[extropy-chat] Bloodless Redistribution of Wealth (wasSingulartarians)

[Samantha Atkins]

On Dec 28, 2005, at 1:11 PM, gts wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:00:23 -0500, The Avantguardian  
> <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> The idea is similar to that of vanity license plates.
> ...
>> The idea being that for a few billion dollars, all the
>> bills or coins of a given denomination issued within a
>> defined time period would feature the "winner's"
>> picture on it.
>
> Interesting idea.

The idea assumes that rich people would really be all that turned on  
by having their picture on the fiat currency of the day.   I believe  
that is a seriously flawed assumption.

>
>> Any money raised by my idea ought to go to
>> humanitarian causes.
>
> Limiting the funds to humanitarian causes might be your only hope  
> of garnering support from those who would balk at the idea of  
> enshrining rich capitalists on our currency. Even then I think a  
> large percentage of people would find it distasteful.
>

So being a rich capitalist is less impressive than being a dead  
president, eh?

> A similar but more political feasible idea might be national  
> lotteries sponsored by and named after the philanthropists. A donor  
> could for example agree to match funds raised from public ticket  
> sales up to some predetermined amount, increasing the government's  
> take while and also increasing the jackpots for the winners. The  
> donor's photogragh could be on each lottery ticket.

Great!  Exploit those who aren't rich to gamble senselessly on some  
mug's game.

- samantha