Current Events > I know what the problem. It's billionaires!!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

That's a bit extreme comparison, bro

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*people blame immigrants, non-white people etc. for society's ills*

Right wingers: we sleep

*people blame extremely powerful literal billionaires for society's ills*

Right wingers: real shit???

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MacadamianNut3 posted...

That bet would put you firmly in the "dumb with money" camp

oooohhh snap

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I marked post 54

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Healthcare costs aside, no.

Lack of self control and maturity is whats causing you to be poor

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

That's why the whole "corporations=people" thing started.

EndOfDiscOne posted...

I never said anything about Citizens United

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Lmfao they deleted that post #54 instantly but will leave way more egregious stuff up indefinitely

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IShall_Run_Amok posted...

Its a bit more complicated than that, but ultimately billionaires are the most powerful people in the world, so their actions, or inactions, are the deciding factors in how fucked up the world is; they are literally responsible for it, and they deserve to be taken to task.

People who commit crimes should be held responsible for their crimes. Being part of a group is not a crime. That's the point I'm trying to get across. If there are SPECIFIC billionaires that committed a crime, then punishment for those SPECIFIC individuals are justified. If you don't know jack shit about someone other than that they're rich, there shouldn't be any blame assigned to them.

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maybe the dude deleted it himself, i don't think it was incredibly offensive anyway

NinjaBreakfast posted...

*people blame immigrants, non-white people etc. for society's ills*

Right wingers: we sleep

*people blame extremely powerful literal billionaires for society's ills*

Right wingers: real shit???

Let's drop the strawman alright. I don't support blaming any group of people.

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scar the 1 posted...

A lot of times they aren't

In this case, they need to find a higher paying job or get roommates or move.

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SocksForWok999 posted...

Healthcare costs aside, no.

Lack of self control and maturity is whats causing you to be poor

https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1218945579352498178?s=19
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Veggeta_MAX posted...

I just don't understand why super rich people try their earnest to bend rules to avoid paying any taxes. If that doesn't spell out greed then I dunno what does.

Taxes are immoral and the government isnt good at spending money

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obviously the problem wasn't caused by any one person. the problem is the system thats allows people to hoard wealth like that. the system needs to be burned to the ground and replaced with one that doesn't allow that

that being said: there is a finite amount of resurces in the world, meaning there is a finite amount of wealth. People hoarding that wealth to such an extent are directly responsible for there being less wealth to go around.

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"I knew I broke the ToS and deserved to be modded but what about the other posts that break the ToS?"

Didn't I tell yall whataboutism is something everyone uses?

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Antifar posted...

https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1218945579352498178?s=19

Time to move

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Antifar posted...

https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/1218945579352498178?s=19

Out of curiosity, what do you think should be done about this problem?

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SocksForWok999 posted...

Lack of self control and maturity is whats causing you to be poor

There are plenty of rich people who lack self control and maturity. Christ, look at the president.

We have the resources for a society in which people aren't so harshly punished for their misfortunes or misjudgments.

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averagejoel posted...

obviously the problem wasn't caused by any one person. the problem is the system thats allows people to hoard wealth like that. the system needs to be burned to the ground and replaced with one that doesn't allow that

that being said: there is a finite amount of resurces in the world, meaning there is a finite amount of wealth. People hoarding that wealth to such an extent are directly responsible for there being less wealth to go around.

Wealth is not a finite resource. It's constantly grown. Do you think some of these people in these poor communist countries are better off than people in the US? Give me a break. The average person now enjoys a better life than the kings of old. More technology, more food options, more entertainment options, air conditioning, and much more. Society grows.

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ITT: will someone PLEASE think of the poor billionaires

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DezDroppedFreak posted...

ITT: will someone PLEASE think of the poor billionaires

Sounds like they need more handouts.

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SocksForWok999 posted...

In this case, they need to find a higher paying job or get roommates or move.

zzzz

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Hairistotle posted...

I for one think it's totally fine that 50 people have more money than half of all human beings

Would you rather everyone be broke then? You're not just going to magically have more money because billionaires don't exist.

I feel like a lot of you see wealth as this fixed size pie, and don't realize it's better to have a smaller percentage of a bigger pie.

People keep complaining about how much worse the wealth disparity is, but look at how much more you have now than twenty years ago. Internet, cars, phones, next day shipping, food options, entertainment options, and much more.

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Squall28 posted...

Wealth is not a finite resource

uhhh

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Squall28 posted...

Internet, cars, phones, next day shipping, food options, entertainment options, and much more

Meanwhile the cost of rent, healthcare, and education keeps ballooning and job stability has gone down.
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But the problem is the billionaires, or at least the system that creates them while the rest of the world rots

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Hairistotle posted...

hyuck HYUCK

Tell me what you think is going to happen when you remove these big corporations.

My family came from China when communism was just beginning to take root. My mom's side had their belongings stripped and my great grandfather jailed for the crime of being rich. My dad's side stayed poor. Everyone got assigned a property, and couldn't leave. No electricity, no running water, not enough food. It was like scapegoating those people did absolutely nothing to fix the problem.

There's much more to building the nation's economy than just spreading the wealth around.

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Squall28 posted...

Wealth is not a finite resource.

Squall28 posted...

Would you rather everyone be broke then?

These statements are not compatible.

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If anything, billionaires would be even an even bigger problem if wealth were an infinite resource.

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Squall28 posted...

Wealth is not a finite resource.

it is unless you're talking exclusively about numbers on a screen going up. wealth is based on control of resources, which are finite.

It's constantly grown.

it has to come from somewhere though

Do you think some of these people in these poor communist countries are better off than people in the US? Give me a break.

the reason some countries are poor in the first place is because other countries stole their wealth. which is also why some countries are rich.

The average person now enjoys a better life than the kings of old. More technology, more food options, more entertainment options, air conditioning, and much more. Society grows.

I don't particularly care if this is true or not; it doesn't contradict my point. the resources that wealth is based on are not infinite. therefore, wealth cannot be infinite.

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

If you just redistribute Jeff Bezos's wealth to everyone in America, that's $45,000 for everyone. That would solve a lot of problems.

Not really, we would just have a bunch of poor people driving Suburbans.

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Tmaster148 posted...

These statements are not compatible.

Yes they are because wealth is something that can be grown or shrunken down. The way you guys talk about it is as if it's like hey every country gets $100. Divide it as you see fit. You guys don't see it as how can we turn this $100 until $1000 or more. You see it as everybody gets a penny. End game.

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scar the 1 posted...

If anything, billionaires would be even an even bigger problem if wealth were an infinite resource.

If wealth were an infinite resource than thered be been less reason why you cant be successful...

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You can't suggest that wealth is infinite and suggest that people can be broke under an infinite wealth system.

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Squall28 posted...

Yes they are because wealth is something that can be grown or shrunken down. The way you guys talk about it is as if it's like hey every country gets $100. Divide it as you see fit. You guys don't see it as how can we turn this $100 until $1000 or more. You see it as everybody gets a penny. End game.

not sure where you got that idea, but it certainly wasn't from reading any of the posts in here

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averagejoel posted...

it is unless you're talking exclusively about numbers on a screen going up. wealth is based on control of resources, which are finite

The way you can use resources can change. Take a computer for instance. A computer used to be much more resource intensive, worse as a product, and so expensive that most people can't afford it. Today, computers keep getting better and they're everywhere.

And I think it's funny you guys mentioned the poor countries got taken advantage of. Do you know why they got taken advantage of? Because they stagnated. They stopped increasing their wealth, their technology, and their ability to compete.

Say you guys got your way. You kill all our corporations. Kill all the golden gooses. Cut the military you guys hate so much. Who do you think will be the poor country that will be taken advantage of then?

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Setting aside other considerations for a moment: this level of wealth concentration fundamentally distorts our democracy. A few people and companies with a vested interest in keeping things as they are own the vast majority of major media. Mike Bloomberg spends a fraction of his wealth for a month and winds up in 4th place in the Democratic Primary - running explicitly to prevent the possibility of more progressive change. In Australia, Murdoch-owned outlets downplay climate change while the country burns.

I'd gladly take a healthy democracy over the latest iPhone

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Billionaires wouldn't be as big of a problem if they stayed the fuck out of politics

But the natural progression is to use wealth to exert influence, so good luck
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Tmaster148 posted...

You can't suggest that wealth is infinite and suggest that people can be broke under an infinite wealth system.

I'm suggesting wealth can be grown or shrunken, and that other people having more doesn't mean you'll have less.

When I said wealth is not finite, I meant wealth is not fixed.

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So you just don't know what words mean.

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

If you just redistribute Jeff Bezos's wealth to everyone in America, that's $45,000 for everyone. That would solve a lot of problems.

It did the math, it would be 300$ for everyone
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Squall28 posted...

The way you can use resources can change. Take a computer for instance. A computer used to be much more resource intensive, worse as a product, and so expensive that most people can't afford it. Today, computers keep getting better and they're everywhere.

cool. the resources necessary to produce them are still not infinite

And I think it's funny you guys mentioned the poor countries got taken advantage of. Do you know why they got taken advantage of? Because they stagnated. They stopped increasing their wealth, their technology, and their ability to compete.

in order to be believable, a claim like this needs to be accompanied by about 20 pages of citations from academic sources and about 100 pages of explanations and arguments you created in order to reach that conclusion. it should also be presented in front of a jury of people knowledgeable in the subject area for questioning.

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Squall28 posted...

Would you rather everyone be broke then? You're not just going to magically have more money because billionaires don't exist.

I feel like a lot of you see wealth as this fixed size pie, and don't realize it's better to have a smaller percentage of a bigger pie.

People keep complaining about how much worse the wealth disparity is, but look at how much more you have now than twenty years ago. Internet, cars, phones, next day shipping, food options, entertainment options, and much more.

Welp this'll be the dumbest thing I read today

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I think what squall is essentially getting to is the concept of a blue ocean strategy. It boils down to that there are opportunities to create new markets by doing something different from the competitors. By doing so, a new market is created and thus more revenue and wealth is generated. It can distort a market by making it enlarge or shrink, depending on the disruption.

While resources may be finite, how they are utilized can change the total resources available. Many times people think of wealth as a pizza, once it's ordered the size is constant and you can only distribute so much before it runs out. People do not think that you can enlarge the pizza and share more.

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Let's get over the use of the word finite and infinite. My point is that a country's wealth can be grown, and it's not this scarce resource that is limited by some people having more than others.

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