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Bill Burr calls on 'billionaires to be put down like rabid dogs' in podcast
(www.the-express.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2025
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Maybe we collectively need to recognize billionaires like they recognize their workers. I propose the following:
“Becoming a billionaire” is still a thing that the most aggressive, ambitious sociopaths among us can aspire to. Because they and the broken people that idolize them will insist that great things cannot happen without the promise of great rewards. And obviously the only “reward” of any meaning to them is money.
Once you are a billionaire, you get a nationally broadcast pizza party on CSPAN and we engrave your name into a plaque in some “hall of smart winners” somewhere in DC. You are declared a champion of the economy and the President shakes your hand and declares a one-time national day to be in your honor. Or they read your name during the superbowl that year or whatever. Your place in history is locked in.
Assets and earnings in excess of 1 billion are seized and given to charity, or infrastructure, or healthcare or whatever. Used for the betterment of society. It should be done responsibly in a way that won’t ruin the assets, for example not liquidating billions in stock all at once.
The government publishes a leaderboard every year that shows which Champions of the Economy™️ gave the most back to society that year in the form of excess earnings. And we all pretend that we’re REALLY impressed.
They can have their on-paper status and their superficial adoration they hunger for. And they can even be stupidly rich by ANY standard.
Can anyone argue this is not a great idea? Even by being devil's advocate, I genuinely can't see any reasons why this would be worse than it currently is for anyone. 1 Billion still grants you A LOT of luxury and influence, just about as much as any single human should reasonably ever need or desire. And the best part is that we wouldn't even need to pretend to be impressed! Imagine a parallel universe where Nole Ksum "contributed" 400 fucking billions to improving infrastructure, healthcare, and research. Wouldn't you actually like the guy who has made the world, or at least your side of it, measurably better?
Usually when people are asked when America was Great™ they'll point to the burgeoning middle class of the post-war economy of the 1950s. Sometimes they'll point to separate drinking fountains however we'll ignore racists for now. The economic nationalists won't like it when you point out the thriving economy was partly the result of other economies still receiving from war, but more importantly for the middle class there was a 94% marginal tax rate for income over $200,000 in 1945, which meant dollars were circulating and demand was created for more jobs. The trickle-down clowns who insistent the rich getting richer is good for the economy would be slightly more credible, if they weren't the very same people saying the poor demanding higher wages is bad for the economy. As Nick Hanauer put it:
1950s were also heavily unionized. Unions have declined by 80% since then, and "right to work" laws didn't exist. (Also, the 40s were when unions began to realize they should be inclusive of marginalized groups. Not due to racism, but because those groups would be more likely to scab unless included)