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Verge: Jeff Bezos bought the most expensive property in LA with an eighth of a percent of his net worth
- Thread starter Saucycarpdog
- Start date
No it isn't lol. Billionaires are in a much better position to affect real change, yet they do nothing because their wealth relies on mass exploitation to an insane degree.
Nobody should be a billionaire.
Lol no he couldn't.
The student debt bubble is approaching $1.5 trillion.
Why a billionaire and not a multi millionaire? No one needs 5+ million. A billion is just an arbitrary number. How much expendable cash does someone need to have before we decide they should have it taken away from them?
Why a billionaire and not a multi millionaire? Why is 900 million ok but an extra 100 million not ok? Why that arbitrary line?
Yep, looks warmer, more welcoming.
But I guess it's not as much of a compensation tool for Bezos' dick.
"We naturally put millionaires and billionaires in the same general class of person, but the only reason to do that is because the words are similar. Since these aren't numbers we can actually visualize, it's important to understand what a billion of something is. To travel a million inches, you'd have to travel from the Southern-most tip of Manhattan and go to the Bronx. To travel a billion inches, you'd have to fly from New York to Shanghai twice. A million seconds is a little over 11 days. A billion seconds is nearly 32 years. A million ounces is about the weight of a train car. A billion ounces is 4.5 Eiffel Towers. Use these to conceptualize what the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire is, and the absurd amount of wealth we're talking about."
This right here. Actually taxing the rich needs to be the #1 piece conversation this election.
Ppl have just let the wealthy leech the system.
That quote sums up my general ethos and I have nothing more to say on the matter.
So you can't explain why you think a billion is too much but 900 million is ok?
I think a billion is a good starting point for a cutoff. If you want to negotiate lower, by all means.
Because talking about billionaires not existing is an easier ideological rack to hang your coat on than a random 100 million number.
Nobody reaches that amount of wealth, or close to it, without a level of exploitation that exceeds far past "doing what you need to survive in capitalism" and into the realm of inhuman. I have no interest in being baited to explain that I really want to redistribute the wealth of people who have a nice house and car, but instead those who amass wealth from entire industries built on blood and exploitation. They represent a systematic inequality that runs far deeper than cozy suburban millionaires ever could.
And if you're spending your time trying to bait a socialist on a video game forum into saying they really just want to take the wealth of anybody remotely well off, it should be spent elsewhere.
But a billion is a random number! Why not say 100 million? No one needs that amount of money either. You can't say "I'm arguing because I want to redistribute the wealth" when you can't even explain with solid reasoning why you've set a threshold at 1 billion. You've just plucked a number out of the air because it's big and round without actually putting any thought into it.
Im not trying to bait you into anything, don't make yourself out to be some victim here. You responded to a post I made towards someone else saying "Nobody should be a billionaire" so I asked you to explain why you think that about that number specifically and so far you've refused to answer. If your argument is that no one should need to have excessive wealth then you need to be able to explain why you're setting a billion as the bench mark for that, because excessive wealth starts well below a billion.
What? Do we? I'm glad you at least edited out your terrible comparison.
I had a debate with some centrist capitalists a couple months ago, and they were apoplectic at my making that exact claim.
The best they could come up with was that "every decision he makes is super stressful because effectively the economy of America is on the line" and my response to that was... "it shouldn't fucking be" and, of course, no Federal Reserve chairman or treasury secretary earns that much nor should they.
Also, they were fawning over Bezos's contributions to society. And I was like "not everyone can be lucky enough to have the opportunity to get an education in the right field, in the right place, at the right time in history, to dominate and monopolize and effectively crush an entire industry on the backs of A.I. and wage slavery".
"But if you tax him that much, he will sell shares to pay for it, and threaten to move Amazon overseas, bringing down the whole sector with it!" they said.
My response: "So what you're saying is this asshole doesn't give a shit about the country from which he so readily profited."
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There should be a law that no individual should have over 100 million and anyone who makes over that should have it forcefully taxed and put back into programs that benefit the rest of society
That is literally what billionaires do. They have so much wealth and power that they suppress the rest of society in many ways without even realizing it. And when they do it intentionally, its in the most damaging ways. Like Bezos. Steyer. Like Bloomberg. That's what being an oligarch is.
That is literally what billionaires do. They have so much wealth and power that they suppress the rest of society in many ways without even realizing it. And when they do it intentionally, its in the most damaging ways. Like Bezos. Steyer. Like Bloomberg. That's what being an oligarch is.
You do realize Amazon under-pays and over-works their warehouse employees, right? You don't count that as keeping others down?
I've explained pretty clearly why a billion is the benchmark. You're just going in circles now.
What's actually blowing my mind is how small the other houses adjacent to Bezo's new property are.
That's very likely one of the most expensive neighborhoods in LA so the people living there are probably millionaires but they are still just insects compared to their next door neighbor... Absolutely crazy.
That's very likely one of the most expensive neighborhoods in LA so the people living there are probably millionaires but they are still just insects compared to their next door neighbor... Absolutely crazy.
Because why not that number? It allows for people to amass a large, almost absurd amount of wealth. Smaller numbers invite people to ask "well, why not this number instead" as you're doing, and then inevitably you wind up asking "Why not just a few million?" which is a wealth level far too many people can attain semi-reasonably.
Because why that number? Think about what you're actually saying here. You're saying "Anyone with X amount of money should be forced to give most of it up" then when asked "Why X" you're just shrugging your shoulders and saying "why not". That's not how any of this works. If you're advocating that wealthy people should be forced to surrender large amounts of their wealth, you need to be able to actually explain where the cut off point for that is and why, and not just because it's a nice round number. That's not how economics works.
50 million is an absurd amount of wealth, 5 million is an absurd amount to most people. I'm not saying you're wrong for advocating that wealthy people should contribute more of their wealth to those who need it, but I cant get on board with just plucking an random big number out of the air and saying "let's start here" with no rhyme or reason to why that's the starting point. It just shows that you haven't put any actually thought into what you're suggesting beyond a very surface level "lots of money = bad"
It's like saying "let's set the national speed limit at the 100 miles an hour because that's a round number, so why not?"
And then what?
Let's be honest here. That would just be used to increase the defense budget and wage more wars, destabilize more regions and bomb more innocents "accidentally".
America, fuck yeah.
Anyone that owns money than me personally is sent to the gallows!
10 million should be the limit, everybody above should be served to the poor with some steamed veggies and a fresh salad.
Why 10 you ask? Because if you'd get a 1% dividend out of that sum, you'd have 100'000 $ to freely spend every year, 200'000$ if you manage 2%. Should be enough for 99.999% of humanity to live a more than decent life.
Is that detailed enough?
;)
Why 10 you ask? Because if you'd get a 1% dividend out of that sum, you'd have 100'000 $ to freely spend every year, 200'000$ if you manage 2%. Should be enough for 99.999% of humanity to live a more than decent life.
Is that detailed enough?
;)
Maybe 'merica should start electing some decent people instead of army bootlickers.
Why does Trump want to raise the military budget even more? He doesn't give a shit about NATO, Europe, Middle East or Asia, so he should scale it back, like the genius businessman he is...
Bezos could probably buy all of the adjoining houses as well, fuck it he could buy all of the estates in beverly hills and still have money left over. Then he'd somehow escape sales tax, flip them for a profit and a tax rebate ten years down the line, and proceed with wiping his ass with million dollar bills. If I felt like getting banned by some overzealous billionaire protection force moderator I'd say how I really feel and join the brave souls on the first page of this thread. I absolutely hate him and his ilk to an absurd degree. I see so much suffering and people without means while villainous smaug sits on untold riches. Fuck him, fuck everyone like him and I hope we get them all.
Nope. I'm not going back and forth with you on "Why this number".
User Banned (3 Days): Trolling and Antagonizing Other Users Over Multiple Posts
Never asked you too. Just wanted an actual reason and not "because it feels nice". You don't have to respond if you can't provide that
There is not a single billionaire out there who could be called a decent human being.
Seething. You either get rich man's money-power right, or leave the forum immediately
