this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2024
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[–] riodoro1 134 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The asshole is out of the meme. I’ll allow it.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (1 children)

There are better templates for that, though.

[–] [email protected] 55 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago
[–] LufyCZ 85 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Earth doesn't have any bills though, dues to the United Federation of Planets are set to start in 2161 at the earliest

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Honestly, we don’t even need to worry about the dues. Our planet has already dropped to a “C” level rating. The odds of Earth being recognized are now slim to none.

We should have returned the Space Bucks.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If we’re not careful, it’ll get demolished in favor of a space bypass.

[–] Viking_Hippie 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)

There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.

-- Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Would you happen to be interested in poetry, by chance?

[–] Viking_Hippie 8 points 8 months ago

Under no circumstances should you ever allow a Vogon to read you poetry.

[–] Got_Bent 10 points 8 months ago

Why should we pay those dues when we're not even receiving any intergalactic highway funding?

[–] [email protected] 81 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

It’s really frustrating to consider that the world would likely be a measurably better place if those 1300 people were permanently removed from the planet, but that it’s also effectively impossible to accomplish that goal.

Edit: anyways, read Ministry for the Future lol

[–] [email protected] 79 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Unfortunately they would quickly be replaced by their heirs who would continue to employ the same business people to manage their empires. We need to change the system at the root, not just chop off the top.

[–] Zehzin 51 points 8 months ago (1 children)

But if we kept going I'm sure they'd get the message at some point

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

There are two ways to kill a plant, and one is much more efficient and effective than the other.

Also when comparing fear of violence against fear of government regulation (and federal prison), one is much more civilized and moral while accomplishing the same goal.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

fear of violence

so it's fine for poor people to not only fear systemic violence, but experience it daily, but gods forbid the handful of people in charge of said system who are actively and deliberately inflicting violence and death on millions if not billions of people the globe daily, and for posterity, and for their own benefit, fear some violent self defence..

Violence against poor people: you sleep
Violence against our rich overlords: real shit

The level of bootlicking is gross..

government regulation (and federal prison)

how's that been working out? (hint: it isn't, because capitalism cannot be reformed, by design. And the point of eat the rich isn't to just keep killing them, it's to give them the option to end their exploitative system and give up their power for the benefit of society at large, and when they refuse, because they will, make that decision for them. Once the system is abolished any "heirs", and former rich people who realise they'd rather live as equals to others than die filthy rich, will have no power to take the "top" position again, because there will be no top position, nor will they have any resources to try with).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. I am consistent across the board when I say I don't believe in violence, regardless of class, race, etc. Just because the rich are being violent to the poor doesn't mean an effective response is to be violent back; that's how you get your message smeared by media, and how you get the public to hate you. Take a page out of Ghandi's or MLK's book.

Violence will actively make things worse for the cause.

Also the rich aren't going to just stop exploiting people because they face death threats. Those people are very well protected by the government and by their well-paid, private security force. The only way to change things is to take control of the government. The how is difficult, since every part of the government is working for the rich, but that doesn't make it impossible. I hope it doesn't have to take a literal revolution to do so.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] Ross_audio 19 points 8 months ago

Actually yes.

And this kind of thing actually happens occasionally with discharged national debts or medical debts for example.

https://www.reuters.com/article/africa-debt-idUSL5N11L42V20150916/

But the systems still in place tend to just cause debts to rise again.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Where's the 94% from? That seems really high.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (2 children)

In America alone, the top .1% capture over 90% of all newly generated wealth.

It's just math over time until the concentration of wealth gets even denser.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago

For reference, you need a net wealth of 25M to be in the top 0.1% in the US.

https://escalon.services/blog/what-does-it-take-to-reach-the-top-0-1-income-earners/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Could you source that? What timeframe are you taking about for newly generated wealth? During covid where all the stock prices were soaring?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

There was a high-profile political campaign that showed these studies all through 2016.

I dont believe there is a good faith discussion to be had on the topic.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The claim in the meme would still be wrong though. I agree the wealth gap is a huge problem, but we need to state it accurately to have meaningful conversation. I'd love to site that statistic you shared in conversations elsewhere, but I shouldn't without a source to make sure I don't misinterpret it. I'll try and dig for it later today.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The claim in the meme would be a mathematical eventuality based on what I presented.

You are jumping from point to point wildly while stating factually incorrect information.

Math isn't an opinion, so you can't just disagree with it like that.

If you actually cared about the stats I cited, you would already know the movement who echoes this point loudly with studies and data to back it up. The reality is you are looking for an easy dismissal.

Not to mention, pendants who debate the pieces of a meme while admitting the sentiment is true are obviously not working to be a part of the solution. Of course, you think the issue to focus on is fine-tuning our statistics, not the massive wealth disparity that is eating our planet alive.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I've never heard that claim before. I wasn't online much in 2016. I was in highschool.

The claim in the meme was 1300 people own 94% of earths wealth. The staging implied that referred to currently. That is false, right? I think accuracy is important.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It didn't require you to be online on 2016.

You could simply Google the stat and see who pops up to read more.

You're full of shit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

A Google search is saying it's 67% of new wealth since 2020 captured by the top 1%, not 95% of new wealth captured by the top 0.1%. That's an orders of magnitude difference. Please help me understand what you were talking about.

https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly-twice-much-wealth-rest-world-put-together-over-past-two-years

The actual data above shows that the rich were able to massively capitalize on covid while everyone else was suffering. This indicates that crises are where the wealth gap explodes, which is really scary for what it means for the incentives for rich people. You wouldn't get that insight with your exaggerated figure above.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Because you are providing bad data and not engaging the provided topic.

I referenced an American stat from 2016 and you falsely leverage worldwide data from 2020 disproves it.

Imagine that the dude here in bad faith continues bullshiting. I'm not going to respond to this bullshit further.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

I googled it like you suggested, that's what I came up with. I'd be happy to look at your data if you could link it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Thanks. I have no idea how they came up with that number originally, seems like the calculations are several orders of magnitude smaller.

[–] Mr_Blott 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Direct from someone's anus

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yeah, at least 10 years ago the top 1.6k at least publicly owned 6.4T, making it 1.5% of 454T world wide net wealth.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-wealth-distribution/