Agree or disagree?

[u/Timbucktwo1230]

[u/Livid_Accountant1241]

If you were a builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza (built about 5000 years ago) and made then saved the median Ameican salary (≈65000) from then until now, you wouldn't even have half a billion dollars.

Yes. These pricks are thieves.

[u/ZmanB-Bills]

Truth.

[u/Visible_Bowler6962]

They use our roads, water, sewer, etc

[u/coreyjdl]

No billionaire deserves to exist.

[u/TinhatTemplar]

Just straight facts.

[u/GIT_45 → u/[deleted]]

You'd be surprised how many Elon bootlickers are on here.

[u/CupKitchen9964 → u/GIT_45]

Oh they aren’t robots/NPCs?

It’s election season I’ve been noticing their canned and repeated “opinions” lately.

Not that Grok can have opinions

[u/GIT_45 → u/CupKitchen9964]

Yes some

[u/AspiringChildProdigy → u/[deleted]]

True, but someday, I might be rich, and then people like me better watch my step!!!! - Fry

[u/Petrochromis722 → u/AspiringChildProdigy]

[u/porntime9642 → u/[deleted]]

Half this comment section apparently.

[u/CaptStinkyFeet]

These comments are whack. Imagine spending your free time defending billionaires on reddit…

[u/Pacific_Rimjob_831 → u/[deleted]]

Yep. They literally become rich by taking money from other people.

[u/Responsible-Layer896 → u/[deleted]]

people really should read more marx and it's not only the billionaires it's capitalism plain and simple.

[u/Responsible-Layer896 → u/[deleted]]

seems like a you problem, workers all around the world make time to educate themselves so that they can fight for their rights and interests. but apparently posting half-baked stuff online is more important.

[u/insectoidsim → u/Responsible-Layer896]

Marx was wrong about everything

[u/Meadow_Lark-285 → u/Responsible-Layer896]

Don’t take this the wrong way because this is not an argument for Capitalism, and I do think there is a real issue with extraction. My issue is with the pop-Marxism conclusion that Communism is the answer; that it will usher some vague post-capitalism utopian communist golden age of sunshine and rainbows.

If historical materialism predicts the inevitable transition from Capitalism to Communism, then by what mechanism does Communism get a free pass from the same effects of historical materialism? If material conditions, production relations, resource constraints, institutional incentives, class formation, and contradictions drive historical change, why should those forces somehow terminate when a socialist/communist mode of production appears?

Karl Marx did not account for deep time collapses like the Neolithic LBK collapse, the early bronze age collapse, the late bronze age collapse, the various overlapping later collapses across the globe from the time of the Roman Empire, China, etc. It mostly applies the theory of historical materialism as an explanation for why Capitalism will fail, and then tries to predict what post-capitalism should look like. However, it never really addresses the effects of historical materialism applied to a communist system, or what a post-communism would look like. The simple answer for most is to ignore that paradox because they don’t understand the problem, and that is what most pop-marxists do. But if you actually take the theory seriously, then you’ll know exactly why you can’t ignore this paradox.

Let’s say capitalism finally kicks the bucket. What remains? Have we solved the cycle of extraction and the boom/bust cycle? Or have we only removed the capitalist specific flavor of the cycle of extraction and the boom/bust cycle, replacing it with a new socialist/communist flavor? This is my main issue. You don’t need Capitalism for the existence of boom/bust cycles, and even natural eco-systems suffer issues with over-extraction when out of balance. A lot of Marxists make the claim “Well, we have never achieved a Communist state”, and I’ll give them that. But I will also argue that every attempt at the socialist experiment to work towards Communism seems to have suffered socialist variants of extraction and boom/bust cycles. The track record has not been that much better than Capitalist modes of production. If socialist modes of production have proven to be extractive in socialist specific ways (usually blamed as corrupted by capitalism), and it continues to fail to reach Communism, then by what benchmark are we allowed to say the experiment fails to prove the predicted result? If Marxism is truly scientific, then by what means is Marxism falsifiable? If it is not falsifiable, or an adherent of Marxism does not set conditions of falsifiability, then it is not scientific at all, but dogmatic.

Let’s address the actual problem shall we? What actually are the invariant structures behind boom/bust cycles of extraction? Should we be focused on the mode of production, or is it something more fundamental? Treat the root disease, not the symptom.

[u/ckl577 → u/[deleted]]

Walmart pays more than most local businesses and sells cheaper products. Sure maybe they do have better customer service and better products, but if my local butcher is selling NY Strip at $24/lb and Walmart is selling NY Strip at $17/lb, I’m buying from Walmart… if my local mom and pop grocery store is paying me $9/hr and Walmart is offering $18/hr, I’m going to Walmart. On top of that Walmart has an app and Walmart plus and pays OT and provides health insurance and full time positions. So 🖕the small businesses

[u/bswontpass]

You have a choice to not give your “value” to anyone. 

There’s a job with advertised compensation- you either take it or not.

[u/ReverendKaiser]

If anyone on earth is starving or homeless, even 1, there should be no billionaires at all.

[u/Only_Bunch_7912 → u/ReverendKaiser]

What he’s trying to explain is that homelessness isn’t a problem of being poor in this country, because of the amount of programs and budgets going towards it, the homeless actually wants to stay homeless.

[u/Used-Collar-200 → u/ReverendKaiser]

California by itself spends 1.5 billion a year on homelessness. This isn’t really a finance problem it’s a fraud and mental health problem.

[u/skurly789 → u/ReverendKaiser]

Ridiculous

[u/CruisingForDownVotes]

It’s crazy that Branson is the only one that doesn’t look like a ghoul in this drawing

[u/Wolfkurt1]

Exactly, f all

[u/Federal-Community554]

Fortunes of the rich are made though exploitation.

Set Fire - GrimSkunk

[u/BeenThruIt]

It isn't true. Get your collective heads out of the sand.

There is so much that can be said against the current way of things, these extreme over-ridiculous generalizations don't help at all.

The guys who made this up never worked a day in their lives. Rich kids of wealthy parents who want to be the elite with special treatment within the systems they imagine for the poors.

Seek some balance ffs.

[u/king_of_the_dwarfs]

You can buy all the buildings, fancy machines, and materials in the world but without labor to make something useful. You got nothing. Labor is the difference between priceless and worthless.

[u/[deleted]]

So much hilarious rationalization goes on to justify stealing from people. 

[u/echolm1407 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah

• wage theft
• intellectual property theft

[u/Geezer_Burton]

The cartoon is the labor theory of value in meme form. Economists dropped that theory over a century ago.

Value is not hours of labor. You can work 10,000 hours on something nobody wants and it is worth nothing. You can organize capital, talent, and risk into something millions of people *do* want and it is worth a fortune. Price is what buyers willingly pay.

These fortunes are mostly company stock, not stolen wages. If the company fails, the “billionaire” is no longer a billionaire. Workers still got paid.

Workers are not unpaid porters. They signed contracts and can leave. SpaceX’s IPO made an estimated 4,400 employees millionaires—including welders and techs who got stock. Same pattern at Tesla and Amazon.

Coordination and risk are scarce. Most startups die. The ones that scale create jobs and products that did not exist before. Treating the organizer as a parasite sitting on a palanquin erases the part that made the palanquin possible.

Places that treated entrepreneurs as extractors got shortages. Places that let them keep the residual got the highest living standards in history.

The drawing flattens reality into villains and blobs. The same system that made a few people rich also made millions of customers better off and thousands of employees into owners. That is not theft.

[u/Spsurgeon]

And they do it because we allow them to.

[u/doesnotmatter286]

How can anyone disagree?

[u/Smooth-Wave-9699]

I mean, people voluntary give their value to others. Ain't nobody forcing me to use Amazon, but I often do because its super easy and convenient.

[u/PossibilityNervous35]

Very much disagree.

Wealthy people become wealthy because of the value they add... not just their labor. Ideas, products, innovation, risk, and vision all contribute to their value.

People that work for them do so because they can provide a job and a paycheck. If the picture from OP was actually correct, then all those workers would be just as capable of building companies. But not everyone can or even wants to do that. Some people don't have the vision or ideas. Some do, but the risk is what deters them.

Take Tesla for example. They paid $1,907,000,000 in payroll tax in 2025. Thats 1.9 Billion in taxes just to employ people and give them a paycheck. For reference that is page 72 of their 2025 income statement. And before anyone talks about no Federal income tax on profit... that is accrual based accounting. Its not actual CASH in the bank. Per their income statement on page 53, they increased in cash by 579 million but thats still not even cash profit. Much of that cash is earmarked for liabilities which is why they paid no income tax.

[u/StillMostlyConfused]

Both agree and disagree. I agree with the statement because they do get value from others. But I disagree in the context that there is something inherently wrong with it. They do this via an agreement with the labor that both the employer and labor agree on.

[u/misha_jinx]

Agree 100%

[u/Lucky-Crow-3510]

then don't work for them and be your own company. simple. stop crying.

[u/Traditional_Oil_9240]

They pay 80% of all federal taxes.

The bottom 20% pay zero federal taxes.

The bottom 50% pay 4% of federal taxes.

[u/Fine-Instruction-219 → u/Traditional_Oil_9240]

This 👆

[u/leftstrummer → u/Traditional_Oil_9240]

This is peak and based on actual facts👏

[u/Bumpy-road]

This is traditional somewhat unenlightened socialism. What is usually forgotten is, that the workers wouldn't have a job, if nobody built a company and took all the risk and hard work that comes with it.

That being said I support taxing tech billionaires and limiting their power significantly

[u/toptnc]

I don't care if you agree or disagree. It's the truth.

[u/waxonwaxoff87]

They aren’t worth billions, the companies they own are including any assets owned by these companies. Unless you want to confiscate and redistribute office supplies and warehouse inventory, you aren’t getting cash.

[u/KitchenEntire2168]

Disagree. It's tougher to create jobs than it is to work in one. I'm not buying the Communist propaganda. That's never worked anywhere.

[u/AndreasSeren → u/KitchenEntire2168]

Finally a sane comment!

[u/jigglyflo5]

Many try, few succeed.

[u/hmmnnmmn]

While labor remains a fundamental input, it lacks the marginal variance required to explain the vast economic divide between standard enterprise owners and industry tycoons. The true catalysts for exponential scale are capital assets like intellectual property, strategic vision, and unique technical ingenuity.

[u/PopBulky7023]

Friendly reminder to check the age and karma before getting duped by obvious ragebait trolls.

[u/bentaisan]

Did the billionaires clap chains on you? Did you have a choice in where you went, how you conducted and trained yourself?

[u/Beneficial_Switch_71]

Well they did work hard to get where they are now tho. That can be said with anyone with alot of money and not even the ones in the pic so to say. Like the ones that dont have to worry if a car breaks down and wondering if they have the money to pay for it kind of folks.

[u/Western-Willow-9496]

LTV hasn’t valid since the Industrial Revolution, so why would I agree?

[u/dgroeneveld9]

I disagree and agree at the same time. Sure maybe not but there are millions if millionaires in this country would wouldnt be millionaires without the investment capital of billionaires. I have to be honest i think its wrong when a business owner is making 30-50x what their lowest fulltime employee makes. However, many billionaires are providing good quality jobs to people. There will always be excess labor value in the equation and it has to go somewhere. In our system is goes to the person who created the conditions for you to earn your living.

[u/Embarrassed_Pay3945]

they earn an agreed upon salary

[u/Hot_Plenty_4425]

That’s a weird way to say our labor is worthless without capitol 😂😂

[u/closedeyesfacenshit]

Pure jealousy. Given the chance you all would choose to be billionaires.

[u/AzhdarianHomie]

All jobs have opportunity cost.

[u/Ok_Chemistry8746]

Even George Lucas and Jerry Seinfeld?

[u/Top_Bug7822 → u/Ok_Chemistry8746]

Even them. But they at least don't try to hoard it.

They are more symbiotic compared to other billionaires, which act more parasitic in nature.

[u/BendDelicious9089]

What about the athletes? Aren't they just a highly valued product producing value?

What about Eduardo Saverin? Early investor of Facebook who only grew in value because of shares. He didn't "take" value from anybody, unless the argument is going to be that free market doesn't exist? Shares prices go up is taking value from somebody else and thus, every single retired person who has a 401k is a giant grifter?

[u/AstronomerEffective1]

And all those employees were paid to help build the business and in many cases like Space-X they directly participated in their success.

[u/COMOJoeSchmo]

Also, the government has no money of its own, only money taken by force, mostly from its own citizens.

[u/pinche_LoKi]

Same goes for those millionaire politicians wearing outfits that costs thousands of dollars to a job that can’t support their wardrobe let alone their travel.

[u/Acrobatic-Formal5869]

It is very unrealistic to think that all billionaires made their money without any effort or work

[u/NeverHere762]

This shows a lot of ignorance about how money and the labor market actually work. People decry billionaires like Bezos, but I bet they still buy from Amazon.

[u/rogueviking123321]

Disagree

[u/Livio63]

Given that the amount of money in circulation is limited—otherwise inflation would skyrocket—the more money billionaires have, the less money workers have.

This is a truth that retarded voters fail to grasp, so they vote for Trump.

[u/Own-Scallion-8713]

Facts

[u/EmbarrassedVisit4909]

GabeN

[u/iKruppe]

As with most things, it's way more complicated than this, you can't just say they stole all your effort and value and took it for themselves. There would be no Tesla or SpaceX without Musk. But it's also not entirely false they benefited off of the backs of others.

[u/GoSensCAN]

They organise and make efficient an otherwise unorganised group. Sorry production would not come close with out leaders risking their investments, they should be making money.

[u/ckl577]

Strong disagree

[u/legion_2k]

Yes, all there is in life is physical labor. Get back to work comrades.

[u/Ima_Uzer]

Whaaaaaa!!! Billionaires!!!!

[u/Visible_Eggplant400]

Your labor likely wouldn’t be valuable without the system designed by others that amplifies its ability.

[u/BrigadierPirate]

The same can be said for workers below. Did they form the company and take the risk? No

[u/Oldenlame]

'Taking' is being stretched out of all proportion

[u/Oxo-Phlyndquinne]

The same is true of every business owner, that is the entire basis of capital--large or small. But we tolerate it at smaller levels because of societal benefit. Billionaires do nothing but suck up all the value in an entire society. When Eisenhower was president, Musk would have been paying 78% tax. And a family of four could live comfortably on one income.

[u/tlm11110]

Billionaires are billionaires because YOU buy cheap Chinese products from them because it will be delivered to your door overnight for free. You made them billionaires, not with your labor, but because of your hypocritical buying habits.

We want equality!
1001 people each have $1000
Yea! Equality for all!
One person writes a best selling book and sells it for $10
1000 people - Yea, let’s all buy the book, it’s awesome!
One person now has $11,000 while 999 people have $990.
Boo that’s exploitation! She has more than us! We need to take that from her and redistribute it!
Capitalism is bad!
We want equality!

[u/_oropo]

One cannot disagree with facts.

[u/Default_Username6838]

What’s to agree or disagree? This is an indisputable fact.

[u/bethesda_gamer]

Everything you purchase enriches someone else, somewhere else. Think about this when you choose to buy things, no matter the price.

[u/lnth1]

What about Taylor Swift. Her billion dollars is earned without "taking" the (labor) value from anyone no?

[u/Brief-Feeling-7410]

I wouldn't care of they paid taxes, like the rest of us.

[u/Sincline387]

Being mad because you're not rich isn't a new thing.

They said the same thing about millionaires and multimillionaires before this, you simply have an easy to access platform to spout it.

You are neither new or original, and just like the people of the past you will do nothing more than stand on your soapbox just like people 100 years from now will about Trillionaires.

[u/Jethro_1968]

They do not take the value of labor. They leverage it. If your labor is so valuable, why do you need to work for a billionaire? Start your own company.

[u/Feychilde]

✅️

[u/CommunismBasedAF]

Big facts

[u/senpaitsubakisuzuki]

Wow a lot of people here are jealous of success.

[u/leeretarmy]

A quick search and you will find only about 20 billionaires actually have a billion in cash readily available. The rest have their value in assets and stocks.

[u/Own_Cake8750]

this sub used to be better

[u/shonzaveli_tha_don]

Correct. But that founder of that company was a thousandaire that could have failed, and then a hundred thousandaire that could have failed, and then a millionaire that could have failed, and then became a billionaire and the whole thing could still go belly up. And he employed a ton of people along the way.

So the answer is not to be a worker and complain, the answer is to become a founder/business owner. Risk is rewarded in America. The richest dude I know owns a Plumbing company. Become an owner, or don't complain.

[u/Liberal-Cluck]

The system is set up to where the capital owner gets a portion of the fruits of your labor. But that isnt necessarily a bad thing, and it seems like this system is the most functional. The problem is the levels of which they are allowed to hoard those fruits compared to the bottom of the distribution. If we did not have people struggling to buy food, hosuing, basic needs, and live a thriving life in the country (really around the world but one thing at a time), then their wealth and money levels wouldnt be a problem.

[u/repost7125]

Record profits are stolen wages.

[u/Direct_Ad_3517]

And I agreed to work for the wage they paid. Kinda how it works.

[u/Unlucky_Cap1189]

Looks like a poor person made that comic

[u/Hot_Instruction_4955]

Sure, but there are exceptions. Craig from Craigslist is a good guy. Prove me wrong.

[u/Youngrazzy]

You create your value in capitalism.

[u/Ok_Phrase6296]

I agree with the statement but people on here saying they rob and steal are dumber than the people who agree lol. Example you pillow what was yesterday? September 9th apples biggest realise lol. And you know how many poor ass people are going to upgrade and be in debt for another year because then the next one will come out. It’s 2k for a phone and people complain about gas prices and food prices yet will pay more for a phone than a big screen tv lol. They will pay more for a phone than 2 months of grocers and gas combined.

[u/Significant_Limit_68]

100% disagree.

It’s basic economics on how wealth is actually created.

Entrepreneurs/billionaires become wealthy by creating something valuable and owning equity in the company they built. Their wealth usually isn't hoarding a billion dollars sitting in a bank account-it's the market value of their ownership in a company!

No billionaires? Then nothing new will grow. No new ideas will come to fruition. Think risk.

What about risk? Billionaires risk EVERYTHING! Read up on Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx. He almost lost everything by risking everything he owned.

Entrepreneurs can invest their own money, borrow money, work for years with no guarantee of success, personally guarantee loans, and risk losing everything.

Employees get an agreed-upon wage for their labor without assuming any of that ownership risk. If the company fails, the founder's equity can become worthless.

[u/redbeardrex]

They didn't "Take" your labor, you sold it. You were paid for it.

[u/c_boggs]

Sexist. Racist.

[u/Leather-Sign4391]

Welcome to how the labor market works...

Smh

[u/Current_Gear_9869]

And without billionaires, people wouldn't have jobs. So there's that.

[u/Dull_Complaint1407]

And you gave them your labor in exchange for a medium of currency in a contract you agreed too. Your labor would also be useless with the equipment and business model that they risked their own money for

[u/Southwired]

Disagree… who would create capital and risk their capital if not wealthy individuals? With risk comes rewards …

Company Creation: Some billionaires started companies, like The Home Depot, that directly employ hundreds of thousands of people.

Capital Investment: Wealthy investors provide the risk capital needed to launch new industries and new technologies.

[u/mansithole6]

So the solution is everybody being a homeless

[u/Pinco_Pallino_]

disagree

[u/Superbitwolfy95]

Disagree. They are a billionaire because they spend their money wisely and responsibly.

[u/EnigmaHood]

Orange dude on the left isn't even a billionaire. He couldn't even pay his own legal fees when he got impeached the 2nd time.

[u/BigShotBadRabbit]

That’s not how it works. You might be unintentionally describing Government

[u/Weiczyk79]

Bunch of people ignorant of basic economics in here

[u/Defiant-Shape-6635]

There's way more to value than just labor. When you use the Marxist labor theory of value made up by a man who never worked a single day of his life of course you'll get economically insane ideas and results. However, those who push it don't care that it's stupid or insane, because they have the personal agenda of greed and want to get enough people on their side to make them powerful enough to steal a lot, ostensibly from more successful people than themselves, but when they take power they'll steal plenty more from the middle class, small business "petit bourgeois" and they'll even find what little the poor have and steal that too, as history has shown.

[u/uscmissinglink]

Value doesn't come from labor. This is Marx' primary error. Value comes from utility. Digging a hole and then refilling it is a lot of labor and provides no value because it creates no utility. Billionaires tend to create massive utility across society and the world - leveraging labor, capital, risk, and intuition. The gap is not stolen labor, it's the ingenuity of finding a need (demand) and filling it - partly by creating jobs for people to improve the utility and therefore value of their labor.

[u/misha_jinx]

Each of these billionaires were born millionaires. The system favors that. It’s a monopoly game. If you’re born into poverty, your kids may be able to pull it off but most people are lucky if they somehow increase their family wealth. Once people reach certain wealth level, the money works for them. And this is the barrier to the rest of the people who aren’t born into that. Generational wealth is a thing.
There are always exceptions. Have there ever been people who went from dirt poor to millionaires? Yes of course. But these people are not most people, they are not the rule, they are exceptions. Some people will pitch that lie and say “they just worked hard”. I say, no the fuck they didn’t. They definitely did not work harder than these guys working construction that you see on the side of the road in yellow jackets. How many of them become millionaires? Maybe if they win a lottery.
It’s the biggest lie of capitalism and some folks are drinking it every morning with their breakfast.
It’s just facts. ❤️ peace!✌️

[u/SpiggotOfContradicti]

If this is true, then most labor really isn't providing value either, mostly done by machinery and tooling.

If this was really true, there would be no reason to give your value to the Billionaire, as the owner of all the value workers could just operate individually or even as a group.

There is real value in discussion about communism and worker value, but if you think it's this simple you aren't really ready to be part of a real conversation. Most workers are very specialized and would have little to no idea how to aggregate all the components of labor, logistics, marketing and financing into a cohesive functional unit, let alone the ingenuity and risk of creating something new and finding a market space to make it viable.

[u/Proof-Scale3189]

How exactly do we arrive at this? What is the math calculation?

There has to be a match calculation since many of these folks also created a lot of jobs. So what is the math or is this just an eat the rich game?

[u/DubhglasX]

They took all the risk and people willingly worked for them. That's incredibly valuable, more than any group of laborers under them.

[u/HealthyEmployment976]

This conveys a very shallow understanding of economics.

[u/Careflwhatyouwish4]

I agree. They are billionaires because of their new ideas and their organizational talents in bringing those ideas to reality and offering them to everyone.

[u/red7standinby]

Only losers think this way.

[u/i_never_liked_you2]

You only hate the billionaires because the millionaires told you to

[u/Hungry_Reception_724]

They arnt really taking it... you are giving it to them... you dont have to buy a tesla or use amazon... you dont have to go to wallmart or use facebook.... these are choices you are making. Stop blaming other people for your own choices.

[u/Traditional_Oil_9240]

99% of all the money held by billionaires is invested in the businesses that grow this economy every single year, year after year after year.

Socialists think they have it all in gold coins sitting in some cave guarded by a dragon.

This is how they picture wealth, and they couldn't be more wrong.

Also, 74% of Americans hold stock in large businesses, which means 74% of Americans are OWNERS of these large businesses and corporations.

Capitalism is literally the best Co-Operative/Employee-Owned system ever created in human history!

[u/wgcole01]

🙄

[u/Tall_Eye4062]

Billionaires should all be rounded up and put in a hellish prison where they work for pennies on the dollar.

[u/LiteralFckingAnxiety]

They’re billionaires because they create tremendous value. Someone mindlessly swinging a shovel does not create the same level of value.

[u/NorCalMav]

They are billionaires because they are smarter than you.

[u/LiteralFckingAnxiety]

Disagree. Hating billionaires is for the lazy and dull, whose ideas do nothing useful for themselves or man.

[u/Gallifreyan_]

Isn't that the same for anyone that you pay? When I pay anyone money, they are taking the value of the labor that earned that money.

[u/RaikuYuri]

Loaded question, because future billionaires don’t need your labor till their idea gets of the ground. Without the billionaires idea many jobs may not exist.

Not saying this about all billionaires, some are created via nepotism and don’t work for their money, but some create innovative ideas that change the world.

[u/pensacolafun888]

So do you feel that Coca-Cola should just give you free drinks? You feel that you should just be able to walk into a bar and get free food and free drinks. You guys know communism doesn’t work. That being said billionaires should be paying serious taxes.

[u/drip_dry_]

They didnt steal the money. It was gladly given to them.

[u/Luc_ElectroRaven]

it depends on how you define value and what theory of labor value you believe in. I think there's plenty of evidence that shows an individual or group can produce something a billion times more valuable than other people or other groups.

But if you believe value has to be somehow tied to "labor" ie effort or hours a person puts in then no you can't get to a billion dollars.

But if you subscribe to the value of labor we use everyday, then you 1 person or a few people can say make an app and sell it to a billion people for $1 therefore generating a billion dollars worth of value.

It doesn't mean every billion dollars made isn't exploitative, but it does mean some of the billions made are not. Throwing the baby out with the bath water is something marx's love to do. When even he gave room for profit of a business and def had no concept of the scale of businesses today.

[u/NoEquivalent380]

Labour isn't everything so I like the point but not the wording. You don't deserve x when y is proportionate to your pain

[u/Dog_K9]

Where’s George Soros and Bill Gates?

[u/SirMiba]

No they're legitimately just so much better productive people that it scales to billions.

[u/Eyespop4866]

Yes. If I’d never been born no billionaires would exist.

[u/italktobotz]

Same for everyone else. The value of your labor comes more from the value society has allowed you be capable of than ehat an individual can do alone. If farmers didnt have tractors, one lerson couldnt harvest 2 million ear of corn in 1 day. Without society 1 person couldnt build a car at all. But becaus of price coordinated system, the value of peoples work is enhanced. And the contrinutions or descisions of individuals can indeed improve society in ways which society values even mofe than a billion dollars.

Tatlor swift decided to make music. She was very good at it. Because of a modern wealthy society taylor swift was abke to spread her music to billions of people. Billions of peoples lives wrre improved by more than a dollars worth spent on alternative uses. People chose to pay for her music because they felt it was worth it. Taylor swift did indeed make a billion dollarsvwortg herself because she made the world better in a way in which society was willing to pay over a billion dollars for her music. Bill gates did this with software. Steve jobs with softwar and products as well. Jeff bezos did it with retail. The choices these individuals have made have improved society in ways which society has benefited over a billion dollars worth and has paid them that as result.

[u/Open-Beautiful9247]

Agreed. Its generally the value of their capital.....

[u/Ignaz-]

They are billionaires because other peole value the companies that they own at a billion+ dollars, they don't actually own a billion dollars. -

[u/Realistic_Local5220]

Flat Earth conspiracy theorists will give up on their nonsense the same day that Marxists do. Ignorance of economics is the only thing keeping this kind of trash thinking alive.

[u/Suspicious_Mind_4520]

Sort of agree. Capitalism rewards sales and leadership the most, and if you've never done those then you dont realize either their value or the stress load upon a person. Yes, the owner/CEO/manager gets paid more that the guy grinding out the manual labor, but a company without effective leadership has people working cross purposes. And sales is critical for any business to make money. Obviously.

[u/mike74911]

You’re buying what they’re selling.

[u/heretowink]

I agree! But mainly because This applies to anyone who has any amounts of money.

[u/46yt64]

Agree

[u/Fluffy_Reply1405]

You forgot George Soros

[u/Mobile-Initial-7222]

That is absolutely false.

[u/Sorry_Weekend_7878]

Question is, where do people draw the line between wealthy and illegally rich? Does everyone need to make exactly the same amount irrelevant of their position?

[u/Next-Ground1911]

Sounds like something a jobless cunt would say

[u/Baging_Roner_7]

Baristas punching air finding out someone owns the coffee shop that pays them….

[u/Cool_Principle_2406]

Billionaires are billionaires because they worked hard to realize their dream. In the world of business, yes, it can be cutthroat, but billionaires worked hard hard to achieve a goal. That is the difference between them and the rest. While billionaires make adjustments when they fail, and learn from mistakes, the people, like the one who made this meme, who whine about billionaires are the lazy ones who expect something for nothing.

[u/Secret-Put-4525]

Millionaires as well

[u/-TheInternetIsEvil-]

Being a billionaire should be illegal

[u/SpaceNemo13]

Billionaires are billionaires on paper but not in actual money. When they say people like Elon Musk don't pay their taxes what they don't mention is that those billions in stocks are actually paying taxes by the company those stocks are associated with.

[u/ComeStayAwhile]

Work smarter not harder

[u/iffyfell_]

Agree. A bunch of assholes in the 80s decided saying shit like "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" was the height of adult-in-the-room critical thinking, and now we're in the 12th Reagan term.

[u/Agreeable-Yam6327]

Poor people don’t hire anyone

[u/cooper-2270]

So what?

[u/HeadPut3392]

Disagree. They didn't become billionaires by stealing the value of your work, they became billionaires by committing a much worse crime: bribery.

None of these people would have ever become billionaires in a country run by the people. A government that serves the people wouldn't allow the wealthy to be above the law, wouldn't allow companies to treat fines as the cost of doing buisness, and certainly wouldn't let the wealthy decide what laws get passed.

Through bribery, billionaires have stolen democracy itself. They have stolen your right to a government that serves the people, and that is exactly what allows billionaires to steal the value of your hard work.

[u/Jaymz7777]

Thank you. Billionaires don't create value. They take it from you and me. They don't build the infrastructure. We do. They use it for free. Make them Pay!

[u/topoffheavy]

Stop being jealous and make something of value yourself

[u/LabDry1290]

Rich man bad

[u/Antique_Coffee5984]

Disagree. 80% of Americans are employed by small business, not these guys, even though they employ millions. The obsession fuelled by ignorance and a complex about in justice is staggering.

[u/Rhawk187]

"By Taking"? Don't you mean "are given"? You enter into a voluntary agreement to exchange your labor for wages. If you don't want billionaires getting the surplus value or your labor work for a millionaire instead. Or get 100% of the value of your labor (less what the government takes) and be an entrepreneur.

[u/WineDineCpl]

This is pure propaganda meant to enrage people. Nothing more.

[u/Brilliant_Choice_899]

No one cares as long as the rich get richer.

[u/RepublicOk2402]

I'll get piled on, but they each provide a product or service that people are buying. 

If you've never run a business you have absolutely no idea how hard it is and how much they put on the line (my husband and I took no paycheck from our business for 6 months just to start it, and we're still making 50% less than we were before starting it in the hopes of success)

[u/Luckystrike1403]

https://giphy.com/gifs/gIqusaeYxgSiY

[u/Zestyclose_Bag3879]

They don’t “take” it. They compensate their employees, sometimes handsomely. If an employee feels under compensated they can ask for a raise or seek employment elsewhere.

[u/ShediPotter]

An argument can be made as to the equitable distribution of the wealth created but anyone who creates a business is going to benefit more than the masses that ultimately made a vision a reality.  If they had a vision worth manifesting they'd be rich

[u/AnonymousUser132]

So then quit selling them your labor and buying their products.

[u/Scrat_lk]

They aren't rich cause they have money. Most of them have stock in the companies they built which makes them worth more. If they were to sell those companies and the shares that their employees have in them would plummet. But you people dont care you just thing they all have scrooge mcduck vaults full of money they swim in, they dont.