• ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Yeah, no one was poor back when there were no billionaires. There’s way more poverty in the world today compared to 100 years ago.

    EDIT: Apparently the /s is necessary for you slowpokes, lol

      • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Reality traitor.

        There is SO much less global poverty today than there was just a century ago that it’s almost unbelievable. Poverty is not only not caused by billionaires existing, but there’s positive correlation between their increasing numbers and global poverty decreasing.

        This is like continuing to argue that Internet porn causes rape to happen more, even after we can look at the stats and plainly see that the incidence of rape has plummeted as Internet porn became more ubiquitous.

      • rah@feddit.uk
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        3 months ago

        I find it bizarre that you think one can be a traitor to one’s class. Please tell me, how is a class something which can even be owed allegiance?

        • hime0321@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Billionaires want all the money, fuck everyone else. Siding with billionaires means you want to be fucked over by someone who has no care for you. So siding with them makes you a traitor. There’s no allegiance to a class it’s just something that is, I find it bizarre that you assume that you can’t comprehend this.

          • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Price tags are not money. The market value of assets appreciating does not remove a penny from anyone’s wallet. Likewise, those assets becoming less valuable (e.g. Bezos’s net worth dropped by over $20 billion this month) does not put money in anyone’s pocket. Billionaires objectively do not cause poverty. The correlation between poverty and the number of billionaires is literally in the opposite direction–more billionaires correlates with less overall poverty.

            It’s not “siding with billionaires” to know the facts, and contradict ideologues who seek to replace those facts with their pet narrative.

            • hime0321@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              However you justify it, it is still betraying your class. Still siding with billionaires. Stop projecting, you’re the one replacing facts with your pet narrative.

              • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                However you justify it, it is still betraying your class. Still siding with billionaires.

                You could have just written “nuh uh!” and saved some time, since that’s the essence of what you’re saying here.

                Stop projecting, you’re the one replacing facts with your pet narrative.

                Everything I said was factual, and you know it.

                • hime0321@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  You could have just said “I’m an idiot” it would have saved time. Obviously that’s how reduction works. No, I don’t know it. You don’t even give sources, just yeah you know it bro. Yeah, just trust me bro. I don’t trust you, so I’m not going to trust “and you know it” I’m tired of listening to some kid spout regurgitated conservative shit.

                  • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    Your logic dictates that if I buy a rookie baseball card for $5, the player has a great season and now my card is worth $100, that $95 must have been taken from one or more other people, because you believe that increases in net worth cannot occur without theft.

                    Pointing out that this makes no sense doesn’t require trust, just functioning logical thought processes.

          • rah@feddit.uk
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            3 months ago

            Billionaires want all the money, fuck everyone else.

            This seems very naive to me. In my experience, everyone wants all the money, fuck everyone else. Including my fellow working class. All of them. Every single one.

            Siding with billionaires

            I see no sides. I see no difference in kind between billionaires, my boss, my co-workers, my neighbours, homeless people, members of the local labour club, you, me or anyone. We’re all human beings and we all prioritise our own wellbeing over the wellbeing of others. Cooperation in society and ruthless greed are not mutually exclusive. Humans will cooperate when it’s beneficial and also stab their fellow humans in the back, step on them and exploit them when it’s beneficial.

            you want to be fucked over by someone who has no care for you

            That’s ridiculous, nobody wants that.

            There’s no allegiance to a class it’s just something that is

            If is there is no allegiance then there can be no traitor.

            • hime0321@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              You are quite wrong. Most want enough money to be content in life. Billionaires want to sit on their dragon hoard of wealth, while shafting those on the bottom line. If you see no sides then you are very ignorant. And no difference between the homeless and billionaires. Yeah fucking right. Billionaires get to just buy companies because they can, spend shit loads on lobbying for things they want. All while homeless people are fucked in a hundred ways. Its disgusting how many anti-homeless measures are being made. Just another reason hoarding wealth fucks everyone over. Humans also rape, lie, steal, murder, etc… we work hard to jail and rehabilitate these people. So maybe we need to do it to the extremely wealth. Nobody wants to be fucked over, obviously. But that is what is happening. Again ignorance is bliss. Generations don’t exist, we just use it to generalize age groups. Classes don’t exist, yet we use them to describe wealth groups. Genders don’t exist, yet we use them to describe people. In every single case you can still be a traitor to something that groups you. I can be trans and say that all trans people (except me) are not valid, that would make me a traitor and a TERF. There are not always allegiances to ideas meant to group people. If you are not in the extremely wealthy class, then defending them is betraying what you are.

              • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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                3 months ago

                Billionaires want to sit on their dragon hoard of wealth

                Having wealth and hoarding wealth aren’t the same thing. Hoarding implies isolation and withheld access. Someone keeping money under their mattress is hoarding that money. Someone who is investing in businesses in active operation within the economy is doing the exact opposite of hoarding.

                Stop misusing this term.

                • hime0321@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  There’s only a few ways to become a billionaire. Get money, get more money, and get even more money. Also be born into a family with lots of money. Just because some of that money is in assets, bonds, stocks, and such doesn’t mean that they don’t hoard the wealth. Investing in businesses only makes the stock holders richer it doesn’t trickle down. You don’t have to just shove it into a bank. The extremely wealthy don’t hoard money in a big pile, they just want to see their net worth go up. So I’m not misusing the term hoarding, you just seem to not understand how the economy works.

                  • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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                    3 months ago

                    There’s only a few ways to become a billionaire. Get money, get more money, and get even more money.

                    Typically by creating something extremely popular, which in turn becomes valued at much more than it cost you to create it.

                    Minecraft, for example, made its creator $2 billion when he sold it to Microsoft.

                    Also be born into a family with lots of money.

                    Not really; statistically, 70% of generational wealth is gone by the second generation, 90% by the third. Inheritors, generally speaking, spend what they inherit, they don’t hold onto it for the next generation to inherit it again. Again, opposite of hoarding.

                    Just because some of that money is in assets, bonds, stocks, and such doesn’t mean that they don’t hoard the wealth.

                    Yes, it does. The only way to hoard money is to not spend it. No billionaire has a Scrooge McDuck vault full of cash. Billionaires don’t hoard–ironically, hoarding money will only ever decrease your net worth, unless your currency is in deflation, in which case you’ve got bigger problems.

                    Investing in businesses only makes the stock holders richer it doesn’t trickle down.

                    You’re acting like businesses exist in some separate reality from the rest of the population. The businesses profit by offering goods and services that the market wants. That is what makes the share price go up, and in turn makes stock holders wealthier. Buying shares all by itself doesn’t do shit.

                    ‘Stockholders get wealthier when the business is having a positive impact on the economy by giving the market something it wants’ isn’t exactly the argument you think it is.

                    they just want to see their net worth go up.

                    And spending (already-taxed) money to buy stuff that then proceeds to become more valuable, is not an act that deprives anyone else’s wallet of a single penny.

              • rah@feddit.uk
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                3 months ago

                You are quite wrong.

                I disagree.

                Most want enough money to be content in life. Billionaires want to sit on their dragon hoard of wealth, while shafting those on the bottom line.

                All, including billionaires, want to ensure the survival of their genes. Wealth is sexually attractive. At no point does more wealth stop being attractive. So everyone wants as much money as they can get. That doesn’t mean they’re necessarily prepared to do what’s required to get it (murder, exploitation, etc.) but they want the money.

                And no difference between the homeless and billionaires. Yeah fucking right.

                I didn’t say no difference, I said no difference in kind.

                Nobody wants to be fucked over, obviously. But that is what is happening.

                Indeed.

                In every single case you can still be a traitor to something that groups you.

                I disagree.

                If you are not in the extremely wealthy class, then defending them is betraying what you are.

                That’s ridiculous. If a person defends the extremely wealthy honestly then that isn’t betraying what they are, that is what they are.

                • hime0321@lemmy.world
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                  3 months ago

                  I’m tired of your ignorance, maybe try reading a book or using critical thinking. Otherwise you’ll just stay a sad, ignorant person sucking billionaire dick and getting nothing in return but bing fucked over.

            • Prunebutt@slrpnk.net
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              3 months ago

              A class traitor is someone who acts counter to their class-interests. No allegiance required.

              That’s ridiculous, nobody wants that.

              Yet you defend a system which fucks you and the rest of the working class over.

              • rah@feddit.uk
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                3 months ago

                someone who acts counter to their class-interests

                So not actually a traitor then, I see.

                you defend

                I’ve simply pointed out the reality of the situation, I haven’t stated any judgement about it.

                • Prunebutt@slrpnk.net
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                  3 months ago

                  So not actually a traitor then, I see.

                  Linguistics prescriptivism is bullshit.

                  I’ve simply pointed out the reality of the siuation

                  (x) doubt.

                  Nice to see your bets so hedged. /s

                  But even if you were correct: Shouldn’t we as a society remove the system which enables people to monopolize power, if it’s “human nature” to exploit others?

                  • rah@feddit.uk
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                    3 months ago

                    Linguistics prescriptivism

                    I don’t know what that means.

                    Shouldn’t we as a society remove the system which enables people to monopolize power, if it’s “human nature” to exploit others?

                    The moral judgement is irrelevant here. It makes no difference. “We” cannot stop human beings from gaining power over others so the question is moot. Your assumptions are unfounded.

                • Prunebutt@slrpnk.net
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                  3 months ago

                  You clearly didn’t understand the term when asking your allegiance question. That question doesn’t make any sense.

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              It’s perfectly answers what a class traitor is, but if I directly quote Malcolm X, I’ll probably get my comment deleted.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          3 months ago

          It’s not owning allegiance to your class. It’s giving a shit about your fellow humans.

          It’s wanting a government and economy that allows the vast majority to have a nice life, and not insisting that millions should suffer so that a tiny fraction of the most wealthy people least in need of money can take the massive net worth they will never spend and add a zero to the end of it.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      no one was poor back when there were no billionaires

      Whipping out my inflation adjustment calculator and…

      It appears this is a lie on two fronts.

      There’s way more poverty in the world today compared to 100 years ago.

      The extremely hard to swallow pill that westerners struggle with is the impact anti-colonial movements of the 50s and 60s had in drastically reducing poverty globally.

      People love to talk about changes in poverty in the Imperial Core. Nobody really wants to think about Bolivia or Vietnam or the enormous plunge in the poverty rates in Russia and China following WW2.

      Worse still, any discussion of poverty in Europe following the collapse of the USSR relative to the rising tide of prosperity in Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim is just completely off the table.

    • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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      3 months ago

      The problem is not having poor people and rich people. The problem is that some people have so much money because of tax evasion, wage theft, inheritance and other things, all the while some people are going hungry.
      Knowing that these filthy rich people are actively making sure they don’t contribute their fair share to society, make society and the planet worse just to have their fancy numbers always grow bigger.

      • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        some people have so much money because of tax evasion

        No amount of tax evasion can make you a billionaire.

        wage theft

        Define wage theft in your own words.

        inheritance

        People should be allowed to decide who gets their left-behind wealth after they die, deal with it.

        all the while some people are going hungry.

        The government spends about $166 billion yearly on programs related to food and nutrition, according to https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/food-security-and-nutrition-assistance/?topicId=d7627f77-6cee-4ab9-bbb9-8c74d4778941

        And about 34 million are “going hungry” at least some of the time, according to https://nihcm.org/publications/hunger-in-america

        That’s $4882 per person, per year. If you’re still going hungry with a food budget like that, individual billionaires are not the reason you’re going hungry, sorry.

        Knowing that these filthy rich people are actively making sure they don’t contribute their fair share to society

        1. How much is “their fair share”?
        2. Do you think people who receive more in government assistance than they pay in taxes are paying “their fair share”?
        • BestBouclettes@jlai.lu
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          3 months ago

          I’m going to talk about France and not the US because that’s where I live.

          We have 55 billionaires, among them, the richest man and the richest woman on earth. More than 50% of them come from aristocratic or highly privileged backgrounds. That includes Arnault and Bettencourt, but there is also Pinault, Bolloré, Dassault, etc. That’s your part about inheritance. These people are insanely rich beyond anything imaginable because inheritance isn’t taxed properly here. It used to be, but not anymore and since then, the amount of millionaires and billionaires exploded. Must be a coincidence I suppose, same for the fact that France is top 3 world wide in number of millionaires.

          I agree that you should be able to give your kids part of what you worked for, but that absolutely needs to be progressively taxed, and with hard limits over which a state takes pretty much everything. Especially when it comes to that kind of wealth.

          https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/04/05/the-richest-man-and-woman-in-the-world-are-for-the-first-time-in-history-both-french_6021808_19.html

          https://www.thelocal.fr/20230405/french-billionaires-top-list-for-worlds-richest-men-and-women

          https://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/la-france-devient-le-troisieme-pays-au-monde-qui-compte-le-plus-de-millionnaires-20230816

          Thankfully enough, we don’t have much wage theft here because of our somewhat solid workers rights. If you want a definition with my words, it’s when an employer doesn’t provide the benefits legally due to an employee. It can manifest with not following minimum wage laws, undeclared overtime, or garbage contracts.

          Speaking of taxes and handouts, France gives every year a whopping 200 billion Euros to help French companies , no questions asked. That’s about 30% of our budget. These 200 billion euros come in three parts, one of them being legal tax loopholes, in which companies can pour money and not being taxed on it. Another one is exemption from social security contributions, they basically don’t pay some taxes that would finance our social services (or our unemployment fund or our retirement funds). And the last one is a direct handout from the government, with absolutely no expectations of results whatsoever. And once again, strangely enough we have some of the biggest companies in the world that have reported record profits in the recent years. And I’m not even talking about the massive inflation we are going through.

          https://linsoumission.fr/2024/04/05/200-milliards-aides-entreprises/

          Let’s also not forget that these massive companies and their billionaires/CEO don’t pay their taxes or pay a very low amount. You probably pay more than they do as a proportion of your wealth. Arnault’s income tax rate is at 14%, the dude has a 70 million euro salary as CEO of LVMH for fuck’s sake.

          https://basta.media/superprofits-totalenergies-n-a-pas-paye-d-impot-sur-les-societes-en-france-depuis-deux-ans

          https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/top-court-sides-with-french-taxman-against-lvmh-legality-2019-raids-2023-02-15/

          https://www.arretsurimages.net/articles/bernard-arnault-impose-a-14-seulement-dans-le-silence-mediatique

          In France, poverty rate increased in the last 20 years, also strangely enough, we’ve had liberal trickle down economic policies for the past 20 years as well. Our social services are in absolute shambles because among other things, “lack of funds” and rampant privatisation. Who are the private owners ? Said billionaires up above, mostly.

          https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/7710966

          Let’s not forget how these people also rig the game in their favour too. In France, 90% of mass media is owned by roughly 10 people (Niel, Lagardère, Bolloré, Pinault, Arnault, Bouygues, Dassault, Drahi, and I forgot the other two). One of them being Vincent Bolloré, a massive Christian conservative fascist, there is also an arms dealer (Dassault) or a known fraud (Drahi). Bolloré massively influenced the last elections thanks to his mouth pieces (C8, Europe 1 among others). He got one of his TV licences revoked because of that, but that’s obviously far from being enough.

          These people also gather frequently with our lawmakers and our dearest president, on public funds obviously.

          https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/le-diner-de-versailles-a-t-il-coute-6-270-000-euros-au-contribuable-20230926_S2IOFEBI5FDOFOFRE7QFAFAZAU/

          I’m not saying that taxing these people to hell and back would solve world hunger, but god damn if it wouldn’t massively tackle inequalities. There is only a limited amount of money in the economy, and an absolutely humongous amount is concentrated in the hands of the few and it’s not being properly recirculated and redistributed.

          Their fair share would be a better, progressive, tax rate and a flat limit above which 99% or 100% is taken by the state. Nobody needs a billion Euros, ever.

          For your last point, the point of taxes is to take more to people who can afford it and give (directly via social security measures or indirectly via a better more equal health or education system) to people who can’t.

          And I’m not even talking about their lobbying, how destructive their lifestyle is for the environment, nepotism, corruption, neo colonial practices in Africa, etc.

          TLDR: eat tax the fucking rich

    • novibe@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      Wait… so there’s more poverty now than when “there were no” billionaires?..

      You literally contradict yourself in two sentences 😆

    • Denvil@lemmy.one
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      3 months ago

      looks aggressively at the richest men in American history, both about 100 years ago