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?
we need to change the parameters of success.
the current “world’s richest persons” list is actually the “world’s greediest persons” list. we need to all start calling it exactly that. we need to, as society, understand that having those levels of wealth is more a symptom of a sick and twisted mind rather than a consequence of “business acumen”.
the world’s richest persons list should be recalibrated to what percentage of one’s income has been given away in taxes and donations. think about it, if you can indulge in all your necessities, comforts, and luxuries on 10% of your income and still afford to give away the other 90%, are you not 9 times “richer” than you need to be?
separately, any company that turns an obscene profit has done so only by overcharging their customers. these companies should be vilified therefore, and not celebrated.
So true. And a national change in perspective is definitely achievable.
I doubt it is really greed. They are competitive. It’s a different driver.
No matter if it is greed, competitiveness, narcissism, another personality trait or some combination of them the point was that we as a society should not consider becoming a billionaire as model behavior. By all means be the best sports player or musician or top surgeon and make as much money as you are legally allowed. Most tech billionaires are just not that impressive to justify their current net worth.
They wouldn’t exist if the currency wasn’t worthless, maybe linking cash to reality again would fix it? The real terms richest man corrected, even today, was a Roman so just get us back on gold.
The issue isn’t the amount of money in circulation. Who do you think controls the prices that thereby makes your money worth less? It’s not demand from the consumer, it’s greed from the seller. Going back on a peg to gold would just mean less poor people have even less money.
It also cripples the functioning of the federal government by creating a financial restraint. The only real constraint on the US federal government and those like it is resources. Granted, everyone still pushes the false narrative that the federal government needs to collect the money it creates before spending it and barely anyone questions this. Governments suspended the gold standard when they wanted to anyway: see FDR’s actions during WW2 as an example.
The real issue is the absolute greed and psychopathic lust for power of the elite. We need to take back our own governments and tax these people out of their wealth and thereby reduce their power and influence.
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You have to be pure evil to be a billionaire, sitting on that much wealth with so many suffering in the world you can easily help. They are psychopaths if you think about it.
I’m down with the guillotine.
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Wouldn’t the wealth necessarily just be distributed to their heirs?
Just shows how complicit people are, even when guillotineing a billionaire, we don’t know how to acquire their wealth, anyway other comments explain how to do that.
Heirs are finite and have a shelf life. Guillotines are reusable.
That’s it.
Extinguish the bloodline, cut heads until there’s no hoarder, tax evading billionare.
That’s why the French revolution was so… Thorough
If you are at the point of guillotining billioners, you can also seize their wealth.
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Wait, who is deleting posts? Edit: Nevermind, it’s the lemmy.world mods.
Nearly all billionaires have unrealized wealth, meaning they own a large percentage of a giant corporation (ie Bezos, Musk). So taxing them for money they don’t really own won’t work. But there is a better solution.
There are 38 companies in the US whose yearly revenue is greater than 100 BILLION dollars. In fact, the total amount of revenue over 100 billion for these companies combined is a bit shy of the US government yearly budget.
No company needs to revenue that much. Tax the revenue (ie 5%) over 100 billion revenue. This has the added benefit of helping to prevent monopolies and “too big to fail”.
Here is the list and revenue in case you think these companies don’t need to be taxed lol. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_in_the_United_States_by_revenue
Edit: Extra easter egg: The tax rate that you set could be changed each year to meet the amount of the federal deficit (ie the amount the government “overspends”). This would have the added advantage of limiting excessive government spending because politicians would have to explain to the largest corporations why they are spending their money. And you get a guaranteed balanced budget every year!
Suddenly they all make 99.999 billion…
Taxation (also unlikely)
I think this is the most feasible way, and it work relatively well in other Western countries than the US. They still have billionaires, but fewer due to higher taxation. If put in place through referendum, it also creates a basis for societal approval of stripping very wealthy people of their excess wealth, lowing the risk of widespread revolt.
we should just Go aroUnd acting lIke they are the best ever Landlords on the pLanet and there is nOthing unusual abouT them beIng the oNly people on earth familiar with thE concept of happiness, right fellow captive serfs?
I’m not sure, I kinda feel like we could use GUILLOTINES the way GUILLOTINES have been used historically, to spread that happiness around.
Labor organizing, laws, and taxes. Same way we got what we have now but the work isn’t done.
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.
But then you’d be a billionaire aswell and would need to be excecuted for the horrible person you are.
I’d obvously vet my clients based on their fortune:
A bilionaire with a fortune up to 9 billion, then I’d manage to deal with 10%
But at 10 billions to 99 billions, I could only manage to deal with 1%
Also, I would disperse the money, sharing it with the world, while at the same time gathering cameras, computers, and other things I enjoy, thus ensuring that the wealth is not just collected, but actively used and taxes are paid.
Then as the funds I have been tasked with reducing are gone, I am able to accept a new client for this most noble of task.
