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There are a myriad of news articles here on Lemmy that display the abhorrent influence billionaires have on our society (especially the US, where I reside). I consistently read comments where the posters appear hopeless and despondent of the situation, while others jokingly refer to the guillotine.

As for myself, I have recently found myself with a lot of free time on my hands after being laid off and want to gather ideas on what would be the best hypothetical route to solve this issue. Let me be clear: These are only THEORETICAL IDEAS and I do not condone any illegal activity.

Historical precedent: While I am not intimately familiar with the inner workings of the Occupy Movement, I do know that they were constantly attacked as being unorganized and lacking structure. It would be wise to not fall into the same pitfalls if those were accurate assessments.

Logical formulation: The foundations of the key points of the movement must be logically sound to withstand any external (and internal for that matter) scrutiny.

Motto: If a motto or slogan is chosen, it must be unambiguous so that attacks are directed to the movement, not the motto itself.

I am also aware that most people can't spare any time to these kind of movements. Similar to the Texas seceding news, many commentators have noted that most Texans are living paycheck to paycheck and wouldn't be able to dedicate any time to their cause. I would understand that would be same for this cause as well. However, since I have the time right now, I only ask for your ideas.

Broad issues: High cost of living (mortgages, rent, groceries, etc.) Inflation Homelessness

Philosophical underpinnings: Is there a Threshold of Greed? If so, what is too much wealth?

Possible means of reductions: Voluntary donation or renunciation of wealth past a certain point (highly unlikely) Taxation (also unlikely) Seizing assets (illegal and would most likely set a poor precedent)

It might also to organize an open database of billionaires with their respective fields (Forbes is closed) to help organize a boycott of some sort Though I suspect their fingers are in everything and it would be highly impractical.

Sorry for the word diarrhea. What are your thoughts?

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[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[-] banneryear1868@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Labor organizing, laws, and taxes. Same way we got what we have now but the work isn't done.

[-] beebarfbadger@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

No need, I've been hearing that it's good when they get all the money shoved at them BECAUSE, and hear me out now, they may or may not choose to maybe trickle some of the wealth they don't obsessively hoard or burn on pleasure trips into space back onto the population.

They're bound to start doing that aaaaaany decade now...

[-] the_q@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Honestly? Nothing can be done short of violent revolution. The rich control the government and the government controls us. Voting is lauded as the common person's chance to have their voice heard, but it's a gerrymandered mess. The politicians are all liars who just want in for clout, power and money. It's a perfect system of control down to even allowing us right now to freely talk about it because they know we're too scared, too fat and too distracted to make any real change. We're prisoners here.

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

A recent study has shown there is little increase in happiness beyond $500,000 in annual earnings. Based on that I suggest a cap of $500k per year or $50 million lifetime earnings.

The former would be for most people, the latter is for movie stars or athletes who might have a few very high earning years and love off them the rest of their life.

[-] stoy@lemmy.zip 5 points 10 months ago

To help our poor billionaires I will take one for the team and help them reduce their burden, for a small administrative fee, I will take ownership of 10% of their fortune, I'd imagine there are several other people who gladly would agree to help in slmilar ways.

[-] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

But then you'd be a billionaire aswell and would need to be excecuted for the horrible person you are.

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[-] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 9 months ago

To answer the question in terms of things you personally can do, I think the boring and realistic answer is to research organizations who align with your goals and who you think have effective methods, and get involved with them.

Personally I like represent.us - They're specific to the US, but their idea is to put anti-corruption laws into place that help remove the influence of money on the government. This would help get laws passed that favor everybody instead of just the rich. Their approach is to begin at the local level and get enough momentum for a national movement to have some power.

Here are a couple of videos they made, first about what the problem is, and second about how they are trying to solve it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhe286ky-9A

[-] ComradePorkRoll@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I hear what you're saying. I don't see the methods you listed working under our government as our system has this flaw where the laws enforced tend to depend on which party is in charge.

That being said, organize your workplace. I'm personally fond of the Industrial Workers of the World as we are the only union that has an anticapitalist stance and our industrial organizing methods make it harder for employers to create division amongst the workers of a workplace (ie: separate unions for school teachers and school maintenance staff).

[-] eldritch_horror@lemm.ee 3 points 10 months ago

Trick them into making poor investments.

[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Make wealth hoarders fear for their lives

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 3 points 10 months ago

So for practical matters:

Lobbying takes time and effort, but it can be effective if done resiliantly.

Find out who in your local community has money and power. Find issues to reach out to other people and politicians on. Maybe there is a new school that would need to be build, butthe guy holding the land refuses to sell at a fair rate? Maybe there is an elderly women being kicked out of her house?

One problem is people havinga detached and abstract idea of super rich people and dont see how their immediate lifes are affected for the worse by it.

There is many people who look into the big picture, like we saw with the Panama papers and other investigative journalism. Did anything tangible come out of it? Why not? I think it is because people are not demanding for it politically. It is some abstract accepted injustice.

But through local action you can steer your community and by this you can force your political representative to adress these issues. That also means looking into the way they voted on issues and holding them accountable. Imagine they voted against an education spending bill and the next week there is a "moms for education" protest in front of his local office and it is all over local news.

Apply the pressure from the bottom up. No billionaire cares what John Doe from Springfield thinks. But they care what congress thinks. And congress cares what the members think. And the members care, what their electorate thinks. And that is where you, or everyone really, can make a difference.

[-] jadelord@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 10 months ago

Taxes! But different. This channel is very informative:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEdx1BIb1x0

The first Episode of Sabrina Live! is called How the Rich Don't Pay Taxes. All the rich need to do is use three simple steps: "Buy, Borrow, Die." In this episode, Rich Kid attempts to buy a $50 video game after purchasing a $1 Pokemon card. He then leaves his Pokemon card to his son - Rich Kid II.

www.peoplestaxpage.org.

[-] DecarbonatedOdes@lemmy.one 3 points 10 months ago

Since force is a clear crowd favorite: What would that look like? Angry mod surrounds home of billionaire and guillotines them on their lawn? According to Forbes there are currently 735 billionaires. That might take some time.

[-] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 months ago

It took about a century in France just to go from monarchy to republic.

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[-] guyrocket@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

Yes, yes. Guillotines. Come on, do you really think that could happen? I just don't think it is realistic.

After the recent news of several billionaires asking to be taxed more that seems like the most realistic and viable to redistribute some of the wealth. I think you could probably get unions and democrats (leverage ALL existing organizations) to help lobby for some sort of "patriotic wealth tax" or however you wish to spin it. Start small to get it established and then keep lobbying to increase it.

I would recommend staring with a tax on income (ANY income with NO deductions) over $1M/year, maybe 10%. And then tax anyone's assets over $1bn at 2% every 5 years. Then keep changing those numbers to increase the revenue.

[-] DecarbonatedOdes@lemmy.one 2 points 10 months ago

Thank you for a thought-out response.

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[-] rsuri@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Honestly I think the best means for changing things is right under our noses: voting. Not just federal, but also state and local. As it is now, in most places tax cuts that flow mostly to the wealthy are still a great political move that's an easy way to get votes. That's the first thing that needs to change.

There's all kinds of groups like the Center for Tax Reform and the US Chamber of Commerce that push for policies that tend to increase financial inequality - but as far as I know there isn't one for reducing inequality. Given how many people recognize the problem, maybe there should be one. And then politicians can start to fear that group as much as they fear the others. Of course it won't have a lot of wealthy donors, but as some politicians have shown small donations can do a lot.

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[-] GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago
[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

Focus on making the poor people richer instead. Then you’ll realize things are going pretty good.

[-] jaek@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Hard to make the poor people richer when the rich are taking an increasingly large share of the pie.

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this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
218 points (91.0% liked)

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