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Larry Ellison Buys His Own Hawaiian Island
First time accepted submitter nrozema writes "Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison is buying the Hawaiian island of Lana'i, the sixth-largest island in the U.S. archipelago. Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie confirmed in a written statement that the current landowner filed a transfer application with the state's Public Utilities commission Wednesday to sell its 98 percent share of the 141-square-mile island to Ellison."
....tsunamis could be a good thing.
Larry Ellison also owns a MIG fighter jet. This cannot be good.
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
..for a secret base to plan world domination with his minions...
Hollowed-out volcano and white cat time ?
NON-EVENT ... at all !!!
Thank you, whoever posted this thing. ... that I wonder what my day could have been if I hadn't received it.
Really.
It was so important to rellay this non-information
I know where you live, now!
When the law and the market is such that corporate owners can buy whole islands for themselves, it's time to recognise that land ownership is just a piece of paper filed in some cabinet/database, not a natural right. Ellison has no moral right to own an island - indeed, no-one really has any more right to own land than they do to own a genetic patent. It's nature's thing, it was there before you, and it'll be there after you were gone. We must recognise that the only way that this land "belongs" to Ellison is that people in uniform will stop others from using it.
Now it seems right to allow people to lease a limited amount of land under limited terms according to the privileges decided by a democratically elected government. As it stands now for the average person, you pay your land tax and you get control of some land, for as long as your control doesn't act to the detriment of the general public. This has a philosophical basis in geolibertarianism, and receives a nod from communism (though communism's implementation is different). It is also, of course, the system partly implemented by almost every Western government: e.g. in the UK, pay your Council Tax or Business Rates or have your property taken from you. The difference is that the latter have weak recognition of the nature of land, allowing monopolisation of this naturally monopolisable resource. We need to recognise that no land really belongs to anyone - the only thing a man is entitled to is what he has physically made with his own hands, or that someone else has so made and freely traded with him. Even then, there are questions of ownership of raw materials, so it's all just a compromise.
Now it's Larry Ellison versus hawaiikind, with hawaiikind in the underdog position.
Old story here
the 141-square-mile island
I can't comprehend that size. Could we have the area in asteroid passing distances? Earth radiuses works too.
With these billionaires also starting their own private space programs too, all we need is a suave british agent and a hot local chick going to raid the compound threatening megalomaniacal schemes
"do you expect me to talk?"
"no mr. bond, I expect no SQL to this movie, I expect you to join that table with this collate, and then drop"
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
what a cunt
If you really want to play in the next James Bond, the best is the Actor studio !
The title reads like it is a little misleading to me... The way I read it was in the context that he bought an island he already owned (which would not surprise me). I don't know why the /. editor who posted this thought it wouldn't be interpreted this way though... (or why I'm the first to comment on it?)
Surely: "Larry Ellison buys Hawaiian Island" would have sufficed?
While I might not have studied journalism, I did have a job as a journalist for about a year (as well as being made editor of some smaller sections to the online news site), and well, I think my article-editor would have kicked me in the head (or at least shat on me from a dizzy height, as was the norm I guess). Oh well.
Although I very much doubt this will be the last time this happens...
I assume his purpose here is to create a volcano lair island.
The 1% own 99%...
141 square miles ~= 90,000 acres. Assuming "hundreds of millions" = $500,000,000, this comes to about $5500/acre.
The parcel my house sits on in DC is values at about $3.6 million /acre. (It's much less than an acre!)
I guess I have more expensive tastes then Mr. Ellison.
people in africa have been starving since i was a kid.
Is that supposed to make it better somehow?
too bad when you send them food the government takes it
I'm having difficulties interpreting that in any way that would make sense... but I guess you could mean that when delivering resources to locations torn by war and ruled by dictators, it's pretty difficult to ensure that the resources go to the people who need them the most. Even though that's true, a blanket statement of "when you send them food the government takes it" sounds pretty ridiculous. And even if such a blanket statement was true, it still wouldn't be all that appropriate response to the criticism of utterly ridiculous wealth disparity in the world.
When I saw the title, I went, "Oh, sure, there's plenty of tiny, 1 acre islands that are separated from one of the main islands by a tiny bit of sea, he probably bought one of those. There's no way anyone could afford to buy one of the.... he really just bought Lana'i. Someone can do that?"
Buying a bare, windswept, island that has long ago been converted into a Pineapple plantation? The place is probably invested with rats. ...or soaked in pesticides. Seems like a waste of money to me. There isn't even a sandy beach.
I thought the Hawaiian royal family owned all the land and you only rented the land from them and paid a yearly land rent.
Coming soon to Hawaii: Ellis[on] Island
My own Lanai is in the back of my house, and it has a built in pool and fire pit. I don't have to travel all the way to Hawaii when I want to use. Just pop out there after work. Ellison got suckered.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Maybe now he's found something large enough to hold his massive ego. Somehow I doubt it though, given his past transgressions. He's hoping that a volcano erupts and takes his sorry ass down.
Next year's follow-up story - Oracle secedes, and couches itself as fully as possible in its total reality distortion field.
Then it sues Greece for having had oracles 2000 years ago.
Every trollism an AC posts is prefixed, in my mind, with "A. Coward whined, in a weak and cowardly voice:"
If he ran this by George Clooney
"Good news! I have just sold one of our islands for half the proceeds from Oracle's upcoming multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against Google! Even if they get only half what they're asking, we will make a killing. I promise a hula hoop around every midriff!"
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Why is it that I feel a lot better about Richard Branson buying an island or David Copperfield buying an island than I do this jackass? When PeopleSoft was still an independent company I used to work there. Best job I ever had. Then Ellison decides to buy it and the whole culture changes. People, including me, are leaving in droves. Couldn't work there. Wouldn't work there. Ellison is the biggest douchbag on the face of the earth.
You gotta call 'em like you see 'em.
I hope there is a fucking Volcano on the island and it erupts.
Then I hope someone throws Larry into it.
What does 'owning' an Island actual mean? Is it part of the state of Hawaii and thus the USA?
Can Larry declare independence, make the island an international tax haven, issue its own currency and move Oracle's head office outside US jurisdiction?
Or is it more just he's now the owner of a pineapple plantation with 3000 worker slaves?
Looking at JavaFX it would be better he would invest into the future of his company then into some tropical island
Software Developer@OpenMeetings project
Implying that "S-Q-L" should be pronounced "sequel"? You must be from the microsoft camp.
And he looks like Hank Scorpio!
All we need is oracle to open up a germ warfare division, though think he'll have to settle for the western seaboard rather than the eastern, if he's based in Hawaii?
The real plan is for him to take over his island, declare independence from Hawaii, copyright his New Hawaii and then sue the real Hawaii for infringement.
...prevent stuff like this.
It should be decided by Hawaiians what happens to Hawaii - and I assure you they wouldn't want some megalomaniacal (sp?) asshat with all that power over their lives.
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You are Soooo right, (next to) nothing has changed.
Published in 1995 this book is subtitled 'The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague, and Poverty'.
Way back then he was lamenting that after years of "effort" and tons of money little advancement was being made.
Famine exists in the most fertile areas of the planet, why?
I read it just a couple of years ago and noted that it was a sadly accurate description of today's world.
No brain, no pain.
So he can finally make money off Java.
Need Mercedes parts ?
gorillas licking each other's anuses until red and raw
the majority of us do.
The real difference between us and "them" is many of them are never satisfied with where they are in life and forever seek to improve upon it. Let alone except in very amazing cases the majority of these people spend the end of their life with the wealth. The internet revolution did spawn a lot of people with enough youth to enjoy their wealth longer.
See my tag, compare your achievements to your goals, never compare yourself to another. You can set a goal to have/do what they are doing but only compare the results to your personal goal.
Are you unhappy in your life? I think its awesome that there are people who can buy an island. Would I want to? Sure but I know I don't have that "not sure what it is" to try and follow through.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
pretty sure they use platypuses these days...
...prevent stuff like this.
It should be decided by Hawaiians what happens to Hawaii - and I assure you they wouldn't want some megalomaniacal (sp?) asshat with all that power over their lives.
The island just passed from one megalomaniac billionaire to another. It was previously owned by David Murdock (via his real estate holdings company, Castle & Cooke).
The particular island in question seems to have been almost-wholly owned by super-rich landholders for ~150 years.
Isn't Hawaii a super expensive resort destination?? How does the guy have this kind of money?? I think he misinterpreted the number of zeros in that settlement Google just gave Oracle...
Any billionaire Slashdot readers, that is. Do guys like this do things like this just to get erections or something. Is it sex? I know a guy who does slightly sub millionaire business with a small string of gas stations, and he gets all the hot lasses he could ever want, so it can't be that. Maybe he's like the Plutonian, and just wants somewhere quiet.
On the other hand, if he's planning a tropical island supervillain base, where do I send my resume?
I'd be a hard working, go getting, self starting project lead of your Advanced Superweapons Division, Mr. Ellison!
Terrible isn't it? I'm not against wealth, hell I'd love to have some appreciable wealth myself, but the idea of a single person owning the island of Lana'i is crass in the extreme.
Then, the cherry on the cake is that the guy is "super asshole of the century" Larry Ellison...
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Maybe when he reaches the top he'll buy the largest.
He just wants a lair in a dormant volcano. It's OK. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
When my wife and I were island shopping we looked at Lana'i but it's in a pretty terrible school district- I sure hope they can afford private school.
the idea of a single person owning the island of Lana'i is crass in the extreme.
Why? Its just an extreme instance of private property rights. So at what point do you say that this much property is enough but any more is not right? 141 square miles is big, but its not the largest private land parcel by a long shot.
Now, if you want to raise the issue of how the original land owner, Castle and Cooke, came to possess this island, that's another (interesting) issue.
Have gnu, will travel.
outbid me again!
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
These Hawaiins, are they Americans, too? Because in the rest of the United States, we can buy and sell property- even the Native Americans do this!
I don't really see what purpose subdividing Hawaiians out of the rest of America serves, except to stir up animosity and discontent- or perpetuate the same.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
Have gnu, will travel.
Leisure Suit Larry Land
They're Americans just like Californians, Georgians, New Yorkers (well, maybe not New Yorkers...)
The point of the homestead act is that Hawaiians got f***ed and this helps a tiny tiny bit to make up for that, and it helps keep rich white asshats like Ellison from displacing them all because everyone wants to buy a house there.
If it wasn't for the homestead act everyone in Hawaii would either speak Japanese or be a rich white guy (mass generalization of course, but if you've lived there you'll also know how true this is, lol.)
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Love your sig by the way, made me laugh :).
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Maybe, but some of the people in the Hawaiian sovereignty movement are just as megalomaniacal as Larry Ellison. Not sure having them decide would be any better.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I am sure he will make huge effort to learn native language of Hawaii also ...
Island in question.
After all, I'm pretty sure those Indonesians are violating his copyright.
Why would they be deciding?
Wanting the Hawaiian people and citizens of the state to be able to decide what happens to a large island in the Hawaiian archipelago doesn't mean the decision would be up to people in the sovereignty movement...
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The island is private. 99.9% of the Hawaiians live on the other islands.
but, but, but how did he manage to buy something like that, doesn't he only earn 1$/year to set the example since the beginning of the recession? He should give budget management classes!
So what, an even smaller percentage of Americans live in the state of Alaska, if it happened to be owned by some billionaire asshat through some mistake of history it seems reasonable that it shouldn't be able to be sold to another billionaire asshat - especially when neither of them lived in Alaska?
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This only proves that Larry Ellison is an evil super-villian.
He already is worth a ton of money and now bought a small tropic island to construct his evil lair. I can only assume that his evil master plan is to hold the whole world hostage for a ransom.
Clooney does decide to sell his family's inheritance after all.
JADBP
When you say "Hawaiians" that generally means people who are actually Hawaiian, not the immigrants who came later. Besides, why should people on Oahu decide what happens on Lanai?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Is he THAT evil?
Actually, when 'I say Hawaiians' that generally means people who live in the state of Hawaii full-time. If you mean true-blood Hawaiians, I lived there for 3 years and never met one. There are tons of people who have ethnic Hawaiian ancestry, but the vast majority of those are hapa haole.
Why should the people on Oahu decide what happens on Lanai? For the same reason that the people in Northern California have a say in what happens to their state on issues that may just be located in Southern California.
I'm sure most Hawaiians (ethnic or otherwise - who aren't billionaires) feel that the island of Lana'i shouldn't be privately controlled.
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Why not allow the Lana'ians the right to self determination? Of course, they may get evicted by their new landlord before the next election. And then, would that make Ellison the sole resident of Lana'i? I could see it now...sole resident and only registered voter of Lana'i elects himself as mayor, sheriff, and county judge. In his new role he will assess tax against his property, receive tax from his offshore bank account, and use those funds to pay for improvements to Lana'i. Talk about a win-win situation.
....feel that the island of Lana'i shouldn't be privately controlled.
Yeah it's kind of weird
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
So you're saying we should return all the land back to the Native Americans too then?
By the 1870s, Walter M. Gibson had acquired most of the land on the island for ranching. In 1922, James Dole, the president of Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later renamed Dole Food Company), bought the entire island of Lanai and developed a large portion of it into the world's largest pineapple plantation.
Lanai
The pineapples are gone. What remains is a tourist trade focused on two luxury resorts and a resident population of about 3200.
Lanai
It is Larry Ellision's money, he is 100% entitled to do with it what he wants, I am not jealous of him. Having said that there is something out of whack in the world when so many people live in huts, don't have shoes, struggle to eat and in the US are scared to death for the future while this one person gets to own his own island.
I heard on CNN the other day that millionaires make up 0.001 % of the global population.
Like I wrote, it is Ellison's money, he is entitled to do with it whatever he wants. Maybe instead of buying an island he should think about directing that money to help the world.
I'm sorry, but how does my suggestion that the Hawaiian Homestead Act be revised to prevent selling an entire island in the Hawaiian archipelago to a private owner mean that all land should be returned back to "Native Americans"?
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He's just horny.
People from the 99% get a room.
People from the 1% buy a hotel.
People from the 1% of the 1% buy an island with hotels.
Really, I'm not trying to provoke a fight. I really don't know why all there so much venom directed towards him. Why do you not like Larry Ellison?
Hey, slashdot kiddies: you missed the story I just saw today, that noted that Bill the Gates rented ->all the hotel space- on the island for his wedding... which implies Larry got the hotels, too.
How 'bout I fly you to my Hawaian island, babe, since you want me to hire you? - Lex Ellison....
mark "he really needs to go bald, and change his last name to Luthor"
You can't give him a tax cut, he already doesn't pay taxes. He doesn't exercise his options, because that would be a taxable event, he just borrows money against them, which isn't taxable income. But if you claim that the rich aren't on a level playing field, then you're engaging class warfare.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Because you still haven't given a good reason why the act should be revised or why that island can't remain private. I could easily own large tracts of land in the mid west. Should laws be changed so that I can't do that?
Maybe the Hawaiians will vote to use eminent domain to make Lana'i the official land fill and sewage treatment facility for the rest of the state.
Never been myself but from what I remember it is beautiful and dull, with both sea, rain forest and arid mountain climes, and a hotel where Bill Gates got married with a pretty good restaurant in it. That and a lot of pineapples. My very leaky memory says there were 600 people on the island but I could be wrong. IANAHI
The all-hallowed 'Job Creators' (boy, the GOP can create epic BS phrases) have already decided the election by willfully shutting down hiring (exempting cheap, compliant H1-B folks of course) to crater the economy and ensure the election of Mr. Magic Underwear as prez. Only after the innauguration will they consider hiring again (in a zero regulation, zero rights, zero health & safety environment).
Wait - You think that my suggestion that a private individual shouldn't be allowed to own the 6th biggest island in Hawaii is the equivalent of giving all land back to Native Americans because "you still haven't given a good reason why the act should be revised or why that island can't remain private"?
LOL.
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Still waiting...
He will seced from the USA and create his own little country. He will create a monument to himself and proclaim himself to be king over LarryLand. He WILL have sharks with laser beams protecting the shores of LarryLand and will no doubt purchase a couple of submarines, a space ship, and provisions for the end of the world.
Last word...
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Just as I thought: you have no good reason other than "it's an island". Should we also take Ni'ihau away from the Robinsons?
Why don't you just answer the question I asked you instead of moving goal posts.
Are you this bad at all your "arguments"?
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I already answered your question. You have not answered mine. You're basically asserting that property rights don't matter.
They are equivalent in principle, not in the amount of land involved. I take it you are not in favor of property rights. I'll ask again: should we also take Ni'ihau away from the Robinsons?
You do evil (M&A). (And working 100 hours/week with evil people destroys your natural defences against evil, which is probably why you have become more evil.)
Fine, we get it. By being evil (and lucky) you can make a lot of money.
Most of us do not want to be evil.
But you psychopathic fuckers are convincing us to become evil.
And when we do, who do you think will be our first order of business?
Perhaps you're confused and think I'm saying Lana'i should have been taken away from Murdoch - I don't.
I don't think Ni-ihau should be taken away from the Robinsons.
I DO think that the Robinsons should only be able to sell it back to the state of Hawaii at fair market value.
Equivalency in principle is one of the basic logical fallacies, although your suggestion barely makes it that far.
Differences in degree are very important.
Your comparison to the possibility of Ellison not being allowed to buy Lana'i to the returning of all land to Native Americans is a reduction to absurdity.
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Class warfare? Cool! Let's go. The rich'll have better weapons, but there are more of us, and we can turn a percentage of their army.
Perhaps you're confused and think I'm saying Lana'i should have been taken away from Murdoch - I don't.
I don't think Ni-ihau should be taken away from the Robinsons.
I DO think that the Robinsons should only be able to sell it back to the state of Hawaii at fair market value.
You still have not given a good reason why this should be done. Explain why this is okay but buying and selling private islands such as Lana'i or Ni'ihau shouldn't be done.
Lanai is just an island; there are lots of them for sale in the world, in all price ranges. If you really wanted to, you could probably buy one yourself somewhere, in your price range. If want to deprive Ellison of his island, compete with him. Given how shitty and copycat his company's software is, it shouldn't be too hard.
There's a lot of missing the point here. It's not like the residents of Lana'i are now the chattel of some billionaire emperor-king. They still hold title to the land they own, they're still residents of the State of Hawaii. They just have a new neighbor who's got a *lot* more waterfront than they do.
Turning the land over to Hawaiian Homelands would be an option if it were owned by the State of Hawaii, but it isn't. It's owned by Castle and Cooke, a former agribusiness turned real estate corporation: Castle and Cooke is owned by billionaire David Murdock.
If you want to hand over Lana'i to the Hawaiians, you have three options:
* Seize a billion-dollar asset from its legal owner (If you think you can do that without a decade-long legal battle, you don't know billionaire landowners.)
* Spend a billion dollars of state money to buy it from its owner (As if Hawaii could afford that)
* Ask the Hawaiians to pay the billion dollars to buy the property (As if they had the cash).
This is a perfect illustration of why indigenous repatriation is a political and economic nightmare. The people who now hold the land did nothing illegal to acquire it: any crime was committed by people long dead, so it's difficult to justify seizure. The situation's even worse in Hawaii: while many Native Americans had their land seized by force, in the case of Hawaii most of the land was sold to wealthy caucasians by the legitimate Hawaiian monarch at the time, all totally legal (if not very smart). No question the overthrow of the monarchy was illegal, but does that justify forcibly seizing land that was legally purchased prior to the overthrow?
So, I've heard of this scheme before.. but I wonder who it is that 'lends' him this money? I mean, aren't they virtually guaranteed that he will never pay it back? If he will have to pay tax on his options when he cashes them in, then he will never cash them in.. and he can't transfer them to the lender, since transferring them in exchage for cash is surely 'cashing them in', no? I am confuse here.. why would anybody lend Larry any fucking thing when they knew they weren't getting it back? where is the upside?
Ellison is not their landlord. Each homeowner on Lana'i owns his little quarter-acre plot of land with his house on it, and has all the property rights any other resident of Hawaii has. They just have a neighbor with a very very big yard.
No you didn't.
I'm also not asserting that property rights don't matter.
If I wanted to be as ridiculously hyperbolic as you're trying to be I'd simply state that "Well, you're basically asserting that anyone should be able to own anything."
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The land in this transaction has been privately owned by colonial graybeard corporations that have had a long history in the islands. It's not something residents dwell on much because that relationship is entrenched in the culture and hsitory of the islands.
Now that this property is being transferred to a nouveau carpetbagging haole, there's a great opportunity for all kinds of stupid local political drama. Do not expect this to sail through the PUC approval easily.
Hawai'i state govt. + soveriegnty agitators + IT's most notorious arrogant bully = first class entertainment.
I already explained it, because it should be incorporated under the Hawaiian Homestead Act. The reasons why it should be are the same reasons why the Act exists in the first place.
It's like your asking me "give me a good reason why Ellison shouldn't be allowed to buy Alaska." Technically he could, there's no legal reason why he couldn't. What could possibly go wrong? LOL.
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One man "owning" land just because he has more paper and virtual numbers seems very bizarre. Imagine if aliens visited us, how would we explain this money concept to them?
Sooooo ... I hear a lot of bellyaching, but it sounds to me like "soak the rich" actually won't work here because Larry has gamed the system?
This is why I don't like the class warfare rhetoric: raising taxes never actually affects the upper classes. In fact, I think all this classism is actually initiated by the upper classes to dupe the middle class, who DOES play by the rules, to pay MORE taxes than their fair share!
And, if that's really the case, then I think you are unwittingly acting as a tool for The Man whenever you tow His "soak the rich" line.
Stay calm, don't panic. All you need to do to square this circle is to say, "the enemy isn't the rich, the enemy is the system." Hating the player is wrong, you got to hate the game. And when you hate the game, there is only one truly fair option for everyone involved: cut the size of government significantly so that we reduce the tax burden on everyone. As long as government is contracting in size year-over-year and not growing, we'll be fine at the current taxation levels. No rational individual can argue that the U.S. federal/state/county/city government is right-sized, and it needs to be trimmed across the board 20-30% or more.
And that is the viewpoint of the libertarian right, hope that helps give you some perspective.
My perspective on the left is that there is a pervading belief that "we can perfect government/people through regulations and penalties (taxes, scribbling pen to paper and making previously legal things into crimes)". I consider that dangerously wishful thinking and ignorant of natural laws.
That would be fun.
But Larry was to smart to fall for that! :)
Frank Partnoy gives a pretty good explanation in F.I.A.S.C.O Blood in the Water on Wall Street of how the wealthy can use a Total Return Swap to avoid taxes.
That is the policies of the government actively transferring wealth from you and I to Larry Ellison...
A free market is, by definition, a market that does not have such policies.
God bless you Uncle Larry, enjoy :-)
I have discovered the secrets of Nicola Tesla and Much more in my life time. And I share that knowledge freely with anyone and everyone who will listen. I am very close to death because of the greed, and evil of this society. Neglect by the doctors, government on all levels, and loved ones. While people like me are suffering while we do everything we can do help our selves and the rest of humanity. People like this makes me feel even more ill knowing that people are just sitting on all this money. Money that could be used to provide every person on the planet with free energy generators, and matter replicators if you wish to call it that. If you believe this technology is not possible, then you are ignorant. Look at the truth of our history, and use your imagination, open mind, and your own ability to solve your problems and figure stuff out on your own. All knowledge that is being taught in our system is full of little lies blended with the truth. Nicola Tesla did combine the sciences, A unified theory. If Nicola Tesla could give the world free power and communication about a hundred years ago. Imagine how easy it would be today. We all must share, and live with nature. Even Nicola Tesla knew that, and warned us for living against nature.
It's really to house his ego!
"Business owners and investors use systems, rather than their time, to generate income." --Robert Kiyosaki
Casteism