So Larry emailed me this article today about how the richest 2% of the world controls more than half of the world's wealth. And his subject line was, "Way to go! We friggin rock!"
I know how obnoxious this sounds. I can tell by the tone of these articles how people feel about this. It's like they want us to apologize for having so much money. Well, you know, for a long time I had mixed feelings. Like, I really, really wanted to be rich; but then I felt weird being so rich. But then I just had this huge turning point. It happened when I broke through the billion dollar mark. Which is a big deal, ask anyone who's experienced it. It freaks you out, really. I was standing in front of a mirror in my living room, naked, just looking at myself. Which is just something I do. I check out my body. And once a month I take a photo, and save them in a scrapbook. I've been doing this since I was fifteen. Anyhoo. I'm standing there in front of the mirror on the first day that I woke up a billionaire and I'm going, Steve is a billionaire. Steve is a billionaire. A billionaire. Like saying it over and over, listening to the sound of that word. And then I was like, Dude, you know what? This isn't luck. This isn't an accident. I'm different. I'm special. It's like in one of those movies where a guy realizes he's got telekinetic powers and it's just too bad if he doesn't want them, he's got them. Likewise, I have this gift. It's who I am. There's no sense going around trying to hide it, or trying to be something I'm not, or pretending I'm just a regular person. I'm not a regular person.
I mean, Jesus didn't go around being all humble and pretending that he wasn't who he was, right? He just said, Dude, I'm Jesus, okay? And I'm like the son of God? So you all just have to deal with it, all right? Because I have to deal with it too. Same for El Jobso. I hope this doesn't sound super vain or whatever. But there's no way to be honest about who I am and also sound humble. I know some people (cough Bono cough) think the richest 2 percent should give away their money and spread it evenly all over the world. But think about it. There's a reason why super smart people get all the money. It's because we know what to do with it. What do you suppose happens if you just give all this wealth to poor people? You know they'll just go out and buy 50-inch flat-panel TVs and bags of crack and loads of other useless shit. And then they'll be right back where they started.
So I'm not going to apologize for being rich. What I am going to do is go finish this goddamn iPhone. Now that will be a gift to the world. It's beautiful. Honestly. Just insanely gorgeous.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
On being obscenely wealthy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
Uh...Except...Paris Hilton.
Need I go on?
Paris Hilton is an example of what happens when, by some fluke, stupid people get lots of money. But don't worry, she won't have it for long.
Articles and comments like these are the reason I fell inlove with this blog in the first place. Sure winning a caption contest is nice but man this was one very funny read. I hope you keep up the funny during the run up to Macworld.
Only 50%? So half the world's wealth is available to rest of us? Sweet.
Not that I'm not trying to join you on the other side.
the wealth of Steve Jobs
dollars blessed by good Karma
unlike those of Bill
I have this friend who gets a boner when he looks at himself in the mirror ... does it happen to you too? Is it normal? Anyhoo, it's not really important since it's not me ... for real.
FSJ, as long as that totally gorgeous iPhone can hold all my iCal and AddressBook info, I will order one the second it's unveiled.
Dude, I invented the friggin' iCross. Have you heard of it?
I am in debt can you give me some money to get out of debt?
Excuse me, I disagree. Check poverty.com. K?
Just wondering, when you were in your 20's if you ever went out with a tall blonde woman named Janis, from Allentown? She lives in my neighborhood now and says you did. Update: she married a wealthy concrete contractor, seems happy, 4 kids and a Mercedes.
FSJ, what we want to know is this: all the juicy details from those dark days when you were sitting on NEXT boxes in some warehouse, booting OpenStep and hoping your day will come again. That is what we want. Not this fat-ass billionaire bullshit. You are a billionaire for a reason: genius, psychological advantage, options and just plain kick-a$$ budgeting over the years. Give us some of that. Please.
"Uh...Except...Paris Hilton."
paris hilton and 80% musicians
Giving money away to the poor should be the purpose of the government, not of the rich people.
Bill Gates created his foundation to give money away and to hide his fortune from the IRS. He is smarter, me thinks, because his foundation has gotten money from other super rich and then they reinvest it in super poor countries.
Think about it. If you are not that smart as to be able to create the iPhone, then you have to invest in something simpler like exporting commodities or buying virgin lands for wealthy tourists to visit.
You are smart and you made a fortune. Now, how are you goign to make sure your descendants get that money?
Most rich families loose their wealth in their third generation. How can you force them to be rich without throwing away all their money out of the window?
Paris Hilton is just an exmaple of that. She was born incredibly rich so she feels she doesn't have to learn stuff or create new things in order to get rich. She expects money to continue flowing to her, but she is surrounded by voultures and she doesn't realize.
She is not a bad person and for sure she is hot, only she didn't receive a working brain. And that is to be expected of the super rich.
I mean, you put your money in the bank, you can get 2% per year, which is more than 20 millions a year. If you aren't expending the whole 20 millions, your getting more and more money every year. Your brain is not necessary anymore and just because of that the quality of your posts is going down.
Giving away your money is not the solution.
If you don't feel like helping the poor I bet it is better for you not to do it. What is being poor anyway? It depends on which country you live, in some countries with $1,000 a month you are poor, in others you are rich.
Giving money to poor people will only get them poorer, as you suggested, because they don't realize what is important and what not. Getting education is probably the most important asset, but people are afraid to get into debt.
People who study on their own means get better results than people who get credit for college. Why? I really don't know, but I suppose that people who spend their own money think they deserve a better education and feel like they have paid for this so they better give them something good.
While people who get credit feel like education is almost free and therefore they do not consider education as valuable.
So you could instead give people some money to study for free, but they wouldn't get the results that people who are paying for it are getting.
The path you have chosen is the best path you could have chosen.
And the money you get is a big motivator for you to do incredible things. That's good. That is what you have to offer to society.
Other people can take care of the poor, but they are loosing the battle.
Countries like Sweden have very high taxes for the rich (meaning the smart) and they subsidize the poor (giving them free education).
Sweden works like a clockwork (wait that was Switzerland ;-).
The goverment should take care of that and businesses should take care of creating value for customers. Making money is just a consequence of creating value.
Post a Comment