>Larry Ellison, the exorbitantly rich cofounder of software outfit Oracle
Take note of the name. People like him should be forcefully removed from society.
Take note of the name. People like him should be forcefully removed from society.
If you doubt that the extremely wealthy are indeed above our laws, please show me even one instance of a billionaire being successfully jailed for a criminal offense in the entire history of the USA. As far as I am aware, it has never happened because the government fears the wrath that their wealth and their political connections can bring to bear.
Edit: This argument was defeated, I forgot about Bernie Madoff.
Larry Ellison in particular literally owns 98% of one of the Hawaiian islands.
I have noticed, not in every instance, but in many, that unusually wealthy people, especially wealthy and intelligent, have a tendency to detatch a bit from general reality, often becoming idealistic in ways that seem clear to the individual, but are fundamentally delusional. I think compassion and grounding has a tendency to become compromised by the insidious nuances imparted by security and abundance, ie great wealth.
Again, though, I've observed exceptions and am aware of the limitations to my own observations and may be missing a lot. I also do not protest wealth, but do wish it came with a sustained understanding of its underlying dependency on the very things, people and factors that enable it to be.
Jouaquin Guzman Loera (El Chapo) - $1 billion - drug trafficking - convicted in 2019, serving life sentence
Raj Rajaratnam - $1.3 billion - securities fraud and conspiracy - served 7 years of an 11 year sentence
Bernard John Ebbers - $1.4 billion - fraud and conspiracy - served 12 years of a 25 year sentence
David Ng Lap Seng - $1.8 billion - bribery - served almost 3 years of a 4 year sentence
John Kapoor - $2 billion - racketeering and wire fraud - served 2 years of a 5 and a half year sentence
Allen Stanford - $2.2 billion - Ponzi scheme - convicted in 2012, serving 110 year sentence
Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas - $2.7 billion - kidnapping, drug trafficking, and murder - served 33 years of a 55 year sentence
Alfred Taubman - $3.1 billion - antitrust violations - served a 10 month sentence
Rishi Shah - $3.6 billion - mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering - recently given 7 and a half year sentence
Michael Milken - $3.7 billion - securities and tax violations - served 22 months of a 2 year sentence, later pardoned by President Trump
S. Curtis Johnson - $4 billion - fourth-degree sexual assault and disorderly conduct - served 3 months of a 4 month sentence
Viktor Bout - $6 billion - conspiring to sell weapons to a U.S. designated foreign terrorist group - 10 years of a 25 year sentence, released in a prisoner swap with Russia in exchange for a WNBA basketball player
Seriously though. This is consistent with Oracle's history: their first customer, the organization for which they created their first product, was the CIA, and they've remained tight with the military-industrial complex to this day.
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It just means there should be laws against certain antisocial behavior. Behind every law is the threat of violence to remove someone from society.
Maybe something like “The Silicon Bourgeoisie should be figuratively guillotined.”