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[-] Millie@lemm.ee 59 points 1 year ago

What's it going to take to actually do something about these ultra-rich leeches literally destroying our planet and everything good on it to inflate a number in a bank somewhere? How do we actually build up the initiative to stop it?

All our other problems seem largely centered around our inability to appropriately respond to extreme greed. Not only in actually actively stopping it, but in even identifying it or being able to properly censure it in the first place. The moment you start talking about the rich being the cause of our problems, there's a section of society that starts tuning you out. I definitely feel like as things get worse people are starting to catch on, but even once we're there, where do we go?

If we actually get to the point of agreeing that excessive wealth is inherently misanthropic and should be a crime in and of itself, how do we make it a crime while so much power sits in the hands of those who'd be on the losing end of that decision?

I hope the WGA and SAG can spark a change in people's consciousness around labor. I'd honestly love to see a lot more interviews and independent podcasts coming from the picket lines. If there's anyone who can convince Americans to fight for the value of their labor, it's the people write and play the parts in the stories they love.

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I want to add on some quick math. Some people will look at this and scoff, saying that actors are millionaires and are more similar to these billionaire leeches than to us. A billion isn't a number you can easily wrap your head around -- I have trouble putting it into the correct perspective and scale, and I'm an engineer. It's really difficult. So to try and show exactly how much money we're talking here, I'm going to use time:

  • 35k seconds, 9.7 hours
  • 70k seconds, 19.4 hours
  • 100k seconds, 1.16 days
  • 250k seconds, 2.9 days
  • 1m seconds, 11.6 days
  • 10m seconds, 115.7 days
  • 100m seconds, 3.2 years
  • 1b seconds, 31.7 years

I haven't even lived for 1 billion seconds yet, and I'm 28! Even an actor who's racked up $100m over a successful career is closer to $0 than they are to $1b. Now arguably I'd say $100m is at the point where it needs to be treated similarly to $1b, but even so. The average working adult is closer to an actor in terms of wealth than these disgusting hoarders.

In reality, every dollar isn't equal, and what this analysis doesn't take into account is the amount leftover after all necessities are paid for, which is the reason why someone making $35k is not living like a millionaire. The point here is, a billion is incredibly big. It's unfathomable. Unless the person protesting is a billionaire, they're on your side against the leeches and absurdly wealthy.

(I suspect this is why actors tend liberal and billionaires tend conservative.)

[-] SwallowsDick@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

The fact that most people will reflexively reject and wilt at the idea of a wealth cap, or at least enforceablely taxing every dollar made above a certain amount at 99%, is a testament to the many decades of often-subtle propaganda that makes people think that modern western capitalism is the only way. As well as the continuing de-funding of public education and making colleges less accessible.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

And another part of the problem (and IMO one of the biggest ones) is that the propaganda is only their first line of defense. If the rich and ultra powerful feel actually threatened, they don't have to rely on soft power. See Epstein's fate as well as the Panama papers reporter.

[-] jkure2@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

What's it going to take to do something about these ultra rich assholes

Let's be honest the only answer is [redacted], they effectively own the government in the US and it's not much better in Europe

[-] sediton@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

Not all revolutions require blood, but I feel like capitalism is going to fight real hard to stay around. Even though that's exactly what needs to go

[-] TrenchcoatFullofBats@belfry.rip -2 points 1 year ago

But what are we going to DO about the 5–12 feet tall, blood-drinking, shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from the Alpha Draconis?

[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Robin Hood Rebellion. Start taking from the rich and giving to the poor.

[-] ConTheLibrarian@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We need enough people to agree on both a vehicle and a direction.

  • There are a lot of people dissatisfied with the current government(s) but don't agree how to create change; be it through the current system, major modifications to the current system, or even more severe changes.

  • There are a lot of people who don't want wide spread poverty/suffering, but don't agree on how that problem should be dealt with; be it through universal income, massive public projects, or wealth taxation and better competition regulations.

IMO we need a new digital/decentralized/open-source/transparent 'social media platform' that can replace the current easily manipulated electoral systems.

We need ideas & policies to be independently actionable from the partisan politics that afaic specifically exist to mitigate change and maintain the influence of money in policy.

[-] Mayoman68@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Not sure if this is directly applicable but there's the concept of dual power, where you can organize a bottom up power structure that takes some power from the regular government without needing to either submit to it or outright overthrow it. With that said it has only ever been successful in cases where the government is incredibly unstable to begin with.

[-] Danterious@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I agree that that we do need something like a collective action platform so people can coordinate much better than they currently do. Also something that you didn't directly mention but I think you imply is that there doesn't need to be complete agreement before action is taken because there are alot of valid disagreements on how to move forward but there are also alot of agreements as well that are ignored in public conversation because we take those points as a default.

I've been working on something similar to this on my own time (which you can see in my post history) but honestly we won't move forward if we don't actively start working together properly.

[-] knivesandchives@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

That's a really good question. Part of the problem, of course, is that the game is rigged: consider how difficult it is to buy food that doesn't feed the Nestle war chest.

As a society, I think there are moves in the right direction - I just stumbled across something called Community Wealth Building, which is very cool, for example.

But as a private individual? That's harder. I'd love it if there were an Amazon equivalent out there that sourced exclusively from worker owned co-ops, or at least unionized businesses, but as it is, I'm coming up dry...

this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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