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EMC Co-Founder Commits Suicide
The Register is reporting that EMC co-founder Richard Egan has committed suicide. The article has an interesting look back at some of his accomplishments. "Egan had an amazing life, encompassing involvement in the Apollo space program, the US Marines, starting and building the most successful storage company on the planet, and becoming the US ambassador to Ireland. Finally, aged 73 and facing a lingering death, he ended the battle decisively and on his terms. He was never a shrinking violet."
What's with our obsession to praise and reward those who ultimately just take advantage of us?
What's more American than being an entrepreneur? And why shouldn't he do everything to keep his hard-earned wealth? Why should his hard work taken advantaged of by the government? The oppressive tax regime in the US is one of the biggest reasons why the economy tanked. Rich people don't like being robbed, and will take their money elsewhere, where they can keep it, as they should! A noble American, I agree, indeed!
Be relentless!
A rich fucker like him could've easily gone to one of those clinics in Europe and ended it in a more dignified manner. Imagine the poor bastard who ended up discovering his corpse... What an asshole.
Imagine the poor bastard who had to clean up the room. He had better have left a huge tip.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I agree with this 100%. The question isn't whether he had a right to do it, it is whether, given his circumstances, it was ethical for him to do it. Compared, say, to an ordinary individual like you or me where saving some tax dollars could improve our own lives.
There seems to be a kind of moral affliction among some people who become extremely wealthy, I don't know exactly what to call it, but it is a kind of sense of entitlement, that they "deserve" everything they have because it's all due to their "hard work". Well, most of it is actually due to the hard work of many individuals who worked under them, earning ordinary salaries while they (in effect) skimmed off the top in the form of stocks, options, executive salaries and bonuses, etc. Now, there is nothing fundamentally wrong about this - it is the way capitalism works, and it seems to have been beneficial to society on the whole.
It seems that as some people get wealthier and wealthier, what initially might be an attitude of gratitude, over time turns more and more into greed, a kind of microscopic view of society where they are the only ones who matter and all others (who aren't wealthy) are fundamentally inferior and deserve as little as possible. One manifestation (at least with at least a couple of wealthy families I know) is a miserly approach to household help where they will pride themselves on negotiating the lowest possible hourly rate, hire illegal immigrants to save even more, and in general bend the rules where possible to exploit their help as much as possible. Never mind how those people struggle to survive as a result, it doesn't matter because they are inherently inferior. There is a complete lack of empathy for them.
Now let's get to the issue of taxes. He already has more money than he can possibly need if he were to live 100 lifetimes. The taxes he saves by a questionable tax shelter, even if strictly legal, will have no measurable effect on his quality of life. But it ignores the big picture of what taxes are for and whether it is his responsibility to in some small way return to society part of what it has enabled him to accomplish. While we can debate forever the wisdom of how taxes are spent, the fact is that much of it is spent providing a social net for the less fortunate, for example medical care and food. Maybe some of those people brought their misfortune on themselves due to drug addiction or just laziness and thus in some way don't "deserve" help from society. Nonetheless, this social net is important to keep our society civilized and humane.
I suppose I could say much more with regard to the inevitable arguments that this should be supported by volunteer charity, that many wealthy people are philanthropists, that they can determine better how to help people with their money than the government can, etc. But I'll just stop here, and hopefully what I've written may provide some food for thought and debate.
There's suicide, and there's euthanasia. They are _not_ synonymous.
You are right, euthanasia is murder.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison