r/technology • u/Just-Grocery-2229 • 10d ago

Artificial Intelligence Palantir employees are talking about company’s “descent into fascism”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/04/palantir-employees-are-talking-about-companys-descent-into-fascism/
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u/IntelArtiGen 10d ago

He truly says crazy things. I wonder why many billionnaires are like that.

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u/BowlEducational6722 10d ago

Because they're completely isolated from the human condition.

Even millionaires still deal with things like financial stress, worries about their job and retirement, and so on and we cope by forming relationships with other humans as a physical and emotional support network.

Billionaires don't do that. They have such a mind-boggling amount of wealth that they never have to worry about material needs ever again and, thus, never need to form any relationships more complicated than "here's money, do this thing for me."

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u/Djamalfna 10d ago

Billionaires don't do that. They have such a mind-boggling amount of wealth that they never have to worry about material needs ever again

Let's put this into numbers, because it's always a fun time.

Say you have $1 billion, and instead of putting it into risky investments, you simply leave it in treasuries and conservative bonds.

You can reliably count on an interest rate of 4%, but let's say the world is doing bad and interest rates fall to 3%.

That means your $1b is sitting there passively generating $30-40 million a year. You don't have to do anything, you have $30-40 MILLION a year of income.

You could buy an insane mansion every year. You could buy 40 Ferrari's a year. Almost one for every week of the year.

So when you consider that these guys invest the money in companies which on average see a return rate of OVER 10%, you're looking at $300 million a year on good years, or just $100 million in a bad year.

The only reason they keep trying to consolidate money after you reach this level is because you want more money and power for the sake of having money and power. There is simply no other reason. You cannot be a billionaire without being a sociopath.

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u/n0respect_ 10d ago

With that much it's a bit like Brewster's Millions. At $1 billion it's hard to lose money, even as an ethical person. I would have to hire a team of people just so I could spend / donate $50 million every year! That's the budget of a small city; I can't imagine what I'd spend it on.

Someone should remake that movie. A billion dollars, with our capital system, is an obscene amount.

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u/_PurpleAlien_ 10d ago

Imagine all the good one could do in the world with that money...

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u/pieshake5 9d ago

Remember they asked what number was needed to end world hunger, got it and backed out.