small plastic pouches about 4" x 4" with my heat sealer. Each pouch contained a few small-size hole punches of white card stock and  a note inside: "Official Dehydrated Florida Chads. just add water."  Sold them by internet orders for $1.49 each,  and made about $300 for about $25 production/shipping cost in a standard business envelope.

Don't insult by quoting out of context.

No.

It seems to me that ultimately morality of someone's economical behavior is determined not by how wealthy they get, but by the relationship between them and their partners. When I buy a Tesla, I voluntarily choose to part with a large amount of money, because the value of the Tesla for me is higher than the value of keeping that money in the bank or spending it on something else - and Elon Musk delivers my Tesla as promised and gets richer, for he values the profit he gets from his stocks growing higher than he values one of his thousands of Tesla's. If Elon Musk gets rich by doing this, then he is not doing anything wrong in my book. It is another matter when Elon Musk gets into the government and uses his friendship with Trump to push through proposals that harm competitors of Tesla and advantage Tesla and Musk personally.

But a better question is this: what is the source of the latter? Is it that billionaires are somehow intrinsically corrupt and inevitably use their money to buy up political power? I do not see how this can be the case: even if all billionaires were intrinsically corrupt, in a good political system any attempt by them to bribe someone would result in their incarceration.

A more plausible explanation was provided by Friedrich Hayek in his "Road to Serfdom". The source is the fact that the government is the only organization in the country that has a legal power to coerce individuals. This is where corruption originates. There is no corruption on a free market where all transactions are voluntary and anyone can walk away from an interaction they dislike. But when the system is more akin to a "king of the hill" game where whoever gets into this exclusive club of political players gets to force others into interactions they do not want to partake in - and have the law on their side - then everyone who has enough resources will do their best to befriend the king, or, even better, take his place.

Which is why the economy should be separated from the government. It should be impossible to buy any political favors legally, and for that, in turn, it is essential that the government is extremely limited. When the government is nothing more than a guardsman against coercion and violence, then there is absolutely nothing to gain for me or anyone else from buying "political credit". Being in the government actually would be more of a burden than an advantage, and only people who genuinely wanted to do good in the society - at the expense of their time and money - would be interested in pursuing a political career or proactively interacting with the government.