"If you're Elon Musk, you just violate law after law and the federal government goes [shrug]..."
Might there be any other names that could take the place of Musk's in that statement? And is it any wonder that when 'little earth people' such as me look at enough of this behavior from both the high-dollar scofflaws and the Feds, some would …
"If you're Elon Musk, you just violate law after law and the federal government goes [shrug]..."
Might there be any other names that could take the place of Musk's in that statement? And is it any wonder that when 'little earth people' such as me look at enough of this behavior from both the high-dollar scofflaws and the Feds, some would like to see a new sheriff in town. One who will do more than chew the scenery as Kurt Russell did on that train platform in 'Tombstone', and actually deliver on the message of "You tell 'em I'm commin', and hell's commin' with me"? And when a lying miscreant such as Donald Trump stands up and says "I'm your huckleberry", more than a few who may not actually be looking for a reincarnation of Bull Connor buy into to it for all the wrong reasons?
Not defending them. Just asking if it's really that big a mystery, as so many people seem to think.
Musk and his ilk and the Fed's lackadaisical and ineffective responses to their thumbing their noses at them, and by extension at the rest of us 'little people' (anyone remember Leona Helmsley?) to whom the rule of law is a real and concrete thing, is one of the many reasons we all find ourselves on the outskirts of the mythological old Wild West, wondering if another O.K. Corral is in the offing.
Postscript: If one requires a little evidence of the disparity of responses from the Feds toward certain classes of 'scofflaws' (whether intentionally scoffing or not):
What is going on with Musk right now reminds me somewhat of Donald Trump in the eighties and nineties. At the time, I concluded Trump was a horrible, lawless person. When he ran for president, I knew even before his infamous elevator ride that there was no way I would vote for him.
Really couldn't agree with you more!! Trump...Musk...others of their ilk...though differing by degree and often individual motives, all seem cut from the same ugly bolt of cloth.
At one time, I think it was a common perception among us little people that rich people could simply 'buy' their justice, and as much of it and the exact kind that they needed or wanted. More and more it seems that they don't have to reach too far into their wallets, if at all (with the possible exception of Trump), since 'justice' amounts to whatever they want it to be for themselves in real time, any time, and the law and the rest of us who respect and live by it be damned.
More and more wealth and its concomitant 'power' concentrated into fewer and fewer hands is definitely not a good thing for many reasons! Not sure how you reconcile a 'healthy' capitalist economic system with that outcome.
I don't begrudge rich folks their fortunes if they came by them 'honestly', so to speak. In fact, I look at a lot of them and their lives and think if that's what having MONEY does for you, I'm glad I don't have any. It's what they do with all that money and power that I often resent. That, and the fact that our government kowtows to it at virtually every level, to the detriment of us all.
For those reasons, there may indeed be no "good" billionaires in a broad sense. But I don't know...Warren Buffet always seemed rather innocuous to me in that respect. Don't know a whole lot about him, but it's kind of hard to not like a guy at least a little bit who's got that kind of dough and doesn't seem to seek the limelight much or throw his weight around excessively, and for a while at least continued to live in a relatively ordinary home and drive around in a Jeep Wrangler.
"If you're Elon Musk, you just violate law after law and the federal government goes [shrug]..."
Might there be any other names that could take the place of Musk's in that statement? And is it any wonder that when 'little earth people' such as me look at enough of this behavior from both the high-dollar scofflaws and the Feds, some would like to see a new sheriff in town. One who will do more than chew the scenery as Kurt Russell did on that train platform in 'Tombstone', and actually deliver on the message of "You tell 'em I'm commin', and hell's commin' with me"? And when a lying miscreant such as Donald Trump stands up and says "I'm your huckleberry", more than a few who may not actually be looking for a reincarnation of Bull Connor buy into to it for all the wrong reasons?
Not defending them. Just asking if it's really that big a mystery, as so many people seem to think.
Musk and his ilk and the Fed's lackadaisical and ineffective responses to their thumbing their noses at them, and by extension at the rest of us 'little people' (anyone remember Leona Helmsley?) to whom the rule of law is a real and concrete thing, is one of the many reasons we all find ourselves on the outskirts of the mythological old Wild West, wondering if another O.K. Corral is in the offing.
Postscript: If one requires a little evidence of the disparity of responses from the Feds toward certain classes of 'scofflaws' (whether intentionally scoffing or not):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/20/social-security-fraud-penalties/
What is going on with Musk right now reminds me somewhat of Donald Trump in the eighties and nineties. At the time, I concluded Trump was a horrible, lawless person. When he ran for president, I knew even before his infamous elevator ride that there was no way I would vote for him.
Musk is a horrible, lawless person as well.
For me it isn't their wealth that offends me. It is their VULGARITY.
Really couldn't agree with you more!! Trump...Musk...others of their ilk...though differing by degree and often individual motives, all seem cut from the same ugly bolt of cloth.
At one time, I think it was a common perception among us little people that rich people could simply 'buy' their justice, and as much of it and the exact kind that they needed or wanted. More and more it seems that they don't have to reach too far into their wallets, if at all (with the possible exception of Trump), since 'justice' amounts to whatever they want it to be for themselves in real time, any time, and the law and the rest of us who respect and live by it be damned.
More and more wealth and its concomitant 'power' concentrated into fewer and fewer hands is definitely not a good thing for many reasons! Not sure how you reconcile a 'healthy' capitalist economic system with that outcome.
I don't begrudge rich folks their fortunes if they came by them 'honestly', so to speak. In fact, I look at a lot of them and their lives and think if that's what having MONEY does for you, I'm glad I don't have any. It's what they do with all that money and power that I often resent. That, and the fact that our government kowtows to it at virtually every level, to the detriment of us all.
For those reasons, there may indeed be no "good" billionaires in a broad sense. But I don't know...Warren Buffet always seemed rather innocuous to me in that respect. Don't know a whole lot about him, but it's kind of hard to not like a guy at least a little bit who's got that kind of dough and doesn't seem to seek the limelight much or throw his weight around excessively, and for a while at least continued to live in a relatively ordinary home and drive around in a Jeep Wrangler.