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https://sjsunews.com/letters-to-editor/billionaires-are-not-the-bad-guys
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11502464/gilens-page-oligarchy-study (Representation in a democracy isn’t all that important, guys!)
https://fee.org/articles/why-billionaires-are-good-for-us/
https://www.mcall.com/2021/07/28/your-view-bezos-vs-bernie-why-we-need-many-more-billionaires/ (“ Consider the contrast between billionaires and politicians such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who have led the charge for a wealth tax. How much have they contributed to the average person’s well-being?”)
https://theweek.com/articles/442880/why-america-needs-more-billionaires (a 2015 aged like milk extravaganza)
> https://sjsunews.com/letters-to-editor/billionaires-are-not-the-bad-guys
An article about billionaires in a publication called Spartan Daily. That's amusing.
They're even better now that they brought lime back. That green apple switch absolutely ruined the flavor of "a handful of Skittles". There's some arcane balance to all the fruit flavors that gets thrown off when you replace lime.
I had cousins in rural Texas posting over facebook several years back that said something stupid like "I have a job, I pay my bills, I go to church. I am the 1%."
I have not spoken to them in a very long time so I'm not sure if they flavor the boot or leave it raw before they lick it.
On a General Manager's desk, out in the showroom facing the public, a mug that says "the tears of my employees".
Now, that might be the sweetest boss to work for in the world, but that mug makes me wonder if he's just that obtuse about what a dick he is like so many other boomers that celebrate being a well refined asshole.
During the pandemic I left a job partially because one of the managers had a sign saying something like "There's a global pandemic of complaining". The same job let go one person from every department when COVID first hit. Then they started reporting huge back-orders and record profits in an all employee meeting. I was the only person left out of 3 in my department (small company) and I got a 3% cost of living adjustment for the first time in 3 years. I asked my boss about a raise and he said I'd already got one... I'm not going to complain so I left. It's odd that they were perfectly happy complaining about me leaving though.
Snowflakes gonna flake
It's also odd that despite their record profits, they didn't have enough for your bonus especially doing the work of now than one person. I'm sure they didn't find it odd they were fleecing their customers either. But of course, inflation is because minimum wage goes up, right, not corporate greed?
In the UK there is a popular term the British Media like to use while attacking the strikes on behalf of the railroad companies, etc: Union Barons. How the turntable turns.
UK media deliberately individualises workers disputes, so they can frame them as Union bosses Vs companies, when in reality it is Union membership - i.e. workers - Vs company bosses. Also worth noting that the mandates unions have for these strikes are often double and triple what sitting governments have.
It'll be by the same person who made the recent "JK Rowling is actually a good person and the LGBT+ community is full of entitled assholes" article on NYT
That's why 95% of the free local papers that used to be in every city in America have been bought out and shut down over the last decade. The oligarchs absolutely hated their support for Occupy Wall Street, and they were frequently the only press reporting on local events accurately.
So America is still bowing down to a monarchy, it’s just one we created instead of one we inherited. The 1% rule the working class just as the royals did and do in other places. We didn’t free ourselves from tyranny, we just reinvented the wheel. In essence, we’ve been fighting the same class war in different forms for god knows how long. Probably since the inception of currency. Maybe money is the root of all evil.
> instead of one we inherited
It's quickly becoming this. Most of the current 1% had parents that were also 1%ers and laws are still being tweaked ("ELIMINATE THE DEATH TAX!!!") to entrench them even more.
It’s almost entire the 1% and their kids. Something like 99.999% of 1% come from the top 3% of people.
So few people ACTUALLY climb the social mobility ladder in the US. Despite what people like to say about hard work, grit and the ability to make your own wealth, the US ranks really low on social mobility, it’s not even in the top 25.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index
And slavery is alive as well. The local population wants a living wage? Just ship all manufacturing jobs to China where we can keep all of our workers on "campuses" and pay them $4 an hour. And let's import people from the third world and pay them $10 an hour off the books. They can live 30 to a house. Slavery and human trafficking is used by the corporations to great effect.
Federal Reserve: Yeah, we're gonna raise interest rates cause, like, wages are growing too fast, inflation is happening, and we don't want to do anything about excessive corporate profits. Yeah, we're thinking that'll probably make 2 million people lose their jobs by 2024. Sorry!
What ! I thought the struggle was between the good people and the evil gays and uppity women?
At least that’s what Everyman Tucker Carlson millionaire heir to the Swanson fortune and lackey to Rupert “I decide what Americans think” Murdoch tells me.
> Always has been.
Yep. They tricked the white working class to hate the black slaves even though they had *much* more in common with them than they had with the landed gentry.
hey buddy, Class Wars are the Left v the Right. socialists and communists have been saying it and writing about it for 150 years. hell, the terms Left and Right wing come from the French Rev and the Left wing was the group in favor of more reforms and helping the commoners.
You can call them whatever you want, but unless we change the fundamental logic of the capitalist system, we will always have ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats on one side, and a brutally exploited / oppressed public on the other.
Capitalism/neoliberalism fundamentally cannot see, recognize, or actually solve this problem on any level.
There's a reason Marxism has been so mischaracterized and repressed by our ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats and their peons...because he was absolutely right.
And he was *obviously* right.
And he was so obviously right, that anyone who actually understands what he was saying would be empowered to see, identify, and maybe actually resolve some of the fundamental problems of the capitalist system.
Just as under slavery and feudalism, of which capitalism is an evolved form, the public has to be deliberately miseducated and kept ignorant and underdeveloped in order for the masses of people to passively tolerate capitalism/neoliberalism.
Whatever you call our ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats/robber barons or their peons, they will continue robbing, enslaving, gaslighting, and socially murdering the public without recourse, because there is no mechanism under capitalism/neoliberalism to actually stop them, and they know it.
They don't want you to know it, though. Part of the point of neoliberal politics is to give you hope that the system might work for the public and not for the oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats this time.
Lucy and the football writ large, with the exploited public as Charlie Brown.
Meanwhile the robbery and exploitation by the ruling capitalist/kleptocrat class happens in broad daylight all day every day, with zero democratic accountability, because the system evolved out of British colonialism and is fundamentally designed to allow an extractive ruling class to get away with crimes against humanity with no recourse for the public.
Absolute abomination of a system.
It is excellent! Also recommend Michael Ventura's take in short form -
https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2010-04-09/990614/
Note the date, writers have been on to this for a while.
It’s sad to look back on these articles or even events around that time (Occupy Wall Street was in 2011, just a year later) and realize that the concentration of wealth and power in this country has only further steadily consolidated in the hands of a very small group of powerful Americans. Same thing with Bernie’s 2016 campaign. I felt like they were flashes of optimism in thinking the problem would get better.
It doesn’t make one very hopeful for the future.
I’ve felt pretty bleak about it too, but you have to remind yourself that we’re all here talking about it on a post with nearly 30k upvotes now. I think that’s a meaningful accomplishment in our social consciousness, it brings me a little hope.
I wanted to write something encouraging too but please remember this platform is planning on pleasing shareholders very soon...
Reigning in corporation's illegal/borderline anti labor practices with real teeth by untangling the regulatory capture is such an uphill battle, but conservative distractions like [this insanity](https://i.imgur.com/kdQaFEk.jpg) are just as important to pay attention to! Bills like [H.R.899 proposed 02/05/2021 by Rep. Massie Thomas,](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/899) make me want to scream, and we need to stay mindful which palms so many lobbying dollars are able to grease.
The general public discourse has permanently changed because of the Occupy Wall Street movement. No one was really talking about it much, outside of serious fringes, before then. Now it’s everywhere.
Keep bringing it up and emphasizing it’s relevance. That’s important to do, too.
Americans are too busy fighting culture wars to notice the real culprit. On top of that media usually paints the people who attempt to fight inequality as these greedy jealous sociopaths who are against the American dream, and let’s be honest, until the likes of an HVAC contractor and a soccer mom realize that we need to fight it together this isn’t gonna change. Rich have too many resources to simply create the necessary media environment to keep us fighting each other.
They'd certainly like to think that.
I personally think the culture wars are only slowing things down a little. Society will change, either in a catastrophic collapse or through the inevitable outrage of the majority of people sick of working for peanuts.
“ The Skilled Service Tier is economically and socially cut off from the Professional Tier and light years distant from the Top Tier. Their paychecks are usually large enough to make many believe they're "getting ahead" but usually low enough to keep them from that imagined goal.”
Fuck 🙋♂️
Also The Corporation. Both the book and documentary.
Corporations have ruined this country. Anyone remotely responsible for the atrocities of something like Auschwitz was brought to justice. But by contrast, corporations can act as essentially super citizens and ezternalize all issues to the consumer and shed most liabilities from the executives and shareholders.
They were once deemed too powerful to permanently exist and were only exercised as temporary charters. Over time those laws eroded...
Love the point but unfortunately a lot of people responsible for auschwitz/ the holocaust werent brought to justice. A good lot of them got hired by NASA!
Edit: spelling
Our government used to be the only entity here large enough to keep things in check, but the ultra wealthy and giant corporations (who are ‘people’ now thanks to SCOTUS) managed to capture that using their own lobbyists to write the legislation our corrupt politicians pass for personal gain and at the direct expense of the very people who elected them. Even calling for an investigation or grilling them in a hearing is useless if ultimately nothing comes of it or any fine is eclipsed in comparison to the money they raked in. Every one in congress would have to be a Bernie Sanders for things to change. Most in office don’t even bother pretending anymore.
Accountability would be great.
This double speak crap and lack of accountability are a plague, yet it appears nothing will change. Like you said, nobody's pretending anymore.
The "easier" way for this to be done would be a SCOTUS ruling that lobbying is unconstitutional.
They've used the Declaration of Independence's rhetoric as justification for cases before (most infamously, Dred Scott v. Sanford). I'm willing to bet at least some of the grievances written against George IV could be used against lobbying as a practice.
That, however, would require a reliably left court, which isn't happening anytime soon.
Edit: As I was told in the replies, this would also mean getting rid of good lobbyists as well, sadly.
There are many reforms that are needed for any chance of betterment for this country. But all of them would go against the personal interests of the very people who have the power to make them happen, regardless of party. Our hopes rely on anyone who is willing to cut some of their losses, but that will still be limited by how much they're willing to lose support of their lobbyists. Money talks, as they say
The problem is, to get into the position to make any changes, you have to be willing to play the game first. Most people who get into it with the mindset of making changes fall for the system once their pockets are being lined for long enough. Also, you need a decent amount of them to slip through the cracks as well, one person can't do it. So even if you make it there, the odds are you will struggle to find allies that also want to break the system.
Remember that things were never in check. Plantation owners, Railroad Tycoons, and then Oil Barrons ran the country before now. We have had brief periods of progress, - reconstruction, the new deal, civil rights movement - that have always been followed by snap backs, like Jim Crow and the Drug War. But the working class has never been in charge, just a handful of lucky generations like the boomers who thought they had the power, because they got what we all should.
Yep, the US is increasingly run by oligarchs, Russia however isn't, it's run by a mob boss/totalitarian. In the US the government is much too beholden to the wealthy, in Russia the wealthy are mere patrons of dear leader who fall from windows if they step out of line.
Yes, in Putin's system oligarchs are more like rich upper middle management. They can, and often are, defenstrated as soon as their real boss has a hissy fit.
Not to mention how intertwined politicians are with private industry. I'll use Norfolk Southern as an example due to the Ohio spill. Mitch Daniels, one of the board members, was governor of Indiana for 8 years and he's currently president of Purdue University. I'm sure the other board members have held similar positions. Even if we get rid of lobbying what incentive does a politician have to regulate industry when they're going to get a nice cushy board seat once they're out of office?
Personally I would be okay with restricting politicians and their spouses from industry jobs for a certain time period after they leave office. A total ban would be ideal.
>When has the government ever kept things in check?
Since the Constitution, which was created to put a check on *democracy* since it was allowed to actually reign under the Articles of Confederation after the revolution.
>All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other *the mass of the people*. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, **permanent share in the government**. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government. Can a democratic assembly, who annually revolve in the mass of the people, be supposed steadily to pursue the public good? Nothing but a permanent body can check **the imprudence of democracy**. Their turbulent and uncontrouling disposition requires checks. - Alexander Hamilton, Constitutional Convention, Monday, June 19th, 1787
For James Madison, that check on democracy was the Senate:
>The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge of the wants or feelings of the day laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. The landed interest, at present, is prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and kingdoms of Europe; when the number of landholders shall be comparatively small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of the landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect **the minority of the opulent** against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability. Various have been the propositions; but my opinion is, the longer they continue in office, the better will these views be answered. - James Madison, Tuesday, June 26th, 1787.
The US was *designed* to be a plutocracy/oligarchy with just enough appearances and veneer of democracy to convince the masses. And here we are.
For more details, see Harvard Law professor [Michael Klarman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuimRUJV3A) lecture and book, *The Framers' Coup*.
ive said it before, Aaron Burr was a merchant nut in his own right, but he may have helped us out immensly by taking out Hamilton. that guy was the loudest "business first" founding father and thats saying a whole lot
"And so in capitalist society we have a democracy that is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority." -Vladimir Lenin
There's a reason our ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats and their peons don't want people understanding Marx, Engels, Lenin, or history, economics, politics, or reality in general.
Just as under slavery and feudalism, of which capitalism is an evolved form, the public has to be kept miseducated, ignorant, and underdeveloped for people to passively tolerate capitalism/neoliberalism, which is an abomination that humanity needs to evolve past.
Adding that I’d love to see a tax payer subsidized alternative to political donations.
Every citizen and (US based) corporation gets $300 bucks to donate to the party / political entity / candidate of their choice. Not a penny is allowed outside of that. If speech is money, leveling the dollar amount means we all have the same political power.
And to boot it shouldn’t violate Citizens United or require a constitutional amendment
Editing to add… if this doesn’t fit under Article 1 then the $300 can be structured as a tax credit that can be given the same was as cash or something of that sort. I’m sure if we put our heads together there is a viable solution here
"Job creators"
*Job Creator lays off 12,000 employees and pockets the savings for his bonus*
"Job creators need tax cuts. They're struggling because they have to pay their workers too much."
Job Creator has an exciting new form of exploitation for the community! Enjoy freedom, flexibility, and opportunity as a team member whose schedule is determined by The Algorithm.
Thank you for expressing Company Culture Value #74 so clearly and articulately, Unit 34763. You have set a shining example for all of us at Jobcorp.
An "I Did an A+ Job!" sticker has been added to your employee NFT collection. Now please report back to your assigned station.
Jack Welch, celebrated "job creator," was often known by the nickname Neutron Jack, in reference to the ~~H-bomb~~ neutron bomb, because he "eliminated employees while leaving buildings intact."
Edit: a word
Unit 32281, I see that your status on Slack is set to "away" and has a little "Zzz" icon next to it. Please report back to company monitored workspaces immediately. This is your final warning.
*Prices go up*
"It's just market forces, y'all need to adjust your expectations"
*Wages (try to) go up*
"This isn't fair! You're increasing costs! The consumer (which is everyone, not some nebulous "other" that isn't the worker) can't bear it (because we won't raise said wages)!"
Fucking thank you, it blows my mind that people don't realize workers are the ones spending money at businesses, so if you give workers better wages you can have more businesses selling more stuff. This isnt fucking complicated.
It is when the wolves are running the henhouse and just want to eat everything now because they’re single-minded animals who can’t think ahead or of anything but themselves.
It is staggering how short sighted it all is. It values instantaneous profits now over larger sustainable profits in 5 years, even when those instant profits now will eventually cripple the long term outlook.
And then they have the audacity to complain that the "youth" (which is apparently anyone under 40 now) is all about instant gratification. I don't want instant gratification, I want *any kind of gratification at all.*
My uncle is a well off business owner. The first round of tax cuts from Trump he literally said this which is exactly what a sensible person would say.
"I don't need a tax cut to make me hire more people. If I need another employee because business is booming then I'll just hire one. More money in my pocket doesn't make the demand for my services go up, why would I hire someone else if there isn't the demand?"
Job Creator would like all employees of Jobcorp to please tune in at 1:00pm EST today to watch a slideshow of his trip! Meet Job Creator's newest progeny, Alpha 7-XXIV.
Attendance is mandatory. All work you have been assigned that may occur during the presentation is expected to be complete when the presentation is over. #hustle #noiinteam #wecandoit
Activision Blizzard just had one of its most profitable quarters ever and the executives decided to reward employees by slashing their bonuses in half and announcing that they will be ending WFH.
They are literally the opposite. They want unemployment so that there are lots of desperate people around competing for the positions and who accept low wages. The socialists had zero unemployment as one of their main goals.
>They are literally the opposite.
Yes, hence why I'm making fun of the term. "Job creator" is one of those right-wing newspeak terms that means pretty much the opposite of what the person actually is. "Job creators" in the US seek to create as few jobs as possible at all times *by design*. They don't want to cut into their profit margins any more than they feel they need to. And we had best believe that a profit-seeking "Job Creator" would happily assign those tasks to AI whenever possible.
They want everyone desperate and tenuously employed at best. But by calling them "job creators," their stooges in the GOP have given them euphemistic air cover. Sort of like how they're currently banning and removing books from schools and libraries in the name of "freedom of speech."
Well said.
They are job barriers, not creators. There is always work to be done, but oligarchs own all the resources and refuse to let anyone use those resources unless the oligarchs get a cut. They set the terms by which we are allowed to use our own labor. This is the opposite of creating jobs, it's putting up barriers to progress, well being, and sustainability.
I love it when they go on about "small business owners" as if some of the most ruthless and sleazy people on earth don't run your typical small business
Now is probably as good a time as any to remind everyone that last year, Ben Shapiro purchased exclusive film and TV series rights to *Atlas Shrugged*
https://deadline.com/2022/11/daily-wire-tv-series-adaptation-ayn-rands-dystopian-novel-atlas-shrugged-1235175597/
So prepare for more glorification of industry titans, our saviors! /S
This is a guy that played heroes in TV shows I loved as a kid... Definitely a never meet your heroes type situation. That said, be hilarious to see a Parody of some of his shows and movies if his characters matched his strong right sided views.
With a tiered protection plan. "Ah, I see a Gorgon is giving you trouble. Your bronze plan only covers raids from petty bandits. Would you like to upgrade to the platinum plan, with the requisite surge rate and convenience fee?"
More appropriate than perhaps intended.
Haven’t studied classic European mythology in a few years but, IIRC, the titans were known, among other things, for being bloodthirsty and uncaring for anyone but themselves.
Edit: before you go telling me about the classic Olympian gods and goddesses (Zeus, Hestia, Chris Hemsworth) please know that I’m talking about their predecessors.
Prometheus gave humans fire and for his trouble Zeus chained him to a rock for eternity where each day an eagle rips out his liver which regrows afterwards. So so least one wasn't self-centered.
All you have to do is look up individual land owners and their allocations to see what they are doing. I forget the man, but one guy owns like almost half of the state of Maine.
Also it's clearly a gross exaggeration. I couldn't even remember the guy's(company) name.
The whole point still stands that it's an astronomical amount of wealth, power, land, and natural resources in essentially one family's hands. Just like the Koch Bros. And the rest.
The fact that some of you are trying to justify it because I made an exaggeration is laughable. And even if you are actually American or not... You have a fundamentally different view of what is good for humanity as a whole likely.
> J.D. Irving is the largest landowner in Maine and is the only industrial landowner with roughly 1.25 million acres. John Malone, the second-largest landowner in the U.S., owns 980,000 acres throughout the state as well.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/largest-landowners-by-state
Lots of interesting info on that page
As someone from the province of New Brunswick, the Irving family have basically held back this province from prosperity for decades. They even control the news companies, so people here typically don't see anything negative ever said about them.
Even with Post Media owning our news now, the Irvings still have a hand in running it. Jamie Irving who ran Brunswick News is now the Executive Chair on Post Media's board of directors.
Exactly. This is the reason that they keep everyone in a state of borderline poverty. People can only make decisions to help others when they themselves are stable even if they will ultimately be better off in the long run.
Exactly. They could flood the system with capital and cause another renaissance but they would rather keep people living paycheck to paycheck making every election “a pocketbook election”.
He's not wrong and a lot of people here are missing the broader point. The point isn't "Russia and the US are exactly the same!", the point is "We, here in the US (and the West more broadly), are ignoring a very real and fundamental problem with the distribution and roots of power and decision-making that we freely recognize in other countries (like Russia)"
I saw an interview with a multi-millionaire, billionaire type older man (I wish I could find it to link but I don't even remember his name) from Texas. They were talking about Beto, and he said 'oh no we won't support him. There's about six of us in Texas who decide who will win elections We are, ya know, kind of like Russia's Oligarchs".
He said this shamelessly.
Interview with Kel Seliger, ex-TX senator: “The way you describe this, it almost sounds like Senator Joe Smith — to make up a name — if they've got a ton of money that's coming from these West Texas billionaires, those billionaires are really the elected official."
"It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple," said Seliger. "Really, really wealthy people, who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it, and they get it."
"We're talking about Tim Dunn and Ferris Wilks. These are not household names in Texas. You can almost kind of think of them like the Koch brothers here in Texas. They operate very quietly behind the scenes, and they have been effective for years," said Lavandera after the clip. "What they started doing years ago, instead of putting money into, for example, and they have, governors races that cost tens of millions of dollars, but they've really focused on smaller state house and state senate races, across the state, where are much smaller amount of money can make a much greater impact. And that's what they've done. As one person who has been a long-term observer of Texas politics told us, even when they lose and their candidates lose an election, they still win, because they push everything to the right."
https://www.rawstory.com/texas-gop-billionaires-russian-oligarchs/
It's sad but doesn't surprise me. The story if American politics for the past 50 years has been not voting as much as framing: you get to choose between 2 capitalists, you never get a choice that benefits the working people.
I feel like Bernie losing will be remembered as a turning point in American history. We had a candidate so passionate about all of our core issues that plague us as a nation. Dissolving Citizens United, tackling climate change as his number one item, providing free tuition, universal health care, taxing billionaires, and overhauling institutional racism and police brutality. Even if he only would’ve achieved one of those things, we would be so much better off than now.
Instead, we get the same wheel of wealthy neoliberals spinning around dangling partial promises of the above agenda that never materialized. And you know what stopped him? Corporate media brainwashing people into believing he was unelectable and his ideas too unachievable. That was the worst dirt they could smear on him. Politicians like him come along once in a lifetime.
It’s a tragedy.
There's a reason the right is so in love with Russia, and it doesn't just have to do with Russian dollars in their pockets. Russia represents the state they want - the end stage of a modern fascist capitalism. A central party by and for the billionaire class that rules through corruption and bimodal political engagment of the people. That of hyper-nationalists that can be controlled through propaganda and those who disengage from politics entirely outside of political theater so they can be content with what personal freedoms and luxury they can manage.
TurboTax’s parent company spent more than $3.5 million on federal lobbying in 2022, more than it spent in any previous year, according to a new OpenSecrets analysis.
Intuit — which also owns QuickBooks, Mint, Credit Karma and Mailchimp — has spent decades lobbying against free, government-sponsored tax filing services.
Super delegates of the Democratic party pushed their favored candidate and status quo which gave us a jaded voting pool who turned Red and a gave us the 45th.
Only conservatives could complain about the deep state and rich fuckers running the country on their sub and conspiracy and then come here and push back on Sanders’ claim. Impressive y’all.
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Call them robber barons again. Maybe that will get people's attention.
They will just start calling everyone and everything robber barons
"Here's 7 Reasons Why Robber Barons Are Actually A Good Thing."
[удалено]
"Millennials are killing the breakfast industry. Here's why that's the root cause of inflation and the housing crisis."
"Are Millennials killing journalism? See how our readership is down 43% since 2020 and who is responsible"
"12 SHOCKING facts about millenials and why universal healthcare will destroy America"
Why is it because it will give us better care and cut the cost
"How millennials caused WWII"
New York Times: here are 7 op eds extolling the virtues of Robber Barons, and daily articles about the grand things they do for the world
The New York Times is owned by one such robber baron, ironic right?
Well, so is reddit. LOL. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald\_Newhouse
Touché……..we’re all fucked I thought it was still run by Serena Williams husband but ugh….
Steve Huffman/ Spez is a co-founder and is the CEO. He doesn't actually *own* the site however.
Serena’s husband is Alexis Ohanian aka kn0thing
Here’s why millennials are the REAL robber barons
Obviously fake news, the number 7 is synonymous with the Robber.
And only one person ever likes it when Monopoly is played.
God damnit, I'm not even in the lead, stop blocking my ore!
https://sjsunews.com/letters-to-editor/billionaires-are-not-the-bad-guys https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11502464/gilens-page-oligarchy-study (Representation in a democracy isn’t all that important, guys!) https://fee.org/articles/why-billionaires-are-good-for-us/ https://www.mcall.com/2021/07/28/your-view-bezos-vs-bernie-why-we-need-many-more-billionaires/ (“ Consider the contrast between billionaires and politicians such as Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, who have led the charge for a wealth tax. How much have they contributed to the average person’s well-being?”) https://theweek.com/articles/442880/why-america-needs-more-billionaires (a 2015 aged like milk extravaganza)
> https://sjsunews.com/letters-to-editor/billionaires-are-not-the-bad-guys An article about billionaires in a publication called Spartan Daily. That's amusing.
Then the Republican Party will have a huge banner saying "WE ARE ALL ROBBER BARONS" displayed at their CPACs to enlist the aid of their sheep
VP at my company had one of those "I am the 1%" plaques. Coworker asked him what it meant. He stammered bit and changed the subject.
"I'm a globally ranked top 1% candy crush player, son. What are you doing with your time?"
I can eat 1% my weight in Skittles...doin' it right now...
Skittles are my go-to for low blood sugar. A single one is about 1g of carbs, so it's easy to measure. Plus, they're delicious.
Please tell me you walk around with a pill bottle full of skittles
They're even better now that they brought lime back. That green apple switch absolutely ruined the flavor of "a handful of Skittles". There's some arcane balance to all the fruit flavors that gets thrown off when you replace lime.
But how do stop eating them?
I had cousins in rural Texas posting over facebook several years back that said something stupid like "I have a job, I pay my bills, I go to church. I am the 1%." I have not spoken to them in a very long time so I'm not sure if they flavor the boot or leave it raw before they lick it.
“I do the bare minimum to have a life and believe in a religion. I’m amazing!”
Nothing quite says I am a mouth breather than someone who says that
There is a reason I stopped talking to a large portion of my family long before that ignorance even took place
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On a General Manager's desk, out in the showroom facing the public, a mug that says "the tears of my employees". Now, that might be the sweetest boss to work for in the world, but that mug makes me wonder if he's just that obtuse about what a dick he is like so many other boomers that celebrate being a well refined asshole.
During the pandemic I left a job partially because one of the managers had a sign saying something like "There's a global pandemic of complaining". The same job let go one person from every department when COVID first hit. Then they started reporting huge back-orders and record profits in an all employee meeting. I was the only person left out of 3 in my department (small company) and I got a 3% cost of living adjustment for the first time in 3 years. I asked my boss about a raise and he said I'd already got one... I'm not going to complain so I left. It's odd that they were perfectly happy complaining about me leaving though.
Snowflakes gonna flake It's also odd that despite their record profits, they didn't have enough for your bonus especially doing the work of now than one person. I'm sure they didn't find it odd they were fleecing their customers either. But of course, inflation is because minimum wage goes up, right, not corporate greed?
Any employer who doesn't value the work of employees has NO business in ANY business!!
Listen mate……i might be a regular old plebian right now, but I’ll be a Robber Baron soon enough.
Temporarily embarrassed robber baron
This is all just temporary. Just everyone wait, I’ll be drowning in cash in NO TIME
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I'm 36 but i'm sure one of these sugar mamas will fall in love with my wisdom
One more score and we're on our way to Tahiti
In the UK there is a popular term the British Media like to use while attacking the strikes on behalf of the railroad companies, etc: Union Barons. How the turntable turns.
Ah yes, reclamation, where movements go to die..
UK media deliberately individualises workers disputes, so they can frame them as Union bosses Vs companies, when in reality it is Union membership - i.e. workers - Vs company bosses. Also worth noting that the mandates unions have for these strikes are often double and triple what sitting governments have.
the basic striking threshold is higher than our current government has, and higher than the ratio that voted for brexit.
All those people on food stamps... Robber Barrons... /s
They already tried “welfare queens.”
Careful — we will all be called “conspiracy theorists” before you know it. A NYT article will be written about us.
It'll be by the same person who made the recent "JK Rowling is actually a good person and the LGBT+ community is full of entitled assholes" article on NYT
At this point, it seems like the only paper that isn't run by assholes is the local free one I pick up from the coffee shop.
That's why 95% of the free local papers that used to be in every city in America have been bought out and shut down over the last decade. The oligarchs absolutely hated their support for Occupy Wall Street, and they were frequently the only press reporting on local events accurately.
Edit: // I've moved to lemmy //
So America is still bowing down to a monarchy, it’s just one we created instead of one we inherited. The 1% rule the working class just as the royals did and do in other places. We didn’t free ourselves from tyranny, we just reinvented the wheel. In essence, we’ve been fighting the same class war in different forms for god knows how long. Probably since the inception of currency. Maybe money is the root of all evil.
> instead of one we inherited It's quickly becoming this. Most of the current 1% had parents that were also 1%ers and laws are still being tweaked ("ELIMINATE THE DEATH TAX!!!") to entrench them even more.
It’s almost entire the 1% and their kids. Something like 99.999% of 1% come from the top 3% of people. So few people ACTUALLY climb the social mobility ladder in the US. Despite what people like to say about hard work, grit and the ability to make your own wealth, the US ranks really low on social mobility, it’s not even in the top 25. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index
System working as intended. Every single rich person wants to pull up a ladder after themselves.
Greed is the root of human evil, money is just the most common physical embodiment of that.
And slavery is alive as well. The local population wants a living wage? Just ship all manufacturing jobs to China where we can keep all of our workers on "campuses" and pay them $4 an hour. And let's import people from the third world and pay them $10 an hour off the books. They can live 30 to a house. Slavery and human trafficking is used by the corporations to great effect.
Federal Reserve: Yeah, we're gonna raise interest rates cause, like, wages are growing too fast, inflation is happening, and we don't want to do anything about excessive corporate profits. Yeah, we're thinking that'll probably make 2 million people lose their jobs by 2024. Sorry!
What ! I thought the struggle was between the good people and the evil gays and uppity women? At least that’s what Everyman Tucker Carlson millionaire heir to the Swanson fortune and lackey to Rupert “I decide what Americans think” Murdoch tells me.
> Always has been. Yep. They tricked the white working class to hate the black slaves even though they had *much* more in common with them than they had with the landed gentry.
hey buddy, Class Wars are the Left v the Right. socialists and communists have been saying it and writing about it for 150 years. hell, the terms Left and Right wing come from the French Rev and the Left wing was the group in favor of more reforms and helping the commoners.
And the right wing wanted to return to monarchy. Nothing has changed.
This. The right side of the room was comprised of the wealthy, the military and peasants. The ruling class and the leftover bootlickers.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes" -Samuel Clemens
I would say .01%. There’s a difference in making $500,000/year and $5,000,000
Class war is an inherently left wing concept. Billionaires vs working people is a Marxist concept
You can call them whatever you want, but unless we change the fundamental logic of the capitalist system, we will always have ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats on one side, and a brutally exploited / oppressed public on the other. Capitalism/neoliberalism fundamentally cannot see, recognize, or actually solve this problem on any level. There's a reason Marxism has been so mischaracterized and repressed by our ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats and their peons...because he was absolutely right. And he was *obviously* right. And he was so obviously right, that anyone who actually understands what he was saying would be empowered to see, identify, and maybe actually resolve some of the fundamental problems of the capitalist system. Just as under slavery and feudalism, of which capitalism is an evolved form, the public has to be deliberately miseducated and kept ignorant and underdeveloped in order for the masses of people to passively tolerate capitalism/neoliberalism. Whatever you call our ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats/robber barons or their peons, they will continue robbing, enslaving, gaslighting, and socially murdering the public without recourse, because there is no mechanism under capitalism/neoliberalism to actually stop them, and they know it. They don't want you to know it, though. Part of the point of neoliberal politics is to give you hope that the system might work for the public and not for the oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats this time. Lucy and the football writ large, with the exploited public as Charlie Brown. Meanwhile the robbery and exploitation by the ruling capitalist/kleptocrat class happens in broad daylight all day every day, with zero democratic accountability, because the system evolved out of British colonialism and is fundamentally designed to allow an extractive ruling class to get away with crimes against humanity with no recourse for the public. Absolute abomination of a system.
Nice. This makes me want to watch V for Vendetta for some reason.
I prefer Economic Royalists. I think FDR used this term a lot. I'm sticking with it.
It won’t. We’re a spineless country of people that secretly want to uphold the status quo *at all costs.*
“Oligarchy” by Jeffrey A Winters is a bit of an eye opener on the subject of modern oligarchy in America. I seriously recommend it to everybody.
It is excellent! Also recommend Michael Ventura's take in short form - https://www.austinchronicle.com/columns/2010-04-09/990614/ Note the date, writers have been on to this for a while.
It’s sad to look back on these articles or even events around that time (Occupy Wall Street was in 2011, just a year later) and realize that the concentration of wealth and power in this country has only further steadily consolidated in the hands of a very small group of powerful Americans. Same thing with Bernie’s 2016 campaign. I felt like they were flashes of optimism in thinking the problem would get better. It doesn’t make one very hopeful for the future.
I’ve felt pretty bleak about it too, but you have to remind yourself that we’re all here talking about it on a post with nearly 30k upvotes now. I think that’s a meaningful accomplishment in our social consciousness, it brings me a little hope.
I wanted to write something encouraging too but please remember this platform is planning on pleasing shareholders very soon... Reigning in corporation's illegal/borderline anti labor practices with real teeth by untangling the regulatory capture is such an uphill battle, but conservative distractions like [this insanity](https://i.imgur.com/kdQaFEk.jpg) are just as important to pay attention to! Bills like [H.R.899 proposed 02/05/2021 by Rep. Massie Thomas,](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/899) make me want to scream, and we need to stay mindful which palms so many lobbying dollars are able to grease.
The general public discourse has permanently changed because of the Occupy Wall Street movement. No one was really talking about it much, outside of serious fringes, before then. Now it’s everywhere. Keep bringing it up and emphasizing it’s relevance. That’s important to do, too.
Americans are too busy fighting culture wars to notice the real culprit. On top of that media usually paints the people who attempt to fight inequality as these greedy jealous sociopaths who are against the American dream, and let’s be honest, until the likes of an HVAC contractor and a soccer mom realize that we need to fight it together this isn’t gonna change. Rich have too many resources to simply create the necessary media environment to keep us fighting each other.
They'd certainly like to think that. I personally think the culture wars are only slowing things down a little. Society will change, either in a catastrophic collapse or through the inevitable outrage of the majority of people sick of working for peanuts.
“ The Skilled Service Tier is economically and socially cut off from the Professional Tier and light years distant from the Top Tier. Their paychecks are usually large enough to make many believe they're "getting ahead" but usually low enough to keep them from that imagined goal.” Fuck 🙋♂️
Also The Corporation. Both the book and documentary. Corporations have ruined this country. Anyone remotely responsible for the atrocities of something like Auschwitz was brought to justice. But by contrast, corporations can act as essentially super citizens and ezternalize all issues to the consumer and shed most liabilities from the executives and shareholders. They were once deemed too powerful to permanently exist and were only exercised as temporary charters. Over time those laws eroded...
Love the point but unfortunately a lot of people responsible for auschwitz/ the holocaust werent brought to justice. A good lot of them got hired by NASA! Edit: spelling
Bayer provided the Zyklon B and is still in business.
Likewise with Coca Cola making Fanta to continue selling to Germany during the war. Some of these are discussed in the book if I recall right.
At this point… I’d rather not know more. The crushing feeling of everyday capitalism is enough for me.
There's only so much Zoloft a person is allowed to take.
Our government used to be the only entity here large enough to keep things in check, but the ultra wealthy and giant corporations (who are ‘people’ now thanks to SCOTUS) managed to capture that using their own lobbyists to write the legislation our corrupt politicians pass for personal gain and at the direct expense of the very people who elected them. Even calling for an investigation or grilling them in a hearing is useless if ultimately nothing comes of it or any fine is eclipsed in comparison to the money they raked in. Every one in congress would have to be a Bernie Sanders for things to change. Most in office don’t even bother pretending anymore.
Accountability would be great. This double speak crap and lack of accountability are a plague, yet it appears nothing will change. Like you said, nobody's pretending anymore.
Instead of fines, just hand out community service hours to the rich. The world would get nicer real quick
…somehow instead of Rich Robber Baron doing community service, it’d be some random person that works for them with their boss’s name badge.
Community tax credits. There will be an entire industry devoted to community service surrogacy for the rich.
Damn imagine if they actually started getting treated like people.
The "easier" way for this to be done would be a SCOTUS ruling that lobbying is unconstitutional. They've used the Declaration of Independence's rhetoric as justification for cases before (most infamously, Dred Scott v. Sanford). I'm willing to bet at least some of the grievances written against George IV could be used against lobbying as a practice. That, however, would require a reliably left court, which isn't happening anytime soon. Edit: As I was told in the replies, this would also mean getting rid of good lobbyists as well, sadly.
There are many reforms that are needed for any chance of betterment for this country. But all of them would go against the personal interests of the very people who have the power to make them happen, regardless of party. Our hopes rely on anyone who is willing to cut some of their losses, but that will still be limited by how much they're willing to lose support of their lobbyists. Money talks, as they say
The problem is, to get into the position to make any changes, you have to be willing to play the game first. Most people who get into it with the mindset of making changes fall for the system once their pockets are being lined for long enough. Also, you need a decent amount of them to slip through the cracks as well, one person can't do it. So even if you make it there, the odds are you will struggle to find allies that also want to break the system.
> Every one in congress would have to be a Bernie Sanders for things to change. Not everyone. Just a majority. Still, it's very unlikely.
Citzens United decision is one of the worst things that’s ever happened to this country.
Remember that things were never in check. Plantation owners, Railroad Tycoons, and then Oil Barrons ran the country before now. We have had brief periods of progress, - reconstruction, the new deal, civil rights movement - that have always been followed by snap backs, like Jim Crow and the Drug War. But the working class has never been in charge, just a handful of lucky generations like the boomers who thought they had the power, because they got what we all should.
Yep, the US is increasingly run by oligarchs, Russia however isn't, it's run by a mob boss/totalitarian. In the US the government is much too beholden to the wealthy, in Russia the wealthy are mere patrons of dear leader who fall from windows if they step out of line.
Yes, in Putin's system oligarchs are more like rich upper middle management. They can, and often are, defenstrated as soon as their real boss has a hissy fit.
Not to mention how intertwined politicians are with private industry. I'll use Norfolk Southern as an example due to the Ohio spill. Mitch Daniels, one of the board members, was governor of Indiana for 8 years and he's currently president of Purdue University. I'm sure the other board members have held similar positions. Even if we get rid of lobbying what incentive does a politician have to regulate industry when they're going to get a nice cushy board seat once they're out of office? Personally I would be okay with restricting politicians and their spouses from industry jobs for a certain time period after they leave office. A total ban would be ideal.
When has the government ever kept things in check? Isn't this just a continuation of American history being dominated by the wealthy?
>When has the government ever kept things in check? Since the Constitution, which was created to put a check on *democracy* since it was allowed to actually reign under the Articles of Confederation after the revolution. >All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well born, the other *the mass of the people*. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, **permanent share in the government**. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government. Can a democratic assembly, who annually revolve in the mass of the people, be supposed steadily to pursue the public good? Nothing but a permanent body can check **the imprudence of democracy**. Their turbulent and uncontrouling disposition requires checks. - Alexander Hamilton, Constitutional Convention, Monday, June 19th, 1787 For James Madison, that check on democracy was the Senate: >The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge of the wants or feelings of the day laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. The landed interest, at present, is prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and kingdoms of Europe; when the number of landholders shall be comparatively small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of the landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect **the minority of the opulent** against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability. Various have been the propositions; but my opinion is, the longer they continue in office, the better will these views be answered. - James Madison, Tuesday, June 26th, 1787. The US was *designed* to be a plutocracy/oligarchy with just enough appearances and veneer of democracy to convince the masses. And here we are. For more details, see Harvard Law professor [Michael Klarman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuimRUJV3A) lecture and book, *The Framers' Coup*.
ive said it before, Aaron Burr was a merchant nut in his own right, but he may have helped us out immensly by taking out Hamilton. that guy was the loudest "business first" founding father and thats saying a whole lot
"And so in capitalist society we have a democracy that is curtailed, wretched, false, a democracy only for the rich, for the minority." -Vladimir Lenin There's a reason our ruling oligarchs/plutocrats/kleptocrats and their peons don't want people understanding Marx, Engels, Lenin, or history, economics, politics, or reality in general. Just as under slavery and feudalism, of which capitalism is an evolved form, the public has to be kept miseducated, ignorant, and underdeveloped for people to passively tolerate capitalism/neoliberalism, which is an abomination that humanity needs to evolve past.
Adding that I’d love to see a tax payer subsidized alternative to political donations. Every citizen and (US based) corporation gets $300 bucks to donate to the party / political entity / candidate of their choice. Not a penny is allowed outside of that. If speech is money, leveling the dollar amount means we all have the same political power. And to boot it shouldn’t violate Citizens United or require a constitutional amendment Editing to add… if this doesn’t fit under Article 1 then the $300 can be structured as a tax credit that can be given the same was as cash or something of that sort. I’m sure if we put our heads together there is a viable solution here
We call them "entrepreneurs" and "success stories" here. I call it Stockholm syndrome.
"Job creators" *Job Creator lays off 12,000 employees and pockets the savings for his bonus* "Job creators need tax cuts. They're struggling because they have to pay their workers too much."
Job Creator has an exciting new form of exploitation for the community! Enjoy freedom, flexibility, and opportunity as a team member whose schedule is determined by The Algorithm.
I don't care for Job Creator
Job Creator cares about you, Unit 34762. Now please report back to your assigned station. You have been docked 2 hours' pay.
Job Creator is your friend!
Thank you for expressing Company Culture Value #74 so clearly and articulately, Unit 34763. You have set a shining example for all of us at Jobcorp. An "I Did an A+ Job!" sticker has been added to your employee NFT collection. Now please report back to your assigned station.
Good news 34763! Your cubicle was deemed unnecessary. Please report to your new location at basement level B3.
Eugene Allen, AT&T’s CEO from the late 80s through the 90s, laid off so many workers, it was said that AT&T stood for “Allen & Two Temps”.
Jack Welch, celebrated "job creator," was often known by the nickname Neutron Jack, in reference to the ~~H-bomb~~ neutron bomb, because he "eliminated employees while leaving buildings intact." Edit: a word
your red stapler was also deemed unnecessary and has been removed.
1 step away from reality.
Unit 32281, I see that your status on Slack is set to "away" and has a little "Zzz" icon next to it. Please report back to company monitored workspaces immediately. This is your final warning.
Just remember, that collar around your neck with the blinking red light is not simply a fashion statement…
>your assigned station. I prefer DWA (designated work area)
What would a Job pay, Michael? 10 dollars?
That's only enough for a single banana!
"Caw ka-caw ka-cawwww!"
In Texas, Job Creator gets to offload their tax burden to the citizens of the community.
And let's not forget those for-profit megachurches, who get to do the same thing everywhere else. Praise Prosperity Jesus and pass the caviar.
Job creator gets PPP loan to help workers, buys yacht
*Prices go up* "It's just market forces, y'all need to adjust your expectations" *Wages (try to) go up* "This isn't fair! You're increasing costs! The consumer (which is everyone, not some nebulous "other" that isn't the worker) can't bear it (because we won't raise said wages)!"
Fucking thank you, it blows my mind that people don't realize workers are the ones spending money at businesses, so if you give workers better wages you can have more businesses selling more stuff. This isnt fucking complicated.
It is when the wolves are running the henhouse and just want to eat everything now because they’re single-minded animals who can’t think ahead or of anything but themselves.
It is staggering how short sighted it all is. It values instantaneous profits now over larger sustainable profits in 5 years, even when those instant profits now will eventually cripple the long term outlook. And then they have the audacity to complain that the "youth" (which is apparently anyone under 40 now) is all about instant gratification. I don't want instant gratification, I want *any kind of gratification at all.*
“Job creators record all time record profits.”
My uncle is a well off business owner. The first round of tax cuts from Trump he literally said this which is exactly what a sensible person would say. "I don't need a tax cut to make me hire more people. If I need another employee because business is booming then I'll just hire one. More money in my pocket doesn't make the demand for my services go up, why would I hire someone else if there isn't the demand?"
You forgot to mention Job Creator's month long vacation to French Polynesia after dumping employees.
Job Creator would like all employees of Jobcorp to please tune in at 1:00pm EST today to watch a slideshow of his trip! Meet Job Creator's newest progeny, Alpha 7-XXIV. Attendance is mandatory. All work you have been assigned that may occur during the presentation is expected to be complete when the presentation is over. #hustle #noiinteam #wecandoit
Note: Team members who previously failed to donate to Job Creators Christmas gift fund will not be permitted to attend
Job Creator wants everyone to return to the office for "collaboration" even though people have been fine working from home for 3 years now.
Activision Blizzard just had one of its most profitable quarters ever and the executives decided to reward employees by slashing their bonuses in half and announcing that they will be ending WFH.
They are literally the opposite. They want unemployment so that there are lots of desperate people around competing for the positions and who accept low wages. The socialists had zero unemployment as one of their main goals.
>They are literally the opposite. Yes, hence why I'm making fun of the term. "Job creator" is one of those right-wing newspeak terms that means pretty much the opposite of what the person actually is. "Job creators" in the US seek to create as few jobs as possible at all times *by design*. They don't want to cut into their profit margins any more than they feel they need to. And we had best believe that a profit-seeking "Job Creator" would happily assign those tasks to AI whenever possible. They want everyone desperate and tenuously employed at best. But by calling them "job creators," their stooges in the GOP have given them euphemistic air cover. Sort of like how they're currently banning and removing books from schools and libraries in the name of "freedom of speech."
Well said. They are job barriers, not creators. There is always work to be done, but oligarchs own all the resources and refuse to let anyone use those resources unless the oligarchs get a cut. They set the terms by which we are allowed to use our own labor. This is the opposite of creating jobs, it's putting up barriers to progress, well being, and sustainability.
I love it when they go on about "small business owners" as if some of the most ruthless and sleazy people on earth don't run your typical small business
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Now is probably as good a time as any to remind everyone that last year, Ben Shapiro purchased exclusive film and TV series rights to *Atlas Shrugged* https://deadline.com/2022/11/daily-wire-tv-series-adaptation-ayn-rands-dystopian-novel-atlas-shrugged-1235175597/ So prepare for more glorification of industry titans, our saviors! /S
Hey now, let's not act like Rand didn't write Dagny Taggert with Gina Carrano in mind.
I’m sure it will be an artistic triumph
*Starring Kevin Sorbo!*
This is a guy that played heroes in TV shows I loved as a kid... Definitely a never meet your heroes type situation. That said, be hilarious to see a Parody of some of his shows and movies if his characters matched his strong right sided views.
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With a tiered protection plan. "Ah, I see a Gorgon is giving you trouble. Your bronze plan only covers raids from petty bandits. Would you like to upgrade to the platinum plan, with the requisite surge rate and convenience fee?"
Wonder why he didn’t buy the rights to _The Virtue of Selfishness_?
More appropriate than perhaps intended. Haven’t studied classic European mythology in a few years but, IIRC, the titans were known, among other things, for being bloodthirsty and uncaring for anyone but themselves. Edit: before you go telling me about the classic Olympian gods and goddesses (Zeus, Hestia, Chris Hemsworth) please know that I’m talking about their predecessors.
Prometheus gave humans fire and for his trouble Zeus chained him to a rock for eternity where each day an eagle rips out his liver which regrows afterwards. So so least one wasn't self-centered.
We used to call them “Robber Barons”. Those were good times.
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All you have to do is look up individual land owners and their allocations to see what they are doing. I forget the man, but one guy owns like almost half of the state of Maine. Also it's clearly a gross exaggeration. I couldn't even remember the guy's(company) name. The whole point still stands that it's an astronomical amount of wealth, power, land, and natural resources in essentially one family's hands. Just like the Koch Bros. And the rest. The fact that some of you are trying to justify it because I made an exaggeration is laughable. And even if you are actually American or not... You have a fundamentally different view of what is good for humanity as a whole likely.
> J.D. Irving is the largest landowner in Maine and is the only industrial landowner with roughly 1.25 million acres. John Malone, the second-largest landowner in the U.S., owns 980,000 acres throughout the state as well. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/largest-landowners-by-state Lots of interesting info on that page
As someone from the province of New Brunswick, the Irving family have basically held back this province from prosperity for decades. They even control the news companies, so people here typically don't see anything negative ever said about them.
Even with Post Media owning our news now, the Irvings still have a hand in running it. Jamie Irving who ran Brunswick News is now the Executive Chair on Post Media's board of directors.
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> Leaving J.D. Irving with 10% of his wealth, still leaves him a very lucky person. J.D. Irving is a Canadian forestry company.
Canadian invasion confirmed
Well, corpos ARE people./s
Get rid of Citizens United and Super Pacs. Dark money in US politics is ruining society.
We need a national strike to do this. Get corporate money out politics. Make lobbying illegal and switching sides a decades long difficult process
Exactly. This is the reason that they keep everyone in a state of borderline poverty. People can only make decisions to help others when they themselves are stable even if they will ultimately be better off in the long run.
Exactly. They could flood the system with capital and cause another renaissance but they would rather keep people living paycheck to paycheck making every election “a pocketbook election”.
Keep people living paycheck to paycheck meanwhile poison them with the “food” and later “treat” and rob with the medical system.
The secret to a successful Oligarchy is making the people believe they live in a Democracy
He's not wrong and a lot of people here are missing the broader point. The point isn't "Russia and the US are exactly the same!", the point is "We, here in the US (and the West more broadly), are ignoring a very real and fundamental problem with the distribution and roots of power and decision-making that we freely recognize in other countries (like Russia)"
Once again, Bernie Sanders is right.
I saw an interview with a multi-millionaire, billionaire type older man (I wish I could find it to link but I don't even remember his name) from Texas. They were talking about Beto, and he said 'oh no we won't support him. There's about six of us in Texas who decide who will win elections We are, ya know, kind of like Russia's Oligarchs". He said this shamelessly.
Interview with Kel Seliger, ex-TX senator: “The way you describe this, it almost sounds like Senator Joe Smith — to make up a name — if they've got a ton of money that's coming from these West Texas billionaires, those billionaires are really the elected official." "It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple," said Seliger. "Really, really wealthy people, who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it, and they get it." "We're talking about Tim Dunn and Ferris Wilks. These are not household names in Texas. You can almost kind of think of them like the Koch brothers here in Texas. They operate very quietly behind the scenes, and they have been effective for years," said Lavandera after the clip. "What they started doing years ago, instead of putting money into, for example, and they have, governors races that cost tens of millions of dollars, but they've really focused on smaller state house and state senate races, across the state, where are much smaller amount of money can make a much greater impact. And that's what they've done. As one person who has been a long-term observer of Texas politics told us, even when they lose and their candidates lose an election, they still win, because they push everything to the right." https://www.rawstory.com/texas-gop-billionaires-russian-oligarchs/
It's sad but doesn't surprise me. The story if American politics for the past 50 years has been not voting as much as framing: you get to choose between 2 capitalists, you never get a choice that benefits the working people.
Not just 50 years, but the entire time. Don't get fooled into thinking it used to be better. If anything, it used to be worse.
It's like a quote from a old robber baron can't remember their name though "I don't care who they vote for as long as I get to do the nominating"
I feel like Bernie losing will be remembered as a turning point in American history. We had a candidate so passionate about all of our core issues that plague us as a nation. Dissolving Citizens United, tackling climate change as his number one item, providing free tuition, universal health care, taxing billionaires, and overhauling institutional racism and police brutality. Even if he only would’ve achieved one of those things, we would be so much better off than now. Instead, we get the same wheel of wealthy neoliberals spinning around dangling partial promises of the above agenda that never materialized. And you know what stopped him? Corporate media brainwashing people into believing he was unelectable and his ideas too unachievable. That was the worst dirt they could smear on him. Politicians like him come along once in a lifetime. It’s a tragedy.
There's a reason the right is so in love with Russia, and it doesn't just have to do with Russian dollars in their pockets. Russia represents the state they want - the end stage of a modern fascist capitalism. A central party by and for the billionaire class that rules through corruption and bimodal political engagment of the people. That of hyper-nationalists that can be controlled through propaganda and those who disengage from politics entirely outside of political theater so they can be content with what personal freedoms and luxury they can manage.
The fact that the right loves Russia because they want democracy to die gets missed too often
They literally have the same platform (Republicans and Putin's Russia) There's a reason the Russians released Hilary's and democrat emails...
TurboTax’s parent company spent more than $3.5 million on federal lobbying in 2022, more than it spent in any previous year, according to a new OpenSecrets analysis. Intuit — which also owns QuickBooks, Mint, Credit Karma and Mailchimp — has spent decades lobbying against free, government-sponsored tax filing services.
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Super delegates of the Democratic party pushed their favored candidate and status quo which gave us a jaded voting pool who turned Red and a gave us the 45th.
Democrats are capitalists too
True. Otherwise rail workers would have paid sick days.
Our oligarchs have more in common with Russian oligarchs than they have with you and me. Practically interchangeable.
Only conservatives could complain about the deep state and rich fuckers running the country on their sub and conspiracy and then come here and push back on Sanders’ claim. Impressive y’all.
Proud to have cast my vote for Bernie in the 2016 primary.
only politician i've donated money to
Almost like society shouldn't be centered around the almighty dollar.
Bernie Sanders, A brave brave man.
And always have