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Won't take long until the apologist come in defending the billionaires, how they create businesses and value and prop up the economy with their spending yadi ya
by samiv 7mo ago
Won't take long until the apologist come in defending the billionaires, how they create businesses and value and prop up the economy with their spending yadi yadi.
When the process that skews the wealth distribution has run this course, the billionaires and their cronies own everything and you have nothing do you think they'll show up to pay your child's education or your health care or your elderly care? They won't.
They'll kick you to the curb and remove democracy since any real democracy is a direct threat to them. Then they'll continue their lavish parties on their yachts while you and your family go hungry in the slums.
- bpt3 7mo agoWhy are you assuming we're all dependent on the billionaires in the first place? I pay for my child's education and healthcare myself, and expect to continue to so whether Bezos is a trillionaire, a pauper, or anything in between. It ultimately has very little impact on my life.
- samiv 7mo agoIt has very little impact on your life... for now. Maybe you're well off for this not concern you but as a direct example how about Amazon warehouse worker who is squeezed so hard for profits that they live in a car, work 7 days a week without healthcare or vacations or anything? Them being poor is what enables jeff to be rich. Generally speaking whether you realize this or not the economic system creates a competition between entities. And larger richer entities will subsume assimilate and destroy smaller entities when they're looking for that eternal growth with fixed resources. The argument to this always is that "it's not a zero sum game". Except that in practice it is. Economies are growing tiny few percent per year perhaps while the rich people are growing their wealth 10-20% per year. This is only possible by changing the wealth distribution making it effectively a zero sum game. That means wealthy individuals will outcompete poorer individuals for all resources such as housing, education, health care. Everything will be used to extract maximum wealth from the society until there's nothing more to take.
- bpt3 7mo ago> how about Amazon warehouse worker who is squeezed so hard for profits that they live in a car, work 7 days a week without healthcare or vacations or anything? Them being poor is what enables jeff to be rich. Amazon warehouse workers are paid enough to afford shelter (especially if they are working 7 days a week), or they are welcome to find a better job. > Generally speaking whether you realize this or not the economic system creates a competition between entities. And larger richer entities will subsume assimilate and destroy smaller entities when they're looking for that eternal growth with fixed resources. Yes, capitalism is competitive; that's the point. If a larger entity can perform better than a smaller one, then the smaller one doesn't need to exist. > The argument to this always is that "it's not a zero sum game". Except that in practice it is. Economies are growing tiny few percent per year perhaps while the rich people are growing their wealth 10-20% per year. This is only possible by changing the wealth distribution making it effectively a zero sum game. It's not a zero sum game, and you just pulled those numbers out of your ass. > That means wealthy individuals will outcompete poorer individuals for all resources such as housing, education, health care. Everything will be used to extract maximum wealth from the society until there's nothing more to take. One person can't consume so much healthcare, shelter, or education that it prevents others from accessing it. Claiming otherwise is absurd.
- Natfan 7mo agoexcept for when a hurricane comes, then they will be left to die for "profits"
- UncleMeat 7mo agoAggregating so much power in a single person is bad for society. It allows individuals to remake institutions.
- general_reveal 7mo ago”Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” - Christ You know, who said our lord doesn’t have a sense of humor? He could have said it any other way lol. I just don’t understand how we can not have a category in the DSM for wealth-fixation, because after … I don’t know, $100m, you have to be mentally ill to even be talking about, let alone pursuing, money. Shout out to Christ for being a radical pioneer on this issue. Tech needs Jesus in ways tech is too corrupted to understand.
- tasuki 7mo ago> Tech needs Jesus in ways tech is too corrupted to understand. Fortunately Peter Thiel is really into Christianity, so we're good!
- general_reveal 7mo agoOh yeah, the anti christ. Yeah, that’s been warned about as well.
- butterbomb 7mo ago> They'll kick you to the curb and remove democracy since any real democracy is a direct threat to them. Not a threat, these people rarely feel truly threatened, but an obstruction.
- sph 7mo ago“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” — John Steinbeck
- krapp 7mo ago“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.” - LBJ If anyone wonders why class consciousness seems to be impossible in the US, this and the parent comment lay it out. The belief in American exceptionalism and capitalism as a moral force and the defense of systemic racial hierarchies in a low trust society override all other concerns.
- _DeadFred_ 7mo agoWe need to reverse bad 1950s era tax code changes. All compensation needs to be taxable at the time of labor exchange. We can't have taxes on labor exchanged but also optionally we can pay you in 'other units' that are more valuable than wages and those aren't taxable or are taxed at a lower rate. It's wild that people that get this special exception so that their labor isn't fairly taxed in the way the average person is are now happy that AI is eliminating busywork jobs and now feel randos working average jobs are somehow exploiting the system.
- UncleMeat 7mo agoWorse than that. The mods will tell you that broad claims about class war are not "curious conversation" and say that they are inappropriate.