Steven Spielberg is a multi-billionaire. He has an individual purchasing power and corporate empire that rivals pharmaceutical companies, hedge funds and the governments of small cities. The same is true for Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Ridley Scott.
Mike Cessario is the founder and CEO of Liquid Death, the designer water business. Liquid Death has recently changed the name of their half-lemonade half iced tea beverage from "Arnold Palmer" to "Armless Palmer" to make it more metal. They then changed the name again this time to "DEAD BILLIONAIRE" after a legal dispute with Palmer's estate. According to NBC, Liquid Death is valued at 700 million dollars, quickly approaching a billion-dollar valuation. (It has actually surpassed 1.4 billion) Of course, Mike Cessario is still not quite a "LIVING BILLIONAIRE", instead hes only a measly multi-millionaire. I drank a nice frosty Dead Billionaire this morning, while reading my book.
I am in the process of reading a book about a dead billionaire named Walt Disney. Walt Disney used to be homeless, indebted and single, subsiding on cans of beans and only showering once a week for the price of a dime. I have completed some other books about billionaires, living and dead. One was Larry Ellison, the ccentric founder and CEO of Oracle Corporation, best friend of Steve Jobs, mentor to Elon Musk, and arch-rival to Bill Gates, also billionaires. Larry Ellison at one pint lived off the income of his wife. He was by all means a deadbeat. Until he made a decision to change that. Young Larry Ellison made a decision that he was going to be a millionaire. He decided. Why does one decide to become a billionaire? Some believe the only reason someone could even be interested in being rich is because they are greedy. Because they want to take from someone else. This is common. There are also other reasons to become a billionaire. In the case of Elon Musk, he wanted to buibuild a rocket that could deliver human beings to the surface of mars and return them safely to the earth. I don't think a multi-millionaire could have tried. Steve Jobs believed that the he was an artist working in the medium of personal computing, and the personal devices created at Apple were going to actually advance the human species into the next stage of evolution.
If I ask the question why are billionaires considered evil? I expect some people will actually think that I am evil. Because obviously, billionaires are evil! They have all the money, and we don't! Billionaires have so much more than what they need, how could they be so callous as to neglect the needs of the people around them.
Is Steven Spielberg evil? How about Beyoncé? Are all billionaires the same, and guilty of the same crime, the crime of greed? Was that what E.T. whas all about? Making a bunch of money off of a bunch of suckers? I feel bad for anyone who thinks so, E.T. helped me grow as a person. There would be no Ratatouille without Walt Disney. There would be no delicious Dead Billionaires on the shelves of my local grocery store if it were not for Mike Cessario, but one thing is for certain, he may one day be a dead billionaire too. I don't think the Dead Billionaire name is profound, it panders to a majority. It is easy to say that person has unfair power over the world. I wish they were dead. I wish all their money was ours. I wish I wish I wish.
Well, if you're still reading at this point it may be because a) you hate me and can't wait to see what other things I say that will enrage you or whatever. or b) you are curious to see where it goes. Both good reasons to read it. Give me a chance, a category, to introduce you to some new ideas that you have every right to reject.
1. Money is a tool, it can be used for many different purposes. You can use money to plant trees, to give people jobs, to make art and to advance in science. You can also use it to buy all the aids medication and mark up the price to exploit supply and demand. But it is not simply inherently evil. 2. Not everyone who is rich is the same. 3. Of the people who don't worry about money very few have good reasons for having it, and even fewer are building anything of any use to their fellow species.