• thatradomguy@lemmy.world
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    1 hour ago

    It ain’t about “having too much”. Billionaires shouldn’t exist. Ipso facto, their very existence only shows that corruption and greed can influence anything to point that whatever that thing is only serves those corrupted. End it. There should be no Billionaires.

    • Wilco@lemm.ee
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      56 minutes ago

      28% of Americans think they are billionaires that are just suffering a temporary financial setback.

  • ansiz@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    The survey only involved like 950 people and it only defined it as, “the rich” which seems pretty vague. Given the survey also mentions Bezos and Musk it wouldn’t surprise me if that is the group having too much on this survey, not humble millionaires like you and me.

    • bluesheep@lemm.ee
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      5 hours ago

      Don’t forget all of the people who will certainly be millionaires in the future! They will definitely not be middle class and delusional for the rest of their lives

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        Middle-class people will be millionaires.

        $1M equates to $40k/year income in retirement at a 4% SWR (safe withdrawal rate). In 2025, that’s not actually a lot, even if you have Social Security on top of it.

        If you’re not a millionaire by the time you’re retired, you’re damn near impoverished. The only way for that to count as “middle class” (in the “close to the median income” sense) is if the middle class is destroyed (in the “existing separate and distinct from the lower class” sense).

        (INB4 somebody chimes in with “it never was separate and distinct” – yeah, yeah, I know, working-class solidarity and all that. But you get my point, right?)

    • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      “Donald Trump stands up for the little guy like you and me” - the mental giants we’re dealing with

    • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      10 hours ago

      Voting doesnt mean shit.

      Assuming the numbers aren’t straight up fake and red team didnt cheat at the last mile.¹

      Assuming everyone who wanted to got to²

      And most people weren’t so demoralized by every option that remotely represented them or ehat they wanted be ratfucked or blatant lies that just flipped and did the same old shit anyway³

      You still have a shitty system made to disenfranchise people by choosing aristocratic proxies rather than members of their communities, keeping them alienated at every step from the actual decision making that effects their lives.

      ¹you’d have to be dumber than a box of disposable hammers

      ²delusional, bigoted or both

      ³have you talked to an american this century? Just read a history book?

      • CaliforniaSober@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        Why do you have a bunch of unnecessary sourcing notes with no sources? What’s with the little ones and twos?

        • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 hours ago

          They’re called foot notes¹, and while most often used for citing sources¹, they can also be used to include tangential or repeated information without breaking flow, as demonstrated here¹! Also for comedic or other effect.

          ¹you fool!

  • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    18 hours ago

    72% is way too low given how insane the current wealth distribution is. Fully 1/4 of the population have drunk the kool-aid

  • TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works
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    19 hours ago

    friendly reminder, it would take 1,460,714,285 weeks of minimum wage to earn musks net worth. That’s 27 million years.

    • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
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      14 hours ago

      Friendly reminder that even someone making $1M per year today still has less true buying power than a 10 year old child laborer earning $1 per hour in the late 1950s

  • blackbearjesus27@lemm.ee
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    23 hours ago

    And yet, about half of voting Americans will actively ignore those impulses and choose a party that openly campaigns on tax reductions while it drums up fears surrounding issues they largely agree with (when presented in a non-partisan context) so does it really matter what they say?

      • Velypso@sh.itjust.works
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        15 hours ago

        Well, a lot of them decided the genocide half way across the world was more important than the genocide they would help to trigger back home.

      • 4am@lemm.ee
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        20 hours ago

        How any didn’t vote, and how many were removed from voter rolls or didn’t have the right ID or were gerrymandered or

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        And they won’t next time either. Stop worrying about them and focus on those who do vote.

        • blackbearjesus27@lemm.ee
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          22 hours ago

          This is real defeatist.

          There are absolutely people who will not vote no matter what. But folks are being actively disenfranchised and making it easy to vote by a proven secure method has become a political issue because a few who have power wield it without responsibility. Hell, if Election Day was a national holiday (as in, EVERYTHING is closed or by law folks are able to take time off to vote with proof of doing so) you’d probably see a substantial bump alone.

        • Mossheart@lemmy.ca
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          21 hours ago

          Right but not for the reasons you think. I’m not counting on there being a next time at this rate.

    • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works
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      22 hours ago

      Well to be fair they also know democrats only say they will fix the issue and then immediately do the same things the republicans do because they just cannot do without that sweet corporate cheddar.

      I figure their logic is that at least the republicans are honest about it.

      • blady_blah@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        If you can’t tell the difference between Biden and Trump, then you need to quit sniffing glue.

          • sqgl@sh.itjust.works
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            9 hours ago

            Dems downvoting you are ignoring why Trump won. At their peril.

            [Edit: I see in a later comment that you clarified and people here do get it.]

            Dems laugh at his meandering speech but the MAGA’s appreciate he is not scripted and one actually can understand what he is on about. It looks demented on paper but it is actually how a lot of people speak. You don’t need to complete your sentence if you have got the message across . MAGA think we are stupid for getting confused with our comprehension.

            In the GOP primaries he mocked his competitors on stage saying that he has given many donations to politicians and the favours will be returned, even the ones on stage with him. MAGA loved the openness of the corruption.

            What I don’t get is why they thought he would “drain the swamp”?

      • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        do the same things the republicans

        I missed the part where the Democrats were cutting social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And repealing the ACA. And attacking LGBTQ people. And deploying the military against American civilians. And sending people to foreign gulags en mass without trial. And attacking voting rights.

        Yep, they sure are the same.

        • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works
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          21 hours ago

          That was what Trump campaigned on wasn’t it? So contrary to democrats who usually don’t deliver in their promises Trump can at least says that he tries damn hard to deliver on his promises.

          I know this will be conflated to me being supportive of what he does. So let me clarify that I’m not endorsing it, I’m just stating the fact that Trump goes so far as to break the law in order to deliver his promises, while democrats work really hard to maintain the status quo even while having legal and political power to make real change. This is part of his appeal, a detail which should not be lost on democrats.

          • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            So contrary to democrats who usually don’t deliver in their promises Trump can at least says that he tries damn hard to deliver on his promises.

            I know this will be conflated to me being supportive of what he does. So let me clarify that I’m not endorsing it, I’m just stating the fact that Trump goes so far as to break the law in order to deliver his promises, while democrats work really hard to maintain the status quo even while having legal and political power to make real change. This is part of his appeal, a detail which should not be lost on democrats.

            We’re pretty much in agreement here. I simply disagree that Democrats do the same things as Republicans when in office. While I may vehemently disagree with most of their strategy, the Democratic party isnt nearly as big of a threat as the GOP.

            • sqgl@sh.itjust.works
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              9 hours ago

              Same thing in terms of being bought by lobbyists (although Elon’s influence is unprecedented).

              Same thing in terms of refusing to reform one of the worst voting systems on the planet.

              Same in terms of insider trading (Trump is more blatant and doesn’t mind if he tanks the economy in the process).

              Same in terms of ignoring https://patrioticmillionaires.org/

              • MegaUltraChicken@lemmy.world
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                7 hours ago

                They are literally not as bad as the GOP on all of those issues, and you even pointed that out on half of them.

                I stand by my point.

    • Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works
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      21 hours ago

      Are you not aware that poor people have smartphones these days? Back in my day being poor meant having absolutely nothing. I say we take their phones away and their shoes too for good measure. That way they’ll know what true poverty is like /s

      • peregrin5@lemm.ee
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        5 hours ago

        I’m more surprised that the survey even had that as an option. I think the survey options were just:

        • the rich have too much
        • the poor have too much
        • they have about the same

        Kind of a braindead survey tbh and probably doesn’t justify an article.

        I mean the literal definition of poor is that they don’t have enough.

  • RotatingParts@lemmy.ml
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    23 hours ago

    There are more poor than rich. We just have to come together. There is strength in numbers.

    • rhvg@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      No way. Americans are proud they are not communists, meaning they complain but ultimately worship the rich

    • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      Numbers are less relevant when the other side has the most sophisticated surveilance system on the planet coupled with the most deadly military.

      Key people inside the system have to defect in order to short-circuit that power.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        That’s what they want you to believe, that it’s too hard to get to them. Luigi got Brian walking down the street. They’re just people.

        • MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          You are describing removing individuals. I’m referring to the system. Sure, over time if enough people sacrifice themselves to remove individuals in the power structure, maybe something could crack open.

          That’s a very long shot. As time goes on, the security improves, the surveilance improves, and fear will stop most.

          However, my intension is not to squash hope, but to shed the light of realism. This is serious, and keeping our Democracy alive has to be tackled with deliberation and coordination. Murder is the near unthinkable last resort.

        • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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          22 hours ago

          That’s a key thing to remember here. The assholes of the world are still human at the end of the day, and have the same mortality as the rest of us. The only thing they have on any of us individually is access to resources, but as was said, there’s more of us than them, thus why they keep us fighting amongst ourselves.

          • john_lemmy@slrpnk.net
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            15 hours ago

            Damn right! It was about time that we finally get the message (again I might add) and deconstruct the fake boundaries that were put up to divide us.

          • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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            20 hours ago

            They may even be able to avoid risk hidden away in their bunkers with well compensated staff, but they don’t want that life. They want to be able to go out to dinner and parties and be seen as above the plebs. They don’t get to have that while their day to day actions oppress, maim, and kill the masses.

  • N0body@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    22 hours ago

    The rich have too much by definition, but billionaires in America have an historically obscene amount of wealth. Wealth inequality in today’s America has surpassed pre-Revolution France.

      • sqgl@sh.itjust.works
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        9 hours ago

        It is a zero sum game. The rich are addicted to power over others despite data showing that even they would be happier in a more equitable society (see TED talk by Richard Wilkinson called “Spirit Level”).

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 hours ago

      No, this one ends with these same people continuing to vote for Republicans because they’re awful people.

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      17 hours ago

      I wish but I dunno… Occupy Wall St fell apart, and I think without a dedicated leftist group organization this is bound to fail as well. The red scare broke any chance of a labor party in the country for generations, and assuming we survive the current dictator (and I’m somewhat optimistic so let’s go with that), I think we’ll be back to status quo soon enough. There was a brief period during lockdown where even normies could somewhat tell that money is all just kinda made up, but that’s a distant memory at this point.

      I think the absolute limit of what we can realistically hope for during a regime change is better health care, and don’t get me wrong that would be a huge step in the right direction. But otherwise I don’t have much expectation that we’ll stop being wage slaves, let alone be eating the rich any time soon.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      21 hours ago

      There was no voting that way, that’s the whole damn problem. Neither candidate promised to do anything substantial about wealth inequality.