hph6203 said:

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Generally speaking I'd rather business men run businesses so well they benefit society than business men use their immense wealth to manipulate society. Whether that's in politics or through "charity." The benefits of electric vehicles compounds, grid scale batteries compounds, Neuralink compounds, Starlink compounds, Optimus compounds. They radically improve society for the entire world over the long run. Vast majority of charity does not. Vast majority of government spend does not.

You could convince me that some DraftKings billionaire should engage in that, but that's because their core business sucks. Problem with that is I'd bet their charitable actions would likewise suck.

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Carnegie invested in education and improved the world. It's a noble cause and we should hope that everyone donates to causes they believe are important and improve the world. Go do some mission work and tell me that charities don't do great work.

His steel did more than any of his charitable acts to improve the world. What Gates did at Microsoft will have had more positive impact on the world than all of his charitable giving. By a lot.

Teslag said:

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Starlink is doing more for world education than Carnegie ever did

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Correct but Carnegie did more for education that most people before him as well.

What a weird argument you guys are making.

Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Starlink is doing more for world education than Carnegie ever did

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Correct but Carnegie did more for education that most people before him as well.

What a weird argument you guys are making.

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It's not weird at all. You don't have to give money away to help others.

Take a company like Monsanto for example. They've done more to feed the world's poor and starving than any government or charity in history simply by becoming a successful multibillion dollar corporation that increased readily available food.

Bruno Mars working on lyrics for his next song - Trillionaire

Teslag said:

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Starlink is doing more for world education than Carnegie ever did

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The ridiculousness of this comment is it's disregard for history and context. Carnegie steel remains the structural skeleton of modern America. To distill a comparison of the two to a single sentence spanning 150 years is overly simplistic.

Now how to prevent or motivate the leftward march of legacy foundations that live on following the benefactors passing is a topic for another thread.

$130 - $184 - <$100

Bookmark this https://t.co/MJ9gr6sq2H pic.twitter.com/oBLSnWvaov

— 𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗽 (@nobrainflip) June 14, 2026

The whole discussion is still ridiculous. Convincing enough people to buy shares of SpaceX at about $165 that you manage to raise $76 billion is a *long* way from being a trillionaire. I want to see how many of those supposed millionaires Musk created in the IPO actually get to cash in their chips and leave the table.

It's all monopoly money. We've built an economy on a house of cards rather than actual solid foundation, and I can't muster even the slightest bit of pity for anyone who keeps shoveling everything into this bubble economy. You reap what you sow.

What's the alternative to not participating in the economy? By definition that's everything...

Buddy of mine is a BernieBro and wow. People are SO angry over this and just fail to see literally any positive out of Elon and his work.

I compared him to Bezos and Zuckerberg with Elon being all about just reinvesting into his companies instead of buying more yachts, mansions, humanitarian benefits he's made with Starlink, neurolink, etc. and it always resorts back to TDS, anger and envy. But fails to see the hypocrisy of his own choices and leaning on the wealthy capitalists for their very own well being.

Teslag said:

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Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Starlink is doing more for world education than Carnegie ever did

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Correct but Carnegie did more for education that most people before him as well.

What a weird argument you guys are making.

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It's not weird at all. You don't have to give money away to help others.

Take a company like Monsanto for example. They've done more to feed the world's poor and starving than any government or charity in history simply by becoming a successful multibillion dollar corporation that increased readily available food.

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Of course you don't have to but I align with the ideas of Andrew Carnegie and how those with vast wealth might behave.

I do worry that we are moving closer to a point where those without will become more and more violent. Wealth disparity eventually gets to a point where we have events like the Russian and French Revolutions, which I think we all agree were giant **** shows that caused misery in a scale that is not what we want for our children.

ktownag08 said:

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What's the alternative to not participating in the economy? By definition that's everything...

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You're conflating "invest everything into highly overvalued companies trading at several multiples of normal PE ratios" to just normal participation in the economy. How is throwing institutional levels of money at historically overpriced companies anything but insanity? We've got 401k's being shoveled directly into the large indexes regardless of any fundamental analysis simply because "number go up faster!"

What the **** is any of this actually built on? When push comes to shove and people actually hit hard times, what's going to back up any of this monopoly money?

Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Starlink is doing more for world education than Carnegie ever did

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Correct but Carnegie did more for education that most people before him as well.

What a weird argument you guys are making.

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It's not weird at all. You don't have to give money away to help others.

Take a company like Monsanto for example. They've done more to feed the world's poor and starving than any government or charity in history simply by becoming a successful multibillion dollar corporation that increased readily available food.

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Of course you don't have to but I align with the ideas of Andrew Carnegie and how those with vast wealth might behave.

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Most of the uber wealthy contribute a lot to philanthropy. On that note, not all philanthropy is a force for good.

Elon was almost a god to the left until he started promoting and pushing free speech. And now he's a villain to them because of it.

He's the closest thing to Tony Stark we've ever had in real life and he's not even focused on weapons systems. Dude has revolutionized the planet in multiple ways, for good or bad, and should probably get a pass if he's not giving enough money away. Besides, his wealth is all virtual.

Stmichael said:

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ktownag08 said:

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What's the alternative to not participating in the economy? By definition that's everything...

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You're conflating "invest everything into highly overvalued companies trading at several multiples of normal PE ratios" to just normal participation in the economy. How is throwing institutional levels of money at historically overpriced companies anything but insanity? We've got 401k's being shoveled directly into the large indexes regardless of any fundamental analysis simply because "number go up faster!"

What the **** is any of this actually built on? When push comes to shove and people actually hit hard times, what's going to back up any of this monopoly money?

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Man, I hear ya but the whole thing is fake news. We are $40T in debt and no one cares. It's going to implode at some point because math and human behavior dictate that it will. All you can do is try to get some too while you can while also de-risking as much as you can. It's a massive Prisoner's Dilemma / Musical Chairs / Titanic ride.

Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Starlink is doing more for world education than Carnegie ever did

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Correct but Carnegie did more for education that most people before him as well.

What a weird argument you guys are making.

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It's not weird at all. You don't have to give money away to help others.

Take a company like Monsanto for example. They've done more to feed the world's poor and starving than any government or charity in history simply by becoming a successful multibillion dollar corporation that increased readily available food.

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Of course you don't have to but I align with the ideas of Andrew Carnegie and how those with vast wealth might behave.

I do worry that we are moving closer to a point where those without will become more and more violent. Wealth disparity eventually gets to a point where we have events like the Russian and French Revolutions, which I think we all agree were giant **** shows that caused misery in a scale that is not what we want for our children.

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But what are those without actually without?

For most of human history wealth disparity creates issues because those without were literally starving and dying while others enjoyed excess.

The people angry about this are well fed. They have housing. Many are educated. They have smartphones and entertainment. They live in relative comfort.

Famine drove past revolution. Having a hard time see it being pushed in the future because comfortable people are mad they can't afford a nicer car or upgrade their handbag

rednecked said:

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you just have to buy a bigger boat

the title for the most expensive traditional superyacht goes to Eclipse. Owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the 533-foot vessel is valued between $700 million and $1.5 billion.

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I've seen the Eclipse several times.

Abramovich parked it in the St Martin marina, and they take it to St. Barts around Christmas/New Year's.

Haven't seen it the last few times I've been there though.

Saw this boat, too.

Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Bull Meachem said:

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Teslag said:

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Starlink is doing more for world education than Carnegie ever did

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Correct but Carnegie did more for education that most people before him as well.

What a weird argument you guys are making.

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It's not weird at all. You don't have to give money away to help others.

Take a company like Monsanto for example. They've done more to feed the world's poor and starving than any government or charity in history simply by becoming a successful multibillion dollar corporation that increased readily available food.

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Of course you don't have to but I align with the ideas of Andrew Carnegie and how those with vast wealth might behave.

I do worry that we are moving closer to a point where those without will become more and more violent. Wealth disparity eventually gets to a point where we have events like the Russian and French Revolutions, which I think we all agree were giant **** shows that caused misery in a scale that is not what we want for our children.

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Wealth disparity and the entire income inequality topic in this country is a myth. There have been several studies on this recently that show this and we had a thread on it not too long ago highlighting these studies. The low income strata in this country has been pretty much the same for many decades. When people fret about the middle class disappearing it's assumed that those who are disappearing are falling back down to the low income strata. In fact, what we've seen over the last several decades are people moving up into higher income stratas. Which is a good thing unless we are saying we want things to remain static and essentially have a caste system.

If we get to a point of violent insurrection over "wealth disparity", and we certainly could, it will be because of a narrative and not due to actual facts and statistics. However, the real underlying issue on this topic is the two tier justice system between the political elites and the rest of us. I can certainly see how that might cause some violent uprising. Wealth and power obviously drive that reality.

Good for him. Hard work and inspiration does pay off. FYI He probably does not care about being first Trillionaire, I think he wants something much more meaningful.

doubledog said:

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Good for him. Hard work and inspiration does pay off. FYI He probably does not care about being first Trillionaire, I think he wants something much more meaningful.

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That's the thing here...I agree with you. He's not doing this for the money. The guy didn't even have a home for a while because he worked so much he was literally living at work and shuttling from business to business.

He has almost insane aspirations and is not wired like the rest of us including the uber wealthy. I think some of his predictions are borderline stupid, frankly, but I think it's knee jerk emotion to think he's doing this for the money.

hph6203 said:

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I got laid off in January. Haven't had a job since. The prior February I had surgery to remove my rectum, and shat in a bag for 3 months. The prior February to that I started chemotherapy. I now keep track of the number of days I go in a row without having to change my clothes because I crapped my pants (52 days is the new high!). When I sat on the toilet with violent diarrhea from the radiation and burns on my skin so bad the toilet paper pulled it off. A month of wake up, get irradiated, alternate between working and rushing to the toilet every hour. What'd I do when I stopped screaming from the pain of that? I laughed.

At no point in that entire run was I even half as miserable as this. Tough times are tougher when you deal with tough times like this, and it makes it harder on everyone around you.

Scans on Wednesday to see if I have cancer again.

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Did you have to stare at the hospital bill and wonder how much of your child's future that procedure was going to cost you?

Stmichael said:

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hph6203 said:

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I got laid off in January. Haven't had a job since. The prior February I had surgery to remove my rectum, and shat in a bag for 3 months. The prior February to that I started chemotherapy. I now keep track of the number of days I go in a row without having to change my clothes because I crapped my pants (52 days is the new high!). When I sat on the toilet with violent diarrhea from the radiation and burns on my skin so bad the toilet paper pulled it off. A month of wake up, get irradiated, alternate between working and rushing to the toilet every hour. What'd I do when I stopped screaming from the pain of that? I laughed.

At no point in that entire run was I even half as miserable as this. Tough times are tougher when you deal with tough times like this, and it makes it harder on everyone around you.

Scans on Wednesday to see if I have cancer again.

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Did you have to stare at the hospital bill and wonder how much of your child's future that procedure was going to cost you?

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Good lord dude. He was probably more concerned with dying.

Teslag said:

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Stmichael said:

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hph6203 said:

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I got laid off in January. Haven't had a job since. The prior February I had surgery to remove my rectum, and shat in a bag for 3 months. The prior February to that I started chemotherapy. I now keep track of the number of days I go in a row without having to change my clothes because I crapped my pants (52 days is the new high!). When I sat on the toilet with violent diarrhea from the radiation and burns on my skin so bad the toilet paper pulled it off. A month of wake up, get irradiated, alternate between working and rushing to the toilet every hour. What'd I do when I stopped screaming from the pain of that? I laughed.

At no point in that entire run was I even half as miserable as this. Tough times are tougher when you deal with tough times like this, and it makes it harder on everyone around you.

Scans on Wednesday to see if I have cancer again.

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Did you have to stare at the hospital bill and wonder how much of your child's future that procedure was going to cost you?

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Good lord dude. He was probably more concerned with dying.

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We're all going to die at some point. The least we can do is make sure our families are taken care of before we do. I'm betting he's got that covered. I don't have that comfort.

hph6203 said:

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I got laid off in January. Haven't had a job since. The prior February I had surgery to remove my rectum, and shat in a bag for 3 months. The prior February to that I started chemotherapy. I now keep track of the number of days I go in a row without having to change my clothes because I crapped my pants (52 days is the new high!). When I sat on the toilet with violent diarrhea from the radiation and burns on my skin so bad the toilet paper pulled it off. A month of wake up, get irradiated, alternate between working and rushing to the toilet every hour. What'd I do when I stopped screaming from the pain of that? I laughed.

At no point in that entire run was I even half as miserable as this. Tough times are tougher when you deal with tough times like this, and it makes it harder on everyone around you.

Scans on Wednesday to see if I have cancer again.

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Good luck!!! Hope you get a giant NO!

**** cancer.

And for the record, this isn't my first rodeo with job loss. I got furloughed from Fluor the day I finished the work I was assigned on an ethylene cracker. I was only there 2 years, and because I only had 1 job under my belt they decided I didn't have the specialty expertise to keep around and was an acceptable casualty after losing 25% of their stock price in a bad earnings miss.

Then I spent 3 months looking for a job, found the one I just got fired from, and only spent 9 months there before the new CEO decided that they would rather replace me with someone who had more industry experience rather than just finding more work for me to do.

If that's all I'm worth to corporate America, then I'm rooting for the reckoning that it's long overdue for. And if the supposed adults in the room can't be bothered to fix anything about it, then I hope they get theirs too.

ProgN said:

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Stmichael said:

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And for the record, this isn't my first rodeo with job loss. I got furloughed from Fluor the day I finished the work I was assigned on an ethylene cracker. I was only there 2 years, and because I only had 1 job under my belt they decided I didn't have the specialty expertise to keep around and was an acceptable casualty after losing 25% of their stock price in a bad earnings miss.

Then I spent 3 months looking for a job, found the one I just got fired from, and only spent 9 months there before the new CEO decided that they would rather replace me with someone who had more industry experience rather than just finding more work for me to do.

If that's all I'm worth to corporate America, then I'm rooting for the reckoning that it's long overdue for. And if the supposed adults in the room can't be bothered to fix anything about it, then I hope they get theirs too.

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Instead of raging about Republicans and wealth, why not tell us what your professional skills are and see if our Aggie Network might be able to help. Or just rage drink and blame wallow in your TDS.

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I do, in the job network. I'm a process engineer with 8 years experience: 2 in manufacturing support, 3 in process scale-up, and another 3 in engineering design. And that's apparently too expensive for American companies to pay for, so they'd rather off-shore the work or bring in H-1B's and **** up the job market.

backintexas2013 said:

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Stmichael said:

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And for the record, this isn't my first rodeo with job loss. .

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This is the least shocking thing I have read today. How can it be I know hundreds of people who have never been fired and you have been canned twice in what? Four years of professional employment. Hmmm. What is the one consistency in both terminations? Let me help you. It's YOU

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Then why does job loss always so mysteriously happen right around the time business hits a rough patch? Lost my first job after the company failed to secure a contract and posted a 15% YOY sales loss. Capital for process improvements dries up, cut the engineer with it.

VP of Fluor's Houston office when I ask about how 9% inflation is going to impact our job backlog: "Don't worry about that, our client's projects are much longer horizon than that and their funding is secure. Look at the backlog curve!" A year and a half later, they're down $5 billion in contract work backlog and I'm out of a job.

My now former boss showed me the process work backlog in a separate meeting not a week after the all-hands meeting telling us that the CEO is spouting bull**** about incoming process work. Sales guy who has no engineering experience doesn't know the difference between the different engineering disciplines and just thinks we're all interchangeable, meanwhile my boss looks at the project log and we have 6 weeks left of billable hours before we drop down to 1 long run project for process engineers. Do they go out and start selling more process engineering jobs? **** no! The money is in data centers and power generation for those data centers, hire more electrical and mechanical engineers and replace the guy who doesn't have power generation experience! We don't need him anymore!

But yeah, it's all my fault. I definitely deserved it. I just needed to work harder to prevent all those ****-ups at managerial level.

So three times. Rage for 24 hours then focus.

Bull Meachem said:

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This is not a political statement:

If you made $1,000 dollars a day, it would take you 2.74 years to be a millionaire.
To be a billionaire, it would take you 2,739.7 years.
To be a trillionaire, it would take you 2.7 million years.

If you had started at the dawn of human civilization, you'd have around $107,000,000,000.

This is a political statement. I hope that he reads Andrew Carnegie's Gospel of Wealth and takes it to heart.

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The US government spends $7 Trillion a year.
If they confiscated all of Elon Musks wealth, they could fund, maybe 2 months of Government spending.
2 months. And there woud be no more Elon money going forward.

And yet we have the Bernies and Warrens of the world demanding we take more of Elon's money and give it to them.

THAT is a political statement

Stmichael said:

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ProgN said:

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Stmichael said:

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And for the record, this isn't my first rodeo with job loss. I got furloughed from Fluor the day I finished the work I was assigned on an ethylene cracker. I was only there 2 years, and because I only had 1 job under my belt they decided I didn't have the specialty expertise to keep around and was an acceptable casualty after losing 25% of their stock price in a bad earnings miss.

Then I spent 3 months looking for a job, found the one I just got fired from, and only spent 9 months there before the new CEO decided that they would rather replace me with someone who had more industry experience rather than just finding more work for me to do.

If that's all I'm worth to corporate America, then I'm rooting for the reckoning that it's long overdue for. And if the supposed adults in the room can't be bothered to fix anything about it, then I hope they get theirs too.

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Instead of raging about Republicans and wealth, why not tell us what your professional skills are and see if our Aggie Network might be able to help. Or just rage drink and blame wallow in your TDS.

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I do, in the job network. I'm a process engineer with 8 years experience: 2 in manufacturing support, 3 in process scale-up, and another 3 in engineering design. And that's apparently too expensive for American companies to pay for, so they'd rather off-shore the work or bring in H-1B's and **** up the job market.

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What field? I'm not an engineer.