Robert Mercer on the Value of Cats
Bob Mercer
Robert Mercer is a very rich hedge fund manager. It seems that all the super rich men in the world are hedge fund managers. Mr Mercer is the co-CEO with another man of an organisation called Renaissance Technologies. It is said that he has earned $135 million a year for the last 10 years or so. He is probably a billionaire. He is reclusive and shy and does not talk to the media and does not give interviews. Sensible, I’d say.
However, politically he is very influential. A guy called Nick Patterson, a former senior Renaissance Technologies employee told the New Yorker that Bob Mercer has used his money very effectively with regard to influencing politics and he said that Trump wouldn’t be president if not for Mr Mercer.
That’s the background. Mr Mercer is obviously a very intelligent and thoughtful person and he has some thoughts about the value of people and domestic cats. He has some fascinating thoughts about the value of cats in fact.
According to his colleagues he has a theory about humans. He believes that they have no inherent value. He believes that a human being is only worth as much as they can earn. As he earns thousands of times more than a schoolteacher it makes him more valuable than schoolteachers.
As for people on welfare he suggests that they have no value. In fact he regards them as having a negative value. However, and here’s the clincher, he thinks that cats have value, a kind of built-in, automatic, default value because watching them provides pleasure to people.
You could go further than that in point of fact by saying that cats almost always add to the life of the cat’s owner. They provide benefits to the owner and in doing so they automatically have a value and the value is sometimes greater than that of some human beings.
Personally, I have stated that humans do not see cats as having sufficient value which is why too many unwanted cats are euthanised and which is why there are too many unwanted cats. However, even if cats are undervalued by humans in general, in an absolute sense, according to Mr Mercer, some cats have a greater value than some humans.
I agree unequivocally, of course. I might be bold enough to say that domestic cats in general have more value than most humans.
Source: thenation.com – Jane Meyer writing for the New Yorker interviewed Stephen Bannon.
He is a scumbag in my book,it matters not to me he prefers cats to humans,just knowing he has backed Trump leaves a sour taste in my mouth and slighting those who dont make millions,he can kiss my royal irish/scottish arse!
I can understand you. It is interesting that someone like him values cats more highly than some people.
actually its quite common in the rich to undervalue people in general especially those that r poor & to say that animals have more inherent value than those people or people in general. it makes it easier to swindle people if they have less value than u & more so if they r worth less than ur pets. it used to be that they valued horses & dogs, especially hunting dogs as they derived pleasure FROM hunting & anything that helped them do it had value to them. when people matter less than u or the things u take care of then hurting them in whatever way & for whatever reason is then a non-issue. its actually a pathology. its one thing to love ur pets as family, but when u undervalue people they become THINGS & TOOLS. people dont generally cry when their tools break. they may try to repair them(so u dont have to spend money n new ones so soon), but in the end they just buy new ones. really THINK about THAT.
its a pathology when people torture animals & it usually leads to them doing the same to humans eventually. we say its a pathology cuz ALL THINGS have value inherently. when u believe something has no value u do things to it that in most cases r wrong, but if it has none then it becomes okay to do those things in ur mind. we need look no further than the atrocities done to the Jews in WWII to prove THAT. Nazis said they had no value so then it was okay for them to do all of those things to them. CUZ THEY DIDNT MATTER. so when this guy says people that dont make “enough” money have no value, what is he REALLY saying? that it is then okay to treat them however u will cuz HE(& everyone like HIM)matter MORE than the rest of us, & his cat matters more. thats kinda insulting, isnt it? to say that about people u dont even know that they dont matter AT ALL cuz they dont make enough money, but his kitty matters cuz it makes HIM happy. i LOVE my cat, but if HE AND my neighbor(that i dont even know) were in trouble id try to save them BOTH. cuz they BOTH matter. ALL LIVING THINGS DO. im NOT going to venture a guess as to whether he is psychotic or not cuz thats NOT for me to judge, but when people think the way HE does there is USUALLY something wrong inside. speaking in a purely clinical manner tho, there is a disconnect there. this modality is NOT one that should be praised, lauded, or emulated. we SHOULD love our pets, & our family. we SHOULD consider them to BE family, but that DOESNT mean that we should devalue others as well, or consider them “less than” due to how much MONEY they make. THAT is the great failing of our society as a whole, that we place so much emphasis on the OUTWARD things we feel denote success & less on the INWARD that r the hallmarks of the TRULY successful. im sorry for going on about this, but it really bothers me that i feel like he is being praised for his mindset when there r SO MANY others that deserve that more than he. he SHOULDNT be praised at all. recognize his love of animals, but PLEASE admitt how wrong it is to devalue others based on their net worth! 1 GOOD teacher that HELPS children learn is a better person than ANYONE like THIS!
There are a lot of people I know that I would step over to save my cats.