just wondering. Does an American who makes $12,000 a year have any standing to criticize billionaires? Great article, Noah, but you should have told whoever said an American was wealthy by world standards is a pauper, just barely (if single) above poverty level.
Great column! One observation — I haven’t observed billionaires as a class getting more empathy, unless they’re also male. Might be a function of how most billionaires are male to begin with, I suppose....
"Spending your time happily dreaming about the death’s of billionaires is a kind of empathy too; you can put yourself in someone else’s place to savor their suffering, after all."
(Yellow Submarine)
🎼'We all died in a shitty submarine
a shitty submarine
a shitty submarine
a shitty submarine'
When the news said they had lost comms I assumed they lost comms because they suffered a hull integrity failure. At those depths it means quickly. An actual implosion (rather than a leak) means they died instantaneously. 2 seconds top but the crew would have stunned into unconsciousness in a 100 milliseconds - maybe. Getting clubbed in the back of the head might not be as quick. There are lot of ways to die horridly - that isn't one of them, they did not suffer. The kids that drowned in the Med almost certainly took a lot longer to die.
People die in car accidents every day and they die in a thousand other ways everyday and I don't feel a damn thing about this particular episode. I suppose it was on TV so people were drawn into the situation.
elm
it's not so much about empathizing with or hating any group, they were just displayed on tv a lot
In fairness, the imploded sub is quite the unusual story. The media coverage is simply going to rival the latest immigrant vessel to sink. I'm not being callous; rather I have seen this happen too much in the last few years.
I do not know the preparation for this type of dive, but I would assume certain risks are accepted. Like climbing Everest, there is the chance for no return.
Oh, and if the occupants did not do their own research on the risks, that's on them. I've read elsewhere there were possible safety measures this sub was not equipped with.
Caz Hart, I was more or less agreeing with you right up to your last paragraph. It sounds there like you're saying, "IDGaF about peasants drowning, because their narrative isn't exciting enough."
Noah's point is that stories of the super-wealthy is, for some reason, inherently interesting to us, which is why a Billionaire drowning while engaging in extreme tourism (going down in a mini-submarine just to get a look at The TITANIC at the bottom of the ocean) means so much more than a boatload of migrants drowning while trying to make it to safety. We care more for Mr. Superrich and his entourage, and did more to rescue them, than we did to try and save those migrants—and maybe we need to be aware that Billionaires' lives (and deaths) aren't inherently more interesting than the lives of the less fortunate, even if they don't have an exciting narrative attached to them.
I continue to be so very glad I subscribe to this “stack.” Your writing and logic are superb!
thank you! I am glad you subscribe also!
just wondering. Does an American who makes $12,000 a year have any standing to criticize billionaires? Great article, Noah, but you should have told whoever said an American was wealthy by world standards is a pauper, just barely (if single) above poverty level.
Great column! One observation — I haven’t observed billionaires as a class getting more empathy, unless they’re also male. Might be a function of how most billionaires are male to begin with, I suppose....
yeah; I guess it's like 87% of billionaires are men?
I have no clue how it breaks down(I know, “Google is your friend”), but honestly I thought it was even higher than that.
"Spending your time happily dreaming about the death’s of billionaires is a kind of empathy too; you can put yourself in someone else’s place to savor their suffering, after all."
(Yellow Submarine)
🎼'We all died in a shitty submarine
a shitty submarine
a shitty submarine
a shitty submarine'
When the news said they had lost comms I assumed they lost comms because they suffered a hull integrity failure. At those depths it means quickly. An actual implosion (rather than a leak) means they died instantaneously. 2 seconds top but the crew would have stunned into unconsciousness in a 100 milliseconds - maybe. Getting clubbed in the back of the head might not be as quick. There are lot of ways to die horridly - that isn't one of them, they did not suffer. The kids that drowned in the Med almost certainly took a lot longer to die.
People die in car accidents every day and they die in a thousand other ways everyday and I don't feel a damn thing about this particular episode. I suppose it was on TV so people were drawn into the situation.
elm
it's not so much about empathizing with or hating any group, they were just displayed on tv a lot
In fairness, the imploded sub is quite the unusual story. The media coverage is simply going to rival the latest immigrant vessel to sink. I'm not being callous; rather I have seen this happen too much in the last few years.
I do not know the preparation for this type of dive, but I would assume certain risks are accepted. Like climbing Everest, there is the chance for no return.
Oh, and if the occupants did not do their own research on the risks, that's on them. I've read elsewhere there were possible safety measures this sub was not equipped with.
Caz Hart, I was more or less agreeing with you right up to your last paragraph. It sounds there like you're saying, "IDGaF about peasants drowning, because their narrative isn't exciting enough."
Noah's point is that stories of the super-wealthy is, for some reason, inherently interesting to us, which is why a Billionaire drowning while engaging in extreme tourism (going down in a mini-submarine just to get a look at The TITANIC at the bottom of the ocean) means so much more than a boatload of migrants drowning while trying to make it to safety. We care more for Mr. Superrich and his entourage, and did more to rescue them, than we did to try and save those migrants—and maybe we need to be aware that Billionaires' lives (and deaths) aren't inherently more interesting than the lives of the less fortunate, even if they don't have an exciting narrative attached to them.
I didn't think it was, which was why I brought it up....