{"id":5596,"date":"2025-01-25T18:35:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T17:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/?p=5596"},"modified":"2025-01-25T18:35:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T17:35:47","slug":"no-billionaires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/2025\/01\/25\/no-billionaires\/","title":{"rendered":"No billionaires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In his latest newsletter “On Having a Maximum Wealth”<\/em> Hamilton Nolan discusses the idea of a “level cap” for real life<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The single most ridiculous aspect of human history is how much of it has been driven by the goal of allowing a tiny portion of a large population to live in luxury. This is a theme found, to varying degrees, in society after society across the world: A lot of people with a low standard of living working in service of the goal of raising the standard of living for some sort of ruler or supreme leader and his family and allies. I understand that this is not some sort of revelation. \u201cYou\u2019ve discovered class,\u201d you are now saying in a mocking tone. Beyond the social and political and economic dynamics underlying this process, though\u2014things that make up magisterial fields of inquiry\u2014I think that every once in a while it is well worth taking a moment to gape at the basic ludicrousness<\/em> of this fact. As societal goals go, an honest reading tells us that we are often not aiming for \u201cbetter technology\u201d or \u201cphilosophical progress.\u201d No, the reality is that, thousands of years and around the globe, the primary purpose of all the work that everyone is doing is \u201callowing a few jerks and their unbearable kids to live lavishly.\u201d Countless millions through millennia have suffered, dragging stones to build pyramids and losing fingers in dirty factories and getting black lung so that Some Guy Somewhere can sit on a soft pillow and enjoy delicacies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What an absurd, idiotic goal to organize human society around. Wow!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I’m here for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his latest newsletter “On Having a Maximum Wealth” Hamilton Nolan discusses the idea of a “level cap” for real life: The single most ridiculous aspect of human history is how much of it has been driven by the goal of allowing a tiny portion of a large population to live in luxury. This is … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “No billionaires”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5598,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5596\/revisions\/5598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunpig.com\/martin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}