cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57305272
Total billionaire wealth in the EU reached €2.4 trillion by late November, exceeding Italy’s entire GDP of €2.2 trillion and approaching France’s €2.9 trillion economy, a new Oxfam report found.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20260118190308/https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/ara3abf5ee
Capitalism is a threat to democracy.
But thanks for getting on nearly the same page, Oxfam.
Most -ism’s are the problem, every hericarical civilization throughout all of sapien time has collapsed, destroyed the local enviorment etc. Inequality is the issue.
We’ve been pointing this out ever since the concept of currency became a thing, but I’m sure we will learn our lesson this time and stop doing it. This can’t just be how it will always be until we drive ourselves to extinction stuck on this miserable rock, Right?
Structural issues make egalitarian economic systems difficult. Wealth and social influence compound once another in a virtuous cycle. Wealth has a strong hereditary bias, even in socialist economic models. And violence is historically a powerful tool for accruing wealth. Very difficult to establish universal deterrence against violence.
This isn’t a question of people being smart or stupid. It’s an elaborate balancing act that becomes exponentially more difficult as population size expands.
As a very wise Irishman once so eloquently said it: “People. What a bunch’a bastards.”
Hey, the rock is fine, we’ve made society a miserable place. The pack is calling me…
Not a very good actor, but seems like a good person and he’s funny. He worked hard to be where he is so sure “the rock” is fine.
I believe Plato pointed this out in The Republic.
He thought the richest citizen needed to have no more then 5x the wealth of the poorest citizen or you would inevitably slide into oligarchy.
We crossed that threshold so long ago that you can make 5x the poverty level and still not be able to afford a house.
Well 5x0 is 0 so yeah. This sounds like a good system though. Desperate for that Billion clout? Make sure everyone else has 200mil first.
0 isn’t real, it is a social construct created by big math.
You add by 0 and its still the same… what?
You subtract by 0 and its still the same… why?
You multiply by 0 and you BECOME 0, the heck?
You divide by 0 and its… big not even a number just a concept… sure buddy!
i think some german said this 100 years ago already
No shit bro for real?
So when are we going tondo what about this?
This. Has. To. Stop.
We cannot allow a single person or family to control a single news organization, let alone multiple. Anyone who thought that was a good or even okay idea has been, and continues to be, delusional.
They own so much more than the news organizations. They own the special interest groups, the lobbyists, the elected officials, the land and natural resources, every single company we buy goods and services from, the banks, the hospitals, everything. Slavery didn’t end, it just changed its business model.
tondo
circular art?
You mean letting a small group of people consolidate power under themselves is a danger to a system designed to evenly distribute power? No way!
The sky also happens to be blue. That gotta be news too.
Edit: Okay, having read the summary, it seems like they have proved causality between growing economic inequality and democratic backsliding. Which yeah, most people could have guessed, but now we have a fancy bunch of paper that says so.
No fucking shit.
I suspect the only time the US got close to representative government was the New Deal era. Most people just live their lives and don’t think in ideological terms. The ones that do are considered “too into politics” and usually believe in reform because it requires less of them than the alternative. Anyways, how about that bread and circuses?
Screw Idiocracy. People reference it not understanding there were positives in the negatives. This is “Don’t Look Up”, that nailed our current corrupt leadership and techno-corporate lunacy, as well as ignoring what is right in front of us because shiny things are more interesting.
Yeah, this isn’t anything new. Literally centuries old analysis here. I guess it’s nice they updated it for the contemporary society, though.
