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There's a lot of people in the US clamoring for the government to reign in or eliminate our billionaires. Chinese probably view it as a feature that the governm

There's a lot of people in the US clamoring for the government to reign in or eliminate our billionaires. Chinese probably view it as a feature that the government is not intimidated by them, unlike u.s. Agencies who have to kindly ask Elon not to make them look pathetic and toothless on Twitter every once in a while.

lanevorockz 5y ago
US agencies are definitely not toothless, full autonomy to act as they wish since the first Patriot act. Most annoyingly, no one managed to remove those powers.
- MonkeyClub 5y ago
  > Most annoyingly, no one managed to remove those powers. Or not renew them, each September since 2001, like clockwork. The ongoing state of emergency enables such otherwise temporary powers.
  - atatatat 5y ago
    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/yes-section-215-expired-now-what https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/yes-section-215-expire...
mandeepj 5y ago
> u.s. Agencies who have to kindly ask Elon not to make them look pathetic and toothless on Twitter every once in a while source?
flyingchipmann 5y ago
Well the problem is the definition of `Billionaires`. China's model is closer to typical corrupt authoritarian states like Russia where the government officials are the Real Billionaires. They have real power and capitals over those people like Jack Ma. They just need to move a finger and you will see the transfer of the capital. The billionaires are never eliminated. Just money change hands. It's just that they are just less exposed in the global media, even as a forbidden topic in China's media. It's not hard to imagine how rich Xi actually is, he is basically Putin. So when we are on the topic of `eliminate billionaires`, especially in the context in the country like China, the question becomes: which billionaires? ;)
- naveen99 5y ago
  Incidentally, this is the reason that self custody of wealth (power) that bitcoin enables anonymously is important. In a ww3, the us could simply take out the ccp leadership. But in a decentralized capitalistic society run by anonymous bitcoin trillionaires, you couldn’t even find who to attack. While the trillionaires would continue to be able to execute their tasks under the rules of economics.
  - malermeister 5y ago
    A capitalist society run by anonymous bitcoin trillionaires sounds like the worst kind of dystopia imaginable.
    - Darmody 5y ago
      Also the bitcoin trillionaires would control the whole network. So not a real decentralization.

lanevorockz 5y ago

US agencies are definitely not toothless, full autonomy to act as they wish since the first Patriot act. Most annoyingly, no one managed to remove those powers.

MonkeyClub 5y ago
> Most annoyingly, no one managed to remove those powers. Or not renew them, each September since 2001, like clockwork. The ongoing state of emergency enables such otherwise temporary powers.
- atatatat 5y ago
  https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/yes-section-215-expired-now-what https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/04/yes-section-215-expire...

mandeepj 5y ago

> u.s. Agencies who have to kindly ask Elon not to make them look pathetic and toothless on Twitter every once in a while source?

flyingchipmann 5y ago

Well the problem is the definition of `Billionaires`. China's model is closer to typical corrupt authoritarian states like Russia where the government officials are the Real Billionaires. They have real power and capitals over those people like Jack Ma. They just need to move a finger and you will see the transfer of the capital. The billionaires are never eliminated. Just money change hands. It's just that they are just less exposed in the global media, even as a forbidden topic in China's media. It's not hard to imagine how rich Xi actually is, he is basically Putin. So when we are on the topic of `eliminate billionaires`, especially in the context in the country like China, the question becomes: which billionaires? ;)

naveen99 5y ago
Incidentally, this is the reason that self custody of wealth (power) that bitcoin enables anonymously is important. In a ww3, the us could simply take out the ccp leadership. But in a decentralized capitalistic society run by anonymous bitcoin trillionaires, you couldn’t even find who to attack. While the trillionaires would continue to be able to execute their tasks under the rules of economics.
- malermeister 5y ago
  A capitalist society run by anonymous bitcoin trillionaires sounds like the worst kind of dystopia imaginable.
  - Darmody 5y ago
    Also the bitcoin trillionaires would control the whole network. So not a real decentralization.