• GuStJaR@lemmy.world
    1671·
    1 year ago

    Do you know what the difference is between a millionaire and a billionaire? About a billion.

  • bleistift2@feddit.deEnglish
    91·
    1 year ago

    It’s interesting that the wealth bar of the 400 richest Americans is about 6-times as long as the author needs to say some interesting points.

    • Darukhnarn@feddit.de
      901·
      1 year ago

      I’d argue that’s another good argument for seizing their assets and making them pay for their asshole behaviour.

      • CIWS-30@kbin.social
        551·
        1 year ago

        Honestly, probably the only way to save the Environment and Democracy. Too much power in the hands of the few leads to perpetual effective monarchy. It’s why the Founding Fathers were against large amounts of inherited wealth, particularly inherited wealth that creates dynasties in perpetuity.

        I know people don’t like the Founding Fathers that much lately, and I see why, but conservatives really don’t understand them, and deliberately misrepresent them, because not doing so would undercut all conservative “policies”.

        World’s a mess because of inequality and the concentration of almost all wealth and power into the hands of a small amount of sociopaths. I honestly think the only way to solve this permanently is to cap the amount of wealth and power any individual or family can have.

        • Foggyfroggy@lemmy.world
          165·
          1 year ago

          I’m actually ok with wealthy people being wealthy, but when they took over the government as a way to make even more money at our expense is where I draw the line. We need to take back regulatory power, it’s the only thing that can compete at today’s scale.

          • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
            32·
            1 year ago

            Wealth is power. If you allow a tiny sliver of society to amass society warping levels of it, this is the outcome. There need to be limits and controls, or this will always happen.

            We need to recognize that janitors are also integral and valuable. An MBA large company well paid executive doesn’t provide value to society in general, only private shareholders.

            https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/18/the-wealthiest-10percent-of-americans-own-a-record-89percent-of-all-us-stocks.html

            Our society’s values and incentives are perverse and self-destructive.

            • DeanFogg@lemm.ee
              12·
              1 year ago

              You ever see those comments on youtube that describe themselves as future entrepreneurs or whatever and absolutely slobber over shitty companies and rich people? Makes me cringe so fucking hard

  • alienBlues@lemmy.ml
    911·
    1 year ago

    Many years ago, I used to work in infosec. One of my employer’s clients was a big and famous brand well-established in the luxury sector. One day, a colleague of mine was sent to test their POS. Inside one, he found a single transaction for around 6M € from a credit card swipe. It wasn’t a payment made from a bank transfer or a check, just a single credit card swipe! At the time, I couldn’t even dream a card with such a credit allowance would exist. I had a pretty good living then, with money for the rent, daily expenses, and even some savings. Still, for an instant, I remember feeling like a poor child living in a house made of mud.

      • alienBlues@lemmy.mlEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        I agree. Seeing stuff like that and how, more often than not, the clients treated their employees and consultants was just bad for the soul. In such contexts, you understand why workers aren’t called people but “resources.” In the end, I got burned out and quit the job.

  • PeWu@lemmy.ml
    632·
    1 year ago

    I’ve lost the will to live. Why do this place even exist?

      • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
        501·
        1 year ago

        That’s the best part!

        None of this, anywhere, exists by any other means than chance. The entire universe has no reason to exist. It has no reason to not exist.

        It also showcases the most unique thing about awareness of the human problem - If the meaning of life isn’t a thing, what is it? Well, maybe it’s not a question to be answered, but a journey to be experienced.

        So we can say “well, fuck, we’ll be miserable forever.” Or, we can individually ask if we are ok with that, and if we aren’t, how can we influence this journey to be worth experiencing?

    • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
      15·
      1 year ago

      i feel you, but i keep living just in case this ever changes. getting a job is unironically one of the best things i did for my mental health. helps paying for my hobbies too, still not enough to move out though. my solution is to endure and wait until i can sustain living on my own.

        • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
          101·
          1 year ago

          it’s hard, i lie in bed every evening unable to sleep thinking about how everything’s rigged against me. seeing no reason to live is perfectly rational.

          but i don’t want to end up in a statistic no one’s going to do anything about. that’s not what i do. i have a few things that distract me from the thoughts, but it’s a constant flow of reasons why i don’t want to live here anymore.

          Depression is one hell of a mental illness. unfortunately, the cure is normal living conditions. and that’s not happening anytime soon.

          hang in there, and maybe you can look back on your life and say “i’m glad i stayed”.

          • PeWu@lemmy.ml
            4·
            1 year ago

            That’d be awesome. I wish I had willpower to actually change some things in my life

            • KptnAutismus@lemmy.world
              2·
              1 year ago

              you’re pretty much the only one who can do anything about it. don’t seek immediate success, make little steps. next time you get a productivity boost, go for a walk. clean up your room a little.

              and most importantly, prove life wrong. giving up is not why you exist.

              it’s going to be worth it. i believe in you.

            • lad@programming.dev
              1·
              1 year ago

              If you can afford it, may be worth trying to get a check for mental health, because lack of willpower may as well be because of depression or other issues. For me getting treatment had changed a lot (even though rn it is kinda bad again but not that bad)

              • PeWu@lemmy.ml
                2·
                1 year ago

                Thanks for replying. I don’t think I’ll get checked up not only due to financial struggles right now, but also not having strength to do anything. I’m just going on with life, day by day, month by month, year by year. If I’m correct with my terminology, I’m burnt out.

    • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
      27·
      1 year ago

      I recommend visiting Gapminder. For example the Dollar Street, where you can get an inside how different life around the world is, depending on income.

      Also, it’s various other statistical tools like this animated graph, where you can see the billionaires running away to the right. Also interesting is the short blip of people having more wealth at around 1980 - 2010, which immediately got sucked back into “slightly right of extreme poverty mountain”.

    • uzay@infosec.pub
      171·
      1 year ago

      It also seems very American to me that there is not a single mention of climate change in there

        • Rev3rze@lemdit.comEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          I truly applaud your mental fortitude. I honestly had to stop scrolling through your info graphic after passing the malaria part. I simply couldn’t take it all in at once. I will come back to it tomorrow and take in another chunk of it, I’ll see how far I get then but I intend to take it all in albeit in bite sized chunks.

          Keep it up and I’ll be looking for more of your projects later if I can handle it. The world is truly broken but I’m a firm believer that eventually we the common people will open our eyes to it and enact change. I don’t know how and I wish I knew how to contribute to that in some way even though I don’t believe I have the power within the current system.

          Thank you.

    • _donnadie_@feddit.cl
      3·
      1 year ago

      I have a friend that used to be super into watching morbid stuff like gore and snuff videos. He stopped a few years ago and last time I asked him he told me that he can’t handle them anymore, same goes for another person I know.

      In my case I’ve never been able to watch too much of those things, but I know I’m able to handle situations where blood and stuff is involved as I’ve studied anatomy with dead human bodies and also worked with injured people. I like to think I’ve had a bit of a healthier relationship with the effects of violence on humans.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
    34·
    1 year ago

    They are so rich that my browser crashed while I was trying to speed scrolling the page to the end

  • ZoomeristLeninist [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    353·
    1 year ago

    this reminded me of how 4channers purposely desensitize themselves to gore and other heinous stuff, but they cant escape the pain of loneliness. and it could be solved if they just didnt act like massive pieces of shit. then they blame it on women and the supposed phenomenon of them only dating the “top 20%” of men! its probably the stupidest self-fulfilling prophecy

    jfc, you dont even have to have basic hygiene (tho that helps), just be nice!! dont be a misanthropic shut-in with a hyper-inflated ego and unearned confidence in ur intelligence. but when they try to be nice it isnt bc they want others to be happy, its to get something, so they come off as a disingenuous Nice Guy. i hate them but also kind of feel bad for them. maybe if they didnt get caught in this vicious cycle some of them wouldnt be reactionary assholes

    sorry for the tangent, good meme

    • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
      22·
      1 year ago

      They competitively numbed themselves with gore/torture treats to try to impress other numbed people and are shocked that being emotionally numb makes them repulsive. surprised-pika

      • EpicKebabEater [he/him, it/its]@hexbear.netEnglish
        7·
        1 year ago

        Emotional numbness isn’t repulsive in itself, disregard for others is. People can feel emotions less intensely than others or lack emotional empathy(feeling what others feel) but still make friends through genuinely putting effort.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          7·
          1 year ago

          It’s repulsive as a coercive competition between hateful nihilistic 4chan fascists. It’s a contagious way to wreck people’s social lives needlessly by peer pressure and false promises.

          Being numb by other means or just as a default isn’t the same thing as being numb because edgy internet nazis say it’s cool to do that.

  • winter@slrpnk.net
    302·
    1 year ago

    “It has to stop” I agree. But how do I make it stop? There’s a lot of talking about what is the issue and its consequences, I say this also for climate change. But they don’t say what can we do about it

        • Rev3rze@lemdit.comEnglish
          6·
          1 year ago

          See, this is the fucking problem right here. You are a commoner. The person you replied to is a commoner. Compared to the ultra rich anybody but that tiny tiny subset of people are commoners. As long as we keep name calling and pointing fingers at each other this shit will never change and we’ll be rolling around in the mud until we all fry under the sun.

          I understand your frustration, we all feel the same way. Let’s direct that frustration at the people and the system that is telling us to turn on each other simply so we are blind to how we’re all being played for fools.

    • Rachel@derp.foo
      253·
      1 year ago

      A possible solution could be to limit the personal (family?) wealth, fortune, possession, etc. to for example 100 million. That should be enough to live a luxury lifestyle and give your children’s children a ‘care free life’. Everything above that amount goes to the aid of the less fortunate, public and social improvements, energy transition, solving pollution problems, etc. (worldwide). In exchange you get a certificate with: “Congratulations you won capitalism!”

      P.S. When you ‘cheat’ you get 1 dollar (or equivalent) and may start over. In addition and not exclusive of all possible legal proceedings.

      P.P.S. The above is just an example to illustrate that there are possibilities. But this doesn’t solve all problems of inequality or everything else that is wrong on this planet.

      P.P.P.S. Too many people think the have the possibility to also collect wealth above the 100 million ( or think they are entitled to an amount above that). They will protest and vote against any such solution. (I’m not talking about those 400 Americans from the website graphic).

      • rurb@lemmy.ml
        87·
        1 year ago

        Reminder that the money is printed out of thin air and it’s not really that we need anyone’s stored wealth. Not even liquidating a mansion or ten from a billionaire, or from all billionaires, is going to solve our problems. Sure they are worth a lot to one person, but how much is a mansion worth to society in effect? Not much really.

        The system is designed to have poor people. It must so that there is incentive to work. Otherwise we would have to force people to work. I’m not trying to justify the ways things are, I just don’t see going after stored wealth as solving the problem especially when it is not their assets we need or their made up currency.

    • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
      18·
      1 year ago

      Not to be fatalistic deliberately, but what can we do about it? If we try to take on the system individually, we face the Plucky Ninja problem. If we try to coordinate, it’s too big a movement to keep secret, so the rich and powerful can subvert it before we get anywhere. (They’re doing a pretty good job of it already.)

      • ZzyzxRoad@lemm.ee
        3·
        1 year ago

        I think their question is more about how we would implement that. Marx believed that proletariat uprising would be the “how,” and that it is an inevitability of end stage capitalism. But the nature of capitalism keeps people from attempting that. This is a system that we are forced to participate in if we want to survive. We need food and shelter and we don’t want to get arrested and/or murdered by cops for revolting. With that in mind, we have to get to a point where we collectively have nothing left to lose.

    • yewler@lemmygrad.ml
      22·
      1 year ago

      We have had the solution for hundreds of years. Most people, however, don’t want to hear it.

  • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.mlEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago
    Spoliers! You owe it to yourself experience it first without anyone else's comments, it only takes a few minutes.

    An extremely powerful infographic, well designed and well sourced. I love how after they said everything they said, they leave you to keep scrolling the last third of the 3 trillion. No more commentary, just letting the scale of it sink in.

    Though, something I wish they touched on in the infographic itself is rebuking the argument of “all that money is tied up in stocks! they don’t have that much money sitting around!” There are plenty of issues with that rebuttal of course and it’s not actually a valid defense of the ultra rich, but it’s a common enough counter that I think it warrants being mentioned to cover all your bases so to speak.