I think we’ve now both accused the other of Russel’s teapot, lol. Your claim that it’s impossible to ethically become a muliti-billionaire is equally unfalsifiable, at least feasibly. I don’t feel like I’m claiming anything absurd here. If you won a lottery that made you the richest person on earth (that was in some way devoid of any of the ethics concerns of the normal lottery system), then you would have become the richest person ethically. Or, at least, without having exploited excess value of other people’s labor.
This isn’t a Russel’s Teapot because I’m arguing for a logical construction, not a point of fact. I’m not saying that such a person exists and you can’t prove they don’t. I’m arguing that it’s almost tautologically true that if those events could happen, then my position holds water. I’m only arguing that it’s within the bounds of the possible.
As for maintaining the money in a way that’s ethical, sure, why not. Just throw it into a savings account that earns 2%/yr. Split it among a ton of banks and credit unions to stay within the FDIC insurance limits where possible. If you have 200billion dollars, that’s 4billion a year to live on. Seems pretty easy to maintain your wealth that way. Am I missing something there?
I don’t know what you’re driving at with the “slippery slope” statement? Do you think I’m advocating that we should all be held accountable for the crimes of every dollar we have ever had in our possession? Or are you trying to imply that I’m arguing for always taking money indiscriminately? Regardless, I think it’s reaching pretty hard in either direction.