The ultra rich of today have a fundamental connection to the robber barons of the guided age, the landlords of the feudal system, the imperialism of the Caesars and the total ownership of everything from plants to people Kings held; all of them do whatever they can get away with. Society and law has to set limits despite, and in response to, the levers the ultra rich are able to pull for their own advantage. The government broke monopolies but breaking personal wealth that is spread across many sectors of the economy seems a tougher prospect. And the power of the growing financial sector makes that prospect even harder. As the article implies, if Trump had taken his initial 200m inheritance and simply spread it across the stock market he could be worth 8b today. No ingenuity, he doesn't need to produce anything, he wouldn't need a 'brand' or real estate holdings, doesn't need to dream up anything novel or unique. He could have just sat on a beach and watched his money multiply. That isn't healthy for society.
the Tesla driver cult isn't attacking labor trying to organize with rifles
If Musk can, "coup whoever we want!" how is that significantly different from paying Pinkertons to beat and murder strikers or the Slave Patrols in the 18th century? If SpaceX reaches Mars Musk isn't going to hand it over to benefit humanity, it will become his own personal fiefdom. He'll make the laws, he'll own an entire planet...if we let him. If the people of Texas get tired of rocket parts falling on their beaches and neighborhoods he'll move again to a place more accommodating. If he can't do that he'll claim empty ocean and create his own personal State outside the jurisdiction of the laws he doesn't like. This is something Carnegie, Rockefeller or Vanderbilt could have never dreamed of.
If (when) research into AI leads to a super intelligence we wont know until well after it is deployed to enrich and empower its' owner(s). It could by then already be too late to do anything about. It might already be too late. Capitalism has already been replaced by something much worse. Varoufakis calls it Technofeudalism, his book mentioned in the article is fantastic. Consider this, in 2020 the British Exchequer announced GDP had fallen by 20%. A staggering number and much worse than anticipated. The stock market went up in response to the news. Because the financial sector knows that today bad economic news --less production, less profit, more unemployment-- for everyone else means a greater supply of digital currency for them. That isn't Capitalism. That's some new thing worse than any monopoly, robber baron or feudal entrapment.
Your passive aggressive behavior is delightful
It's not passive. I don't like you. I think you are fucking stupid. I'll continue to call you fucking stupid. Aggressively.
You intentionally edited his statement, stupid. I'll flag that every time, moron.