Elon Musk & Twitter & World Hunger & Billionaires & Tech
It's funny how people care...
Liberals are loosing their fucking minds over Elon Musk buying Twitter and taking it private. It's comical really; people thinking Elon Musk could have "solved world hunger" with the massive loan he took out to do this. Do we think he would have gotten the loan if that was the goal? Yeah, that's not how money works.
Solving world hunger tangent:
First of all world hunger is not a problem. Like addiction, it is a symptom of a problem. World hunger is the product of a bad distribution of wealth. Not only does the economy not provide people with wealth who are starving to death, but also those people who are starving to death are providing so little value to the economy that they don't even have enough money to eat. It's a two way street. Who is to blame? It's nobody's fault, and it's everybody's fault. That's part of the problem right there: everyone thinks it's someone else's responsibility to fix this stuff. You fix it, smart guy.
Meme my girlfriend sent me personally:
This concept that Elon Musk should have 'solved' world hunger with a loan is wholly absurd. You can't generically throw money at problems and expect them to go away. The reductive logic and reasoning behind this frustration is truly baffling, but also it makes perfect sense because of course people have every reason to be frustrated with the dumpster-fire economy we're all subjected to.
That doesn't change the fact that in order to solve a problem like "world hunger" we don't have to necessarily increase or distribute the supply of food better, but rather increase the supply of high quality jobs to the population. Sounds like a problem that crypto is going to solve faster than anything else (and it will be painfully slow).
The cure is worse than the disease.
Imagine 'solving' world hunger. Congratulations, you did it! Now anyone can eat as much food as they want. Good for us! Right? Oh wait, now the population skyrockets and all the kids get free food and their kids get free food and now there are 30 billion people on the planet and pollution and overpopulation just killed everyone. Good job. You solved world hunger. Idiot.
This is how complex geo-economic problems work:
You solve one problem and one or two more pop up somewhere else. Solve those and one or two more problems pop up again. So on and so forth the game of whack-a-mole continues. A good current events example of this: the FED raising interest rates isn't going to fix the supply chain problem (the thing causing inflation).
Comically Politized
So many people out there think that billionaires not paying taxes is inherently personal theft. Like, really? The same people that say ACAB (all cops are bastards), support social justice and small businesses, understand the Black Lives Matter movement, know the system is corrupt to the core etc etc... these are the same people that think billionaires need to pay their taxes? Like, lol. The cognitive dissonance is overwhelming. They know the government is corrupt and then turn around and make assumptions about taxes as if the government is going to use that money for the greater good. Wake the fuck up woke people! Jesus Christ! Mindblowing.
Repeat after me: taxes are irrelevant now.
Taxes only make sense in the context of hard money that can't be printed out of thin air. We've evolved past that nonsense, and that's a great thing. Only a hop, skip, and jump away from true progress now that the Byzantine General's problem has been solved.
This post was not supposed to be about any of this.
I started writing this post purely to tell everyone why Elon Musk bought Twitter. That was the main goal, but there are so many other tangents involved it's unreal. Hard to stay focused!
Why did Elon buy Twitter again?
It's crazy to me how everyone's speculation on this topic is basically completely wrong. A lot of people are simply taking Musk's comments at face value.
He bought Twitter because he cares about free speech.
lol, what?
No one should ever take billionaire Elon Musk's word at face value.
That's insane.
He bought Twitter because he doesn't want to get banned.
WHAT?!?
Seriously c'mon you guys, you can do better than this.
I believe in you.
He bought Twitter because he wants to shill Doge.
Ah, so close!
Seriously though, this is a guy whose building a tech empire.
He's turning cars into advanced tech.
He's building AI.
He wants to colonize Mars.
He wants to put a chip in your brain.
And no one seems to recognize how a social media like Twitter could factor into all of this? Really? Wild.
The crazy thing is that it doesn't even matter.
- He's already talking about open-sourcing the algorithm.
- He's already talking about the importance of free speech.
- We already know he's a crypto-friendly anarcho-capitalist.
This acquisition is overwhelmingly bullish for crypto.
- No more shadow-bans & echo-chambers.
- No more underhanded algo manipulations.
- No more blatant propaganda on the trending tab (maybe).
But what is he going to actually do?
Like any tech billionaire that buys out a company... they incorporate that company into their tech empire. We have to look at the motivations of this new breed of billionaire. What drives them? The days of Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffet billionaire investing is a quickly dwindling paradigm.
When we think 'billionaire' these days we are thinking Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, etc. They are all in tech, and that's no coincidence. To hammer this old point home: people want to be gods. They want more power, and the only way to get that kind of power at this point is to be, not only a billionaire, but a billionaire on the cutting edge of exponentially evolving technological advancement. We are in for a wild ride over this next decade or two, that is for certain.
So again, when we are wondering why Elon Musk bought Twitter at such a high price, we have to factor in all these things. Obviously he's been doing hours upon hours of game theory over this acquisition. To take him at face value of "free speech matters" is just absurd. He clearly has a solid plan to incorporate Twitter into the tech empire. This is very very obvious.
I'm not saying that Musk doesn't care about free speech. I think it's pretty obvious that he does, as that is very inline with the anarcho-capitalist mindset. All I'm saying is that he's obviously holding four-of-a-kind and only showing us one card, because that's just the kind of troll that he is. And let's be honest: if we had as many enemies as Musk does, would we just go around constantly gossiping about what are plans were? I'm sure he's already learned that lesson the hard way long long ago. He's not a Bond Villain after all (I think...).
Conclusion
We are asking the wrong questions.
How could he have spent that money better?
How will he defend free speech?
How do we get him to pay taxes?
The real question:
How will he incorporate Twitter into the tech empire?
Considering the importance of social media as it relates to technology and the progression of artificial intelligence, it honestly shouldn't be that hard to figure out.
No matter how this plays out it's good for crypto. Twitter succeeds: good for crypto. Twitter fails: good for crypto. Same for Bluesky (the 'WEB3' Jack Dorsey project). Same with CBDC. The theme being conveyed now is a constant: cryptocurrency is the future and nothing can stop that future from happening. The only question is if these tech billionaires will be able to bend these emergent communities to their will. I highly doubt it. Capitulation has already happened, and the end result will be inevitably explosive.
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To be fair didn't he just Tweet today that he is going to buy Dorito's and make it so they fill the bags to the top. Maybe that is his way of fixing world hunger. :)
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Classic one 😂
I think maybe you missed a piece of the puzzle:
To date the World Food Programme hasn't received any donation from Elon.
It wasn't about solving World Hunger, it was about helping countries that are in famine... which is a huge problem in places like Afghanistan right now.
I don't care about Elon buying Twitter, he can do whatever he wants... I personally think it will be good for Hive if he actually does... but liberals weren't losing their minds over him not spending his own money on solving world hunger, more that he didn't do what he said he'd do.... with his own money.
Elon Musk was heavily financed by public money at near free interest and tax loopholes. I am not from the USA, so I couldn't care less about them letting rich people burn their money through public funding, but holy shit...
They give Elon Musk public money and insist it is his money because it is spent privately, but if someone asks for funding to help the general public all of a sudden it is public money.
This precisely describes the problem.
Musk said "solve world hunger", not "help out for 365 days".
This is not a solution, it's a Band-Aid, and it requires trusting a charity (which is historically foolish).
Again, throwing money at the problem doesn't make the problem go away.
Show me how the food supply is permanently increased forever by this and I will concede.
When someone asks for $6B and follows up with:
You turn around and run away.
"It's just a matter of doing the hardest thing!"
Like... seriously? He is being serious with that implication? That's alarming.
Totally understand that point... but 'world hunger' was Elon's words, that initial report was never about solving world hunger, it was about addressing that very immediate threat of 42 million people starving due to the famines hitting their countries.
The problem is that these people will not have access to food because the famines and the solution is to get them good at the cost of $0.43 per day per person. As you said, we have a distribution problem and that report was all about trying to solve that distribution problem. They have the distribution systems in place, but not the funds to make it work at the scale they need.
The scaling up comment was saying that they already have the systems in place to solve the problem... they just need to scale up the amount of food they can provide, that's what the $6B was for.
Did Elon purposely make the issue harder by reframing it? Who knows? All we can say is that he asked for a plan, they gave a plan, and nothing happened.
Anyway, whatever, I don't really care about any of this, I just wanted to provide some context that "Liberals" weren't just making stuff up to lose their minds over.
Yeah this is all very reasonable and Elon Musk is a huge cynical troll so there is that.
He should have never even made such a comment because it was so obvious he'd never fork over the money.
It was always going to be exactly how it turned out.
Honestly, has anyone trolled better than Elon? Sure, other peeps have come up with some hilariously ingenious trolling over the years, but for pure impact Elon has be the world's best troll.
It look crazy to me when I see argument about Elon musk buying Twitter, every human is ontological free to do anything they want. It's crazy dictating for a man on how to spend their money. People are hungry in Africa because our government caused it. People criticizing Elon musk are just hypocrite.
Elon musk bought Twitter to get money. He can't spent money on Twitter and use it to certify people. He bought it because of what his going to gain on Twitter.
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I harp about the 1% not getting taxed but only when I get "critiqued" for finding the loopholes which "cheat" the government.
Leave my four figure savings alone and go after the big numbers.
I am liking this thread of articles regarding getting rid of taxes. It is a good mental exercise in "going towards the right solution."
And regarding world hunger... I ate a salad from my garden today. There's a supply chain problem, so I'll remove myself from needing supplies as much as possible.
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Assuming that he does actually take over Twitter, he’ll still have to bend over and take it from regulators in The EU and elsewhere. Twitter will still be centralized.
Quote from Musk's Twitter announcement...
IMO, this is the key to the whole deal.
What do think that means? KYC for a blue checkmark or something else?
Considering his work with artificial intelligence I imagine he's going for something much crazier than that.
i am thinking some form of digital ID based on biometric info.
Maybe he could send that money to combat Putin, saving taxpayers money (and many lives).
https://www-politico-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.politico.com/news/2022/04/28/ukraine-funding-request-congress-biden-00028552?_amp=true&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D&_js_v=0.1
...buying more weapons to save lives? Which never works....
It worked for Hitler.
for some time, yes.
It was morality worthwhile.
It sucked, and it will suck again.
I don't think so. I think it was a necessary battle against an agressor, just like now in Ukraine.
The result will be another failed state. Which is a pity, as I liked Ukraine.
A failed state is a Russia´s puppy state. That is everything that Ukraine cannot become.
time will tell.
Just look at the past when the Soviet Union still existed. Nobody wants to go back to that times in eastern Europe except for Russia itself.
Its always interesting seeing the left thinking money can fix everything. I mean capitalistic people don't think "print/use money" and fix world hunger.
Also, why do those people think that much about how other people spend their money :D
If someone should fix it I would say are Governments job.
Crazy times we are in
I love the comparison with “Le Chiffre”, I never noticed they looked so much alike! But I follow you completely here, Musk knows very well what he is doing, and the platform Twitter offers fits completely in his empire. I don’t see him as vilain, not as a philanthropist. He’s just an extremely smart business man, with great vision for the future
World hunger is even more complicated than that. While economics and wealth (or lack thereof) in general play a large role, one of the biggest problems is overpopulation. Not overpopulation of the world in general as I think the world can support plenty more people, but overpopulation of areas that can't produce the resources needed to support the people that are there (in a reasonably economic way anyway).
Ethiopia was long the poster country for starvation. Ethiopia is a desert. Ethiopia is also a fairly densely populated country. While I am no expert in food growth, I do know that it is generally easier to grow food in a temperate climate with fertile soil and plenty of rainfall than it is in a desert.
So how much does it cost to feed all the malnourished people in Ethiopia (or all over the world)? I don't know, but unless that cost includes education/infrastructure/technology/etc to increase food production where the problem is, then the cost is going to be extremely high and never ending. Feeding the hungry is noble but simply buying food and sending it there is like putting a bandaid on an open artery. Also, in many such countries corruption is such a problem that you are lucky if a small percent of the aid actually reaches the people it is intended for.
It's a little ironic that people on twitter complain about the value of twitter. If all money went to feed the hungry there would be no twitter, or facebook, or computers, or much of anything ultimately putting far more people out of work and causing more hunger. A thriving economy is the best cure for hunger but it's hard to make the economy thrive in areas ruled by people who don't care.
Yeah this is a fine addition to the post and I would have mentioned some of this stuff if it was the main topic of discussion. All good points.
They can't feed themselves yet the average # of kids per household is 4.2.
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Let's just create a cryptocurrency and give a Universal Basic Income in that currency to everyone who signs up
Whatever he's up to, doge is definitely inclusive, can't really keep the dogs out, can ya?
I don't have any idea why he bought it but even multibillionaires don't spend multibillions without some reason that is important to them.
Free speech? Maybe but I doubt that rises to the level of 44 billion important in Elon's mind.
Notoriety? possibly he's that narcissistic, but doubt it.
Power? maybe he wants to run for president. Doubt it. Maybe a messiah type thing, Meh,,,maybe
Business dominance? Very possibly. Could be he wants the platform for business expansion through marketing, name recognition.
Money maybe but not directly. These guys have money used as their yardstick, but mostly by others. After a billion or so it becomes seriously pointless to quibble. They do use money as a proxy for winning though.
Heck. I don't know, but I do know he didn't spend 44 billion for no reason. There is almost 100% certainty that it was calculated and deliberate.
Will be interesting for sure, but we may never know. We will only know if he succeeds. If he doesn't it will be written off an the next plan hatched.
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Good content!
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Nailed it with this first statement.
Guess I have nothing to add then
Nailed it again.
I don't think no one knows why Musk did that, and suppose if they did, then they would be Musk and Musk would be them lol!
Solve world hunger: Show people how to grow food. Teach them to have 1 or less babies.
Good points, thanks!
Imagine Tesla cars + Neuralink + AI combined with Twitter and crypto.
You can tweet without typing, get rewards for it, all this while your Tesla takes you autonomously to a parking lot where you can pay the fees with the crypto you earned.
Full feature Sci-Fi
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I don't know if he's going to fix anything... but Twitter has become such a crap that it can't possibly get any worse! 🤡
That's really similar to my own sentiment.
For crypto guys, this should be a good news. And as metaverse is the future. Nothing can stop cryptos being appreciated. And of course, there is a big game running into Elon's head behind this buying twitter
The funny thing about all this is that people always want to tell others how to spend their “hard-earned” money.
It’s mind-blowing indeed!
Another issue is the fact that people believe throwing money at a problem solves it but rather this even creates greater issues.
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Not only does the economy not provide people with wealth who are starving to death, but also those people who are starving to death are providing so little value to the economy that they don't even have enough money to eat. — this scenario reminds me of a Mel Gibson movie , mad max!
The tech world has always been a fascinating one . It’s progress is always continuous . Elon incorporating Twitter into the tech empire if that’s actually his main goal will definitely be a step in the right direction. More or less a no brainer!
I made a response post.
QOTD: Is @Edicted addicted to you staying hungry?"Fiat wont end hunger but crypto can" ???
My stance is that no amount of crypto will feed any mouth.
We don't say, hey crypto go feed that bum. No. We, our will, feeds the bum. not with crypto, or any other thing but with food. Will power. not Hive power.
Great post btw. I love how you pointed out the overlaying issues as to how tech is to be used, especially when it is taken over by a tech giant.
The memes are hilarious. I died laughing at the boomhower meme trying to get in bed with the disturbed looking woman.
Elon Stans are so pathetic, he tweets about crypto and it has you all out lining up ready to suck his cock. I put some negative Elon tweets out there and now I can't access my Twitter.
Free speech Libetarian, lol.
Cg
People always have the wrong question. It is more like when you have little you think little, that theory totally applies over here. A very interesting post buddy. Explicitly detailed. Loved reading it. Only if many of us think in this way, then the world would be a better and less suffocating place to live in.
I tried explaining this to someone the other day but your way of explaining is much more effective.