Billionaires in Space

[dannubis]

What did the flerfers think ?

[Uncle Sparky]

It depends on the country... the US is almost as much a kleptocracy as Russia now,, but with a strong economy.

[N35t0r]

To break this will require political will, the billionaires and financial class have not demonstrated the ability to manage themselves.

JM

Your talking like 80% of politicians aren't either billionaires or in their pockets.

[Jon Miller]

I don't particularly hate billionaires, although I don't think there should be billionaires (and some of them are at fault).

But the basic problem is that billionaires pay the financial class to manage their money. The financial class is very good at this, and gets paid very well (millions, in some cases billions), and so they set up the system to make billionaires because that is how they get paid.

To break this will require political will, the billionaires and financial class have not demonstrated the ability to manage themselves.

And of course, there are some billionaires who are actively trying to push the system in their favor (not by just paying millionaires to manage their money). You know, Koch, Murdoch and Mercer. It makes it more difficult to create the political will to get the billionaires under control. A couple of decades ago I would have been sure that the result would have been revolution and many billionaires put against the wall. With advances AI/etc, I am not so sure.

JM

[giblets]

Yep, I only hate billionaires because they have more money than me. How they ended up with so much money isn't relevant at all.

[Uncle Sparky]

Since Canada does have astronauts, I think we should be willing to dub them astronauts for a donation of $500,000,000 US each.

[EPW]

It's technically space according to an arbitrary definition. Good enough for most rich morons who want to say they've been to space for purposes of status.

[Egbert]

I can not understand the fuss. They did not go into space. They therefore never left earth. Are people really going to pay huge sums of money for space tourism that is not actually in space.

Am I missing something?

[Dinner]

Dinner washes Jeff Bezo's butt with his tongue.

Why? Because I disagree with childish and inane "don't let him return to Earth because he has more money than me" nonsense? That is just calling a spade a spade and recognizing idiocy and envy when I see it.

[BeBMan]

In a move that pours cold water on the dreams of a few billionaire space explorers, the US has tightened its definition of the word "astronaut".

New Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules say astronaut hopefuls must be part of the flight crew and make contributions to space flight safety.

That means Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson may not yet be astronauts in the eyes of the US government.

(...)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57950149

Take that, you non-astronauts!

[Thoth]

I haven't done business with Walmart since they closed the second union store in Canada.

[Egbert]

Professional fundraisers for charities go for the ego when seeking large donations. It is the ego that motivates more than altruism. The ideal is to pit some wealthy people against one another in a sort of "bidding war" as a contest of who can give the most. You may note that large donations get publicised. It sounds cynical but is the way fundraising often works.

[N35t0r]

I guess treating his employees like people instead of slaves was off the table?

[N35t0r]

I guess treating his employees like people instead of slaves was of the table?

[Uncle Sparky]

it looks like a....