Nope, it’s outright theft and fraud that puts these people in this kind of financial position. Considering the playing field for wealth in Russia allegedly started out even for everyone when the Soviet Union collapsed 3 decades ago, this is graphically solid evidence of skulduggery amongst the Communist Party’s loyal Comrades when the end approached, and since then.
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Nothing at all? Even putting aside that it’s an expression of late-stage capitalism ca. 2019 (with all the cronyism and corruption that implies), there are still plenty of capitalist aspects left over that make this BS possible.
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The point isn’t that they should’ve donated more money to charity, the point is the system shouldn’t create billionaires to begin with. Charity is just a way for the ultra rich to whitewash their behavior that contributed to the problems they’re putting a band-aid on.
They create a charity for the homeless while lobbying against denser housing developments that would alleviate the housing crunch, they do a benefit for a hospital while supporting politicians that are against universal health care, they create a scholarship for the less fortunate while making sure their shitty kids cut the line to admissions with cheating and legacy donations.
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I believe it is capitalism, but intertwined with and jet-fueled by kleptocracy.
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Not that I think I’m a saint or anything, but when I think about the cost of a yacht like that, I genuinely think I’d get more happiness out of donating that amount to a worthwhile cause then I would from the boat. I mean, boats are cool but that is just so much boat.
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Length overall x beam: 156 m x 24 m
Length overall x beam of USS Arizona (sunk at Pearl Harbor): 185 m x 29.6 m
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I don’t really disagree with you, but, if you want to talk about ultimate principles, then the creation of billionaires is just one of a bazillion issues we’re gonna have to tackle. I was obviously speaking from the POV of “what’s done is done”.
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Is it not the global hegemonic economic system under which said oligarch can have said boat?
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even criminal behaviour is capitalism. this idea that you can’t call it capitalism if rules are broke is laughable.
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From the wikipedia part that was linked to in the article:
" On 12 November 2012, the British newspaper The Times reported that Usmanov had hired a London-based PR firm, RLM Finsbury, that edited Usmanov’s article on the online encyclopedia English Wikipedia to remove information on Usmanov’s criminal convictions and later controversies surrounding their client. …As of January 2015, the original Times article has been removed from the newspaper’s website, its publicly accessible archives, and Google search."
The best part of the Wikipedia reporting on that is how it notices the story eventually disappeared but Wikipedia will do its best to NOT forget.
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Not so:
If you steal from someone and distribute the proceeds of the theft to poor people, it’s still theft, not ‘socialism’.
If a person abides by the law, regardless of how ineptly structured, full of loopholes or corrupt the law is, they can be increasing their fortune under ‘capitalism’.
If they bribe, defraud, or use another unlawful means to steal from individuals, companies or governments, it’s theft, not ‘capitalism’.
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i’m failing to see the need for the artificial separation of two different things with vast areas of overlap.
there are all sorts of capitalistic criminal behaviours and crimes. many types of crimes arose specifically in the the foundations of capitalism and are intrinsic to capitalism.
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This is literal docksing.
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oh? and why is that? please explain.
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bit like but not taylor swift’s responsible mum worst case synario andrea
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Two yachts that pass in the night, and both are ugly and ostentatious.
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If you, too, start from nothing and save only $100,000 a day, you will have as much money as this Russian oligarch by 2376. So stop complaining and start working!
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