billionaires should be desperate to be taxed. something is going to happen to them, and 'taxed' is the best verb they can hope for at this point

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[–] 117 points 1 year ago (11 children)

11 years ago...

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats — By NICK HANAUER

See also his Wikipedia page in the section on his controversial TED talk where he said:

Businesses and the rich do not create jobs. Jobs are created by a feedback loop between customers and businesses that is set in motion by consumers increasing their demand....

If lower income tax rates for the wealthy really worked we would be drowning in jobs, and yet unemployment and underemployment is at record highs

TED refused to publish the talk.

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  • [–] 50 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    They refused to publish it? Wow, thank you for finally giving me a concrete reason to hate TED talks. They've always seemed like the biggest fart-sniffing conventions I can imagine. And it drives me nuts how people all present with a certain cadence, intonation, tone of voice. Like some kind of learned artificial dialect, the "good public speaker" dialect/accent. A perfectly fitting marker of the incestuous masturbation so prevalent among the kinds of people who give TED talks. I'm not saying they're all bad, so no offense to anyone's favorite TED speaker. There's been decent ones, but its largely exactly the kind of elite Ivy League parasite that, remarkably, manages to be despicable to both conservatives and many liberals. No wonder TED didn't publish something that might make their own speakers feel bad.

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  • [–] 81 points 1 year ago (26 children)

    Yeah, but if these people were truly masters of long-term thinking, they wouldn't be spending all their time ruining the economies upon which their wealth is predicated.

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  • [–] 69 points 1 year ago (14 children)

    You say that, but if you have a large cache of cash, economic crashes are just opportunities to buy assets at a bargain.

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  • [–] 29 points 1 year ago* (10 children)

    Up to a point yes. However, if the majority of your 'wealth' is not liquid and bound up in a stockmarket that no longer exists, you're going to have a hard time leveraging it. Similarly, what liquid wealth you have is only as valuable as the form it takes. Your dollar bills in a hyper-inflationary scenario is going to have more values as toilet paper than as a means of exchange, and your gold is no good if there are no one around willing to exchange anything for it. You can eat gold, but the nutritional value is somewhat dubious.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    They're so busy building survival bunkers....

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  • [–] 54 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    I think we have passed the point of no return. Like, we are going to have our very first trillionaire, and everyone seems okay with it.

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  • [–] 46 points 1 year ago* (26 children)

    Financial obesity is an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    That's capitalism. I find the more of a capitalist someone is, the more they worship money and the more they idolize anyone with a lot of it.

    It also seems to be the case that the further you are from capitalism and it's ideals as a person, the more you're willing to emphasize with those less fortunate and want to help them to succeed.

    Weird huh?

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    [–] 43 points 1 year ago (8 children)

    I think we are very close to being past the point of society accepting these people in any form. Too much damage has already been done while the ultrawealthy laughed it away.

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  • [–] 28 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    I wish i felt that way. Maybe in 20 years, but right now these people are still on a high pedestal in the eyes of the majority. They’ve mastered the art of giving “just enough” to keep the masses at bay. It will take a catastrophe of epic proportions with billions dead or suffering and these rich mf’ers sitting high in their ivory towers before the masses will open their eyes. Even then we’ll be told to “pray” and they will give us a few more scraps to naw on (all while they “prey” on us to further widen the gap between us and them).

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  • [–] 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    This is something that, of all people, Ivanka Trump has kvetched about in private — her infamy, her dad's infamy, her company's infamy, her wealth's infamy, and not to mention, her husband's infamy — has essentially procluded them from any social circles in NYC. They reportedly left politics because every single one of their friends would refuse to engage with them anymore.

    One simple thing that brings me joy in a dark world is that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump can't make a single friend.

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  • [–] 39 points 1 year ago

    The t is silent.

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  • [–] 35 points 1 year ago (17 children)

    "Oh, those rich people better look out. Something real bad is going to happen to them" is a thing I've been hearing since the 90s.

    The only "bad thing" I can think that's remotely qualifying is that US billionaires are being left behind by their East Asian peers, as their home country is run into the ground. And idk if "feel bad because you're not in first place anymore" is the thing being implied.

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  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    The only "bad thing" I can think that's remotely qualifying is that US billionaires are being left behind by their East Asian peers, as their home country is run into the ground.

    Nah, billionaires have class solidarity that transcends nationalist sentiment. Which is why they are so afraid of anyone trying to gather class solidarity amongst the lower classes, they know how powerful it is.

    Billionaires from East Asia and billionaires from the West all vacation in places like Dubai, have their own private islands, and multiple homes and banks all over the world. Nationalism to them is just a tool to keep class consciousness away from their employees.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Not to mention, a billionaire is no longer a citizen of any country in any way that truly matters. They can easily go elsewhere, be safe from whatever is going on in their "home", and so on. The only country I know of that has ever actually thrown its power at its billionaires is China. So unless the billionaire currently lives and works in China, they essentially have no nationality.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Nah, billionaires have class solidarity that transcends nationalist sentiment.

    In America, at least, we're seeing a rising tide of white nationalism among the mega-rich. There was a point in which I'd agree with you. The Clintons would break bread with anyone whose checks didn't bounce (Donald Trump, for instance). But your Musks and Thiels and Lutnicks and McMahons are going in a very different direction.

    Billionaires from East Asia and billionaires from the West all vacation in places like Dubai

    Even Dubai ain't what it used to be. Consider the kidnapping and murder of Rabbi Zvi Kogan.

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    [–] 31 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    I think the ultra wealthy are just trying to buy time until they can put automated turrets and drone death squads in their mansions.

    I'm not trying to argue that it's a sound strategy, it's just what I think they're aiming for.

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    [–] 29 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Sorry, I could afford to buy a "t".

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago

    I hope you realize Orange is amassing domestic military to protect billionaires and himself.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago

    Change your diet for the climate, eat the rich 👏👏

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Nothing's going to happen to them. They have the upper hand and everything that happens will be slightly tilted in their favor, at least. I don't see any major victories ahead for us. This isn't a defeatist attitude, it's the recognition of truth that makes revolutionaries do what they do.

    I'm just saying, if things go as usual the billionaires will be just fine, it's the rest of us that need help

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    [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    As someone from an ultra wealthy family but with no real wealth of my own. I’ve warned them plenty. They think they are safe. I’m just gonna sit over here and sip my tea. They can have fun.

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    [–] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Childrens cartoons (epi The Burger) are starting to point it out. Time to eat the rich. And eating them may be the nicest thing we could do.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderfully_Weird_World_of_Gumball

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    [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Taxes for billionaires are just a health insurance for their necks

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