One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.
-Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, 1792
Or, put in modern terms: There is no such thing as an innocent billionaire.
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One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.
-Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, 1792
Or, put in modern terms: There is no such thing as an innocent billionaire.
You don't become a billionaire without exploitation.
I don't think we should have the situations and lack of regulation that leads to billionaires, especially as it will likely continue to drain/erode the quality-of-life for everyone else to eventually lead to trillionaires...
Once you go beyond $100,000,000, there is no measurable difference in lifestyle. However, power accumulates. That amount of power shouldn't be in the hands of so few.
I like this guy.
No shit
The wealth of the rich is still growing and it will continue to grow automatically until the middle class ceases to exist. If we do not take the assets back, it will become impossible for normal working people to ever buy a house, or have any economic power over their own lives at all - nevermind the political control or the media manipulation.
Extreme wealth concentration is THE biggest issue facing society. Mamdani is absolutely right.
Hoarding = mental illness = billionaires
well I have mental illness and some hoarding but I'm not a billionaire, so I don't think this equation works 😔✊
Hoarders are drawn to hoard certain things that make sense to them - cats, newspapers, old cars, guitars (my personal issue), etc.
If whatever you are hoarding starts impacting those around you, you are encouraged to get professional help, but if you are a business person, and hoard money, then you are considered successful, and they put you in charge.
If Cats could become legal tender, weird old ladies would take over the world.
I agree there is no reason why an individual should have that much economic power. There is no justification for that amount of wealth in so few hands.
I don't mind people being wealthy, if they are just going to indulge their personal needs. The problem becomes when they have enough economic power that they can enter into personal economic negotiations with other nations that may run counter to the needs of their own nation. It would be bad enough if even a single Sociopathic Oligarchs did this, but imagine if there were multiple people doing it.
What the current Sociopathic Oligarchs are doing is bad enough, but they are still managing to operate like human beings, more or less. What will happen if the billionaire class throws off a straight up psychopath who has no problem killing mass numbers of people, or even likes it? It is only a matter of time before one of these people emerges, with enough money to indulge his perversions, and also to buy his way out of any trouble he may get into.
We have to anticipate these inevitabilities, and avoid them preemptively. We have to stop waiting for easily predictable problems to happen, and only THEN start to address them.
They could just stop impeding progress and let the working class have things like healthcare and a living wage. Guess that's too much to ask and they would prefer guillotines?
These people could still be fabulously wealthy and do anything they want for their entire lives while also ALLOWING for a healthy middle class and things like universal healthcare and living wages.
I capitalized "allowing" because I think it's absurd we're living under their domination and I think it's time we forcibly take what we need from them. The time for being amicable is over.
Trickle Down Economics was a huge success for the Aristocrats, and a disaster for the working class. Obviously, they want to keep the system that has worked so well for them, but it is unsustainable, and it is coming to an end. They are facing two choices:
Trickle UP Economics, in which more money is given to the workers, who will then spend it, stimulating the economy. Every time this has been tried (such as during Covid), it was wildly successful. The money eventually makes its way into the hands of the Sociopathic Oligarchs and Transnational Corporations anyway, but at least it greases the cogs of the economy on its journey upwards.
That would be the best way to handle the economy for everybody. The workers have more spending power, and the rich get richer. Everybody's happy.
OR
Robin Hood Economics, which is "Take from the Rich, and give to the Poor." This usually follows a brutally violent rebellion in which the wealthy do not prevail. It is usually very uncomfortable for them and their families. The wealthy would rather avoid this one.
Of course, they want to keep on going with the plan that has made them wealthy, but we have to show them that the gravy train has come to an end, and we will not be indulging their hoarding mental illness any longer.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.
A healthy and educated working class is better at recognizing and confronting exploitation.
Keeping us down lets them rise to aristocracy.
Yeah, we probably shouldn't have people who horde so much wealth it negatively affects the economy.
Lmao that's because we shouldn't have billionaires
It's not that we shouldn't have billionaires. Its that we have billionaires when we have people living on the streets because the rent is so ridiculous. Its that we have people dying on the streets because they cannot afford health insurance. The gravy on the shit-fest is that billionaires are actively bribing the politicians to prevent those policies from being implemented. That is the textbook recipe for guillotines.
All of these are reasons why we shouldn't have billionaires, though.
I mean, I agree. It's very bad out there.
I've said this for years, even before getting my brain dirty. Back then I used to say no millionaires should exist, but with the current price of everything, I could at least see an argument now.
But I'm still leaning towards no millionaires should be allowed to exist.
Even 6 digits is actually too many outside of just having a savings hoard if you have a bunch of people to split an inheritance into.
House prices should be 5 digits anyway.
If a Billionaire turned comic book EVIL and decided to go rogue.... What exactly would stop him. Most countries don't have the money or desire to do anything
yea you're watching that now
They are, already there, and have been for decades. How do you think they get all the money they do? One being private equity and market makers. Main street was destroyed in many countries to fuel them.