Provocations from a philanthrocapitalist

[nairiporter]

This is a TED talk by Paul Tudor Jones II, a hedge fund manager who has earned a lot of popularity in the US, although he seldom gives interviews. Still, his arguments naturally resonate very clearly with the audience.

Basically, he is arguing that the obsession for profit has become something so normal that society is not noticing how it is

Comments

[luzribeiro]

That philanthro- thingy... sounds like some new kinda dinosaur or some such thing.

And maybe it's just as threatened with extinction a species.

[musicpsych]

A hedge fund manager saying there is something wrong with an obsession with profit? Oh, really? Is this April Fool's Day? Did someone just figure out how to divide by zero?

I think we need to look not to the past for answers, but to evaluate how we got here and why things are the way they are currently. See how the policies of Reagan and Clinton and the Bushes and Obama have impacted things along the way. How outsourced jobs and stagnant wages and student loan debt and tax loopholes have made an impact. Tax reform? That's a simple enough concept for a TED talk, but I think the answer is more complex than that.

[htpcl]

A TED talk serves a function, and it's not to solve the world's problems. Let's not overestimate the purpose of those 15-minute lectures.

[kylinrouge]

Obsession of profit drives disrespect of ethics. Tax reform won't solve the glaring inequalities of our society, it's the rights of the worker. We should be propping up the bottom, the less people think they can skirt the rules or just outright break them with no enforcement, the better businesses will behave, and both workers and consumers benefit from not getting ripped off.

As much as I'd like to eat the rich, they'll just get rich again. We need to stop the cycle of poverty, just not let inequality balloon enough so that all we think about is the 1%.