• TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 years ago

    Seize their assets, distribute them amongst those who need them, persecute and punish them for the atrocities their greed has wrought.

    • Lemming6969@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I’m all for the concept but their assets are 3 houses, 5 cars, a plane, 5 paintings, and a massive company or two. How the fuck you going to split that amonst the masses? You can’t, and I bet if the business becomes a co-op it fails.

      • dandi8@kbin.social
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        2 years ago

        That’s why we need a remodel of the economy to go along with it. The only way to stop the creation of more “rich” is to get rid of capitalism altogether.

  • livus@kbin.social
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    2 years ago

    These days I see it as a shorthand, a metaphor for dismantling the system of resource hoarding so that we can more equitably distribute it - let the world consume what the elite have hoarded.

    It’s also sort of a joke that reduces them to use value.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I’m all in on wealth redistribution. But it’s not a simple as, “spread it all around”. We’d still be broke, just with bigger bank account numbers and a loaf of bread would be astronomical.

      Old friend of mine was appalled when he found out that the US burns worn out currency. (Mike wasn’t that bright.) Said the government should hand that back out.

      Allright Mike, can we agree that the government could give all of us a million dollars, like, today?

      Of course they could!

      Agreed. You know I charge $20 to mow a lawn? (this was early 90’s) What if I suddenly had a million dollars? Hell I want with $20?! Nah. Now I want $20,000 to mow your yard.

      Mike honestly didn’t get it. To him, a cheeseburger would always cost $.85 and $15 would get you an 1/8th bag, no matter what.

      Reality is, we could skim some hella money off these fuckers. And I don’t just mean billionaires, and I don’t just mean the 1%. We could hit the .01% and the .001% for serious social good. But we can’t take it all and splat it around.

      Dad used to say, “If making money was easy, everybody would do it.” And then it wouldn’t be money anymore. (I’m sad I had to follow up with that last sentence, but some people here aren’t going to get it.)

      While I’m ranting (sorry OP, you gave me a jumping off point), Robert Heinlein had a great collection of essays, in addition to his science fiction. Him and his wife Virginia decided to travel the world. But they didn’t want the northern hemisphere tourist crap, they went all in on the southern bits.

      One way he gauged local economies was, “How long does a laborer have to work to earn a loaf of bread?” Think on that. Very eye opening. His take on the Soviet Union was wild as well!

      One of my favorite stories in those essays was when they went to Ecuador (70s? 80s?). He would always ask the cab driver to take them to the poorest part of town, really gauge how the economy was working. They end up in a nice little neighborhood. Tiny, tiny houses, but very neat and clean, flower boxes in all the windows, nice streets, all that.

      Heinlein got a little bent. “I asked you to take us to the poorest part of town!” Cabbie, “Oh no senior, these are the poorest people! They are on government assistance and are very ashamed.”

      Imagine that.

      /drunk_rant

      • livus@kbin.social
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        2 years ago

        Notice I didn’t say money, I said resources. And I’m thinking in global terms.

        I’m not saying, say, American government take cash of American billionaires and give it to different Americans.

        I’m saying, who controls water, who controls oil, who controls farmland. Who pressures nations with threats if they try to be food self sufficient. Who steals. Who orders and finances killings. There is enough here on terra for everyone, but it’s being misused and hoarded.

  • K3zi4@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    It means the social contract has been broken beyond repair. Wealth hording, inequality, the power balance, lobbying, mega-corporations, data harvesting to profit from us even further, working until death for pennies while other profit from our labour. We are slaves to a system that has the illusion of comfort and freedom, when in reality, a small subset of the population control it all and are actively clamping down on what little freedom and comfort we actually had.

    The 2008 financial collapse lifted the curtain to most, and it became glaringly obvious just how transparent and artificial the entire concept of economy actually is.

  • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    It means the rich and powerful need to be reminded that they should live in very real and visceral fear of inciting the ire of the peasantry with their corruption, manipulation of systems, and hording of wealth.

    and it means us proletariat should be less passive and far more willing to embrace enforcing that fear, by any means necessary.

    • Melkath@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      I’m sorry, but what a bitch ass “I’m gonna be the next school shooter’s armory” response.

      That isn’t eating the rich.

      That is living the good life and making guns available for misuse.

      • essell@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Thankfully most people understood my comment as humour.

        Humour in perfect fit with the question and the hyperbole the slogan represents.

        For the record, I’m too old (and too cool) for school and I live in one of those civilised countries where we don’t have gun crime or the weather for more than two BBQs per year.

        However much caffeine you have in the morning, I suggest you cut it by half and replace it with meditation or masturbation instead to better embrace the joy of life over internet conflict

      • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        But but how would an utter shitebag quivering coward defend themselves?!?! Won’t someone think of the cowards?!?

        • Melkath@kbin.social
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          2 years ago

          The prompt is literally eat the rich.

          Their answer is “I got guns, but I am drinking and bbq-ing, my guns have literally nothing to do with eating the rich, but im flexing my small peen and my automatic weapons!”

          Dude is literally the hungover breeder whose crotchfruit is gonna use his gun to shoot up a school.

          Which defines most gun owners.

          Pussies trying to feel strong while doing absolutely nothing but making guns available to people who shouldn’t have guns.

          • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            Sorry but I’m changing the word from “gun owners” to “fuckin cowards” and I’d appreciate it if you used the correct terminology thanks

    • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      If you think a billionaire has Chianti in his wine cellar, you’re in for a nice tasting session when you get there

    • BallsandBayonets@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      You’ve got some serious takes there, but why so soft on landleeches?

      If you do not live at a residential address you don’t get to own it. Zero corporate ownership of residential properties, the individual person or family who owns your apartment building has to actually provide labor involved in the running of the building (maintenance or leasing) but cannot take a monthly pay greater than 2.5x the lowest-cost unit in the building.

  • SavvyWolf@pawb.social
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    2 years ago

    I assumed it was just a meme… People don’t actually want to eat them, do they?

    Feels like they’d be very fatty.

    • GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip
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      2 years ago

      I believe it originated from a saying like (paraphrased) ”if we are so poor that we starve then all that is left to eat are the rich"

      • gimpchrist @lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It’s probably from the Marie Antoinette days… ‘let them eat cake? Motherfucker, I’m going to eat you!!!’. you know, that kind of thing.

    • TheAlbatross@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 years ago

      Copied from another comment…

      Traditional recipes for ruling class stem from an era when great body mass was a sign of wealth and all that fat really lent itself well to a roast, either in an oven or on a spit, to really render out all the fruits of that stolen labor (no pun intended, but cherries, plums, or my personal favorite, oranges, work great here to add a splash of color, flavor and complexity), or sliced thinly and fried with veggies that blister well, like peppers and onions.

      The modern billionaire is quite lean, demonstrating that they can afford better quality food and have the time to cater to their own health and body, a luxury they’d never afford the people who make them their money. For this, a wet cook is better. Think like a brisket. Ideal for long, slow cooker meats, with acidic and sweet vegetables. Or braised with wine and flavored with umami bombs such as anchovy, like ossobuco.

      We have fed them all for a thousand years, but one day they will feed us, so it’s best to be ready!

  • Leviathan@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Normal people: it’s a metaphor for cannibalizing their wealth and assets to feed and house the poor they’ve explored.

    Me: I will literally eat a rich human if it means I won’t starve.

    We are not the same.

  • Coskii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 years ago

    Tangential story time. I play a lot of video games, mmo’s being the norm. A few years ago one came out that I was hooked on not just as a game but also a social platform. I met many people on there and knew them better than I know some of my friends.

    One of them set a goal for herself. She wanted a billion in game currency, and it was possible. She spent several months and enough real world money to end up in some fairly deep debt, but I only heard that from others who were closer.

    Being outside of her unguarded group, she randomly asked me what I would do of I had a billion currency in the game. I thought about it for a few minutes and responded “I’d probably quit the game”. Confused, she asked me why.

    It’s a pretty simple concept, if I had accumulated that level of wealth in game, that meant one of two things had occured: either I had nothing left to spend the currency on, or the inflation had gotten so bad that only the wealthiest players could participate.

    That mindset doesn’t work with the rich. They can do and get whatever they want with their wealth, but they’re more focused on getting a big number more than actually just enjoying it freely and openly.

    Eating the rich is decimating the concept of a high score financially. Fostering altruism and attempting to make the world a better place for all. The absolute wealth some people in this world have could do so much good if it weren’t being hoarded.

    Taxing the rich is a hard fight with so many loopholes and outs that it will take forever. Changing the mindset is basically impossible as well, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try every available means.

    • Kage520@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I played Borderlands with my brother online once. He was ahead of me but we wanted to have fun together so we tried to play together.

      I was on a mission to get the best gun for my current level. He was kind enough to just drop a gun that was as good or better for my level than what I was seeking. I no longer had to do that quest.

      In fact, he dropped all the best guns he had through all the levels. I no longer had to do any extra quests.

      I quit the game. It was suddenly boring. It was the need for the next new thing that had been making it exciting, and now that was gone.

      I think about that sometimes for rich people. Why does it never get boring?

  • oo1@kbin.social
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    2 years ago

    Control and/or ownership of the means of production should be more distributed among or more accountable to the people who use those means.