Imagine telling someone in 1999…
The year is 2026.
The President is Donald Trump in his second non consecutive term.
The richest man in the world is PayPal cofounder Elon Musk… but not because of fintech or Paypal. Because of rockets, electric cars, AI, satellites, brain chips and something called “Boring Company”.
Apple is worth trillions but its main business isn’t computers… its selling glass rectangles everyone stares at for 9 hours a day.
People don’t watch TV. They watch teenagers explain geopolitics, finance, and relationship advice in ~60 second videos.
The biggest taxi company owns no taxis.
The biggest hotel company owns no hotels.
The most powerful media companies are social networks where everyone argues with strangers for free.
Kids are making millions filming themselves playing video games.
AI Robots write emails, code, legal memos, songs, essays, and breakup texts.
The internet is mostly bots arguing with humans who are trying to prove they aren’t bots.
You can summon a car, groceries, a doctor, a date, a private jet, or a dog walker from your phone.
People pay real money for invisible currencies, digital monkeys, AI girlfriends and pictures that disappear after 24 hours.
The richest companies in the world don’t sell oil, steel, or cars. They sell attention, compute, data, and addiction.
And somehow, after all of that everyone is still using Excel.
Playing the same game, but with cheat codes. Earning $140/day, 24/7, in real-time with crypto. This beats busting your ass at a 9-to-5 for less than $4k/month. Imagine this portfolio hitting $200k+ when the market rebounds. #Crypto#PassiveIncome#HODL
Jeff Bezos: "If I do my job right, the value to society and civilization from my for-profit companies will be much, much larger than the good that I do with my charitable giving."
Yes, the United States has the most progressive tax system in the world. The top 1% pay 40% of taxes, the bottom 50% pay 3% of taxes. We can make it even more progressive by zeroing out taxes on the bottom half. It’s a small amount of the total tax revenue but very meaningful to people in this group.
@CG_trades_ What else are you eyeing to pick up on? I’ve been looking for good over performers but they are usually really high MC. Trying to stay sub 500m.
Them: "Taxation isn't theft because we have the “consent of the governed” through the vote.
Me: "That is an interesting definition of consent. Tell me. if a group of five people encounters a lone traveler, and four of them vote to take his bag, does the vote make the taking an act of “sharing” rather than “robbery”?
Them: "No, that’s just a mob. We have laws and a social contract."
Me: "Ah, so the number of people involved doesn't change the nature of the act? If the mob grows to a million, is the traveler’s bag still his property?”
Them: "Well, yes. But we vote on things we all need! It’s for the common good."
Me: "I see. Let us test the “common good” logic against the most private property of all: the body. If a crowd of men decides, by majority vote, that a woman’s body should be used for their pleasure or “the common good” of the tribe, does the vote grant her consent?"
Them: "That’s a horrific comparison! No! That is a violent crime because her body belongs to her, not the crowd."
Me: "So we agree: A person’s body is theirs by right, and no amount of voting can transfer that ownership to the majority?"
Them: "Obviously."
Me: "Then tell me - what is labor? Is it not the use of one's body and time over a day, a month, or a year?"
Them: "I suppose it is."
Me: "If I own my body, I must own my labor. And if I own my labor, I must own the fruit of that labor - the wages I earned. If the crowd cannot vote to take my body, by what logic can they vote to take the product of my body’s work?"
Them: "But how would we fund things? How would we protect the poor? Without income taxes, everything would collapse!"
Me: "So, the theft of labor, ie one’s body, is necessary because you cannot imagine a better way to pay for things?"
Them: "It’s not theft! It’s the price we pay for society!"
Me: "If a man steals your car but uses the money to buy bread for the hungry, has the theft vanished? Or do we simply have a thief with a good excuse?"
Them: "You’re being impossible. It’s just how the world works!"
Me: No, it is you being impossible. Impossible in that you wish to fit two opposing ideas into the same. The “consent” you speak of is merely a mask. You do not believe in the vote; you believe in the utility of the haul. You are a man who claims he hates violence, yet asks his friends to vote on which neighbor to rob for dinner. Oh, and it doesn’t have to work this way. But it will as long as people think the way you think…
🇺🇸 WARREN BUFFETT: "I can end the U.S. deficit problem in 5 minutes."
"Just pass a law that any time there's a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all members of Congress are ineligible for re-election."