They could literally (continue to) do whatever outrageous bullshit they want at this point and still make money, that's how obscene wealth works, the obscenely wealthy made sure of it.
There is only one solution to this problem, and @Chozo got it in one.
Seems like a totally fair and appropriate system to me. Let poor people starve. Better yet, just hide them somewhere I don’t have to see them. That’d be awesome. /s
I am convinced I’d be a terrible rich asshole. I’d never be able to hold on to that much money considering how fucked up the world is. That said, I have a conscience. Lacking one seems to be a prerequisite.
Hoarding wealth is like any other form.of hoarding. Its a mental illness.
If there was a monkey in the jungle somewhere who had stockpiled enough bananas, through killing other monkeys or other exploitative means, to last a thousand lifetimes and refused to share any, we would study that monkey like crazy to figure out WTF is going on there.
When a person does it and someone points out that its fucked, we say that the person pointing it out is just jealous, and if they only worked harder, they too could be sitting on a banana fortune.
I have mixed feelings about measuring their wealth based on share prices because they couldn’t sell their shares without tanking the price, right? Elon didn’t actually increase his wealth; just the value of something that he has a shitton of went up.
We could also tank the value of his stocks by not buying or using his stupid shit!. For example, anyone angry that he is rich should definitely not be using Twitter.
“Eat the rich”… blah blah blah. Much easier to just protest the rich and take our money back by not giving it or our time to the rich in the first place.
They don’t need to sell to realize gains - they take out loans against the stock value from banks for almost no interest. If they choose to, they could get large amounts of that paper gain in liquid cash through just a handful of steps.
Much easier to just protest the rich and take our money back
That's pretty much what eat the rich means lol
Difference is you think it can be done simply by not spending our money with them, when in reality, like others have pointed out, they've not only made that not matter (because they can get more money anyway), and left us no choice (we can't all run off and live in the woods, and if we're not spending our money on one billionaire's products, we're spending it on another's), but they also have the police as their guard dogs, as well as governments who control militaries under their thumb, not to mention their own private militias and defences and bunkers and all that jazz.
It's not an opinion, look around - the violence is already here, it has been inflicted on to the working class for centuries, killing hundreds of millions (at least, in all that time) for profit in war, with hunger and restricted access to water, with homelessness and poverty, with preventable disease, with climate change, with immoral laws and entire systems designed to keep large segments of the population as slave labour, which is what they used to gain their power and wealth to be in the position to impose all of this in the first place. And all that just off the top of my head, there is so much more violence that is inflicted on us daily, they've just got most people convinced that's just life, when it really really isn't. And those who actually benefit are never just going to give all of that up.
Yup, and yet they not only have people look up to them and aspire to be like them (believing the "hard work" myth), but also defend them when they do all this indefensible stuff that is destroying society and our planet. It really is pretty disturbing how powerful the brainwashing is.
"I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
Love how you've ignored everything else I've said and linked and honed in on the one part you thought you could "gotcha" me over.. lmfao.
And so yes, he did say that, earlier in his journey, but if you'd ever bothered researching him beyond the whitewashed "anti-violence friendly" quotes of his that most (white) people are comfortable throwing around (or completely misquote ) because they serve your apathetic stance and you think support you doing nothing, you'd know that as his fight progressed he realised that non-violence wasn't going to resolve anything, because, just like I said in the reply you ignored, the violence is already being inflicted on us, whatever we do, whether we like it or not.
Or in his words:
…it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear?…It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”
And
“Let us say boldly that if the violations of law by the white man in the slums over the years were calculated and compared with the law-breaking of a few days of riots, the hardened criminal would be the white man. These are often difficult things to say but I have come to see more and more that it is necessary to utter the truth in order to deal with the great problems that we face in our society.”
So that's 3 quotes of his now that might as well be aimed directly at you, because you're obviously more concerned with your own comfort and maintaining the status quo you clearly benefit from, than you are even just listening to those being violently oppressed, and worse, are willing to completely overlook that violence while condemning those fighting back at it in hopes of some equity and equality, as those who are at fault, when you are contributing significantly more to the problem than they ever could.
I have mixed feelings about measuring their wealth based on share prices because they couldn’t sell their shares without tanking the price, right?
Technically this is true, but remember that the wealthy can borrow money backed up by their stocks, so no: they couldn’t sell those stocks without tanking the price, but yes: they have access to even more money because of this.
I think you’re exactly right. Social media is just the first thing we should be federating. Next should be farming, manufacturing, timber, construction, shipping, sales, and energy. If we crowdsource our solutions while using logic and algorithms to enforce quality control, we can exceed efficiency of the greedy ruling class and share profits among everyone who contributes so contributor ever faces starvation or living on the streets.
The billionaires can hoarde all the resources they want. If the masses stop contributing to their system, they will find that endless consumption is not as competitive as true justice and fairness.
You should check out the book “Daemon” by Daniel Suarez (if you haven’t already). Based on your post, you’d probably like it a lot. There’s a sequel, too: “Freedom”.
There’s no good reason for that level of hoarding beyond need. Waste of the use of money. If there’s enough money to feed everyone and we can’t, there’s something wrong here.
Once someone hits $999,999,999.99, we should give them a trophy that says “Congrats, you win capitalism” and then banish send them to an island prison paradise where they are hunted for sport all their needs are met, 24h a day.
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