Some people say "The only ethical solution to the current situation is to kill all the billionaires".
In that reality, the real answer is to deal with the massive bureaucratic state and mass political corruption that allows for the creation of the richest people in the history of the world in the first place, and implement legal structures that limit the size of a person's wealth through natural means.
The solution of killing those with power and wealth is unethical because we know it's ineffective. We have numerous examples where the people rose up and killed the ruling class, and another group of people just got sucked in through the power vacuum and ended up becoming the new ruling class. The French revolution in particular had massive amounts of bloodshed during the reign of terror, and despite that within 15 years there was another emperor on the throne and a new aristocracy in France.
For examples where long-term improvements were made to regular people, you have to look at examples such as constitutional monarchies where systems were built that limited the powers of the powerful. For much of history, the powerful were the people controlling the governments, so limiting what the government was allowed to do using Constitution and courts was an effective means to improve a common man's lot.
Unfortunately, the modern bureaucratic state was not predicted for by those who came before us and so a lot of power has aggregated into unelected, unaccountable, undemocratic parts of government that perhaps wouldn't have previously. Without constraints, such bureaucrats are eminently corruptible. Perfect for the aggregation of power into billionaires, whoever's ready to pay for play to bureaucrats who will have their jobs whoever's in congress or the whitehouse.
The other thing is that our business structures are set up in such a way that you can let a business grow and grow and there's few natural constraints on growth. I think the way to limit the size of businesses and the amount of active wealth someone can be using at one time is to change it so the owners of companies are responsible for what those companies do when it's something catastrophic enough. Why shouldn't the shareholders of BP be responsible for the damage BP did by cutting corners in the process of making them money? And selling your stock before the court case goes through should not be enough to divest your responsibility.
In that reality, the real answer is to deal with the massive bureaucratic state and mass political corruption that allows for the creation of the richest people in the history of the world in the first place, and implement legal structures that limit the size of a person's wealth through natural means.
The solution of killing those with power and wealth is unethical because we know it's ineffective. We have numerous examples where the people rose up and killed the ruling class, and another group of people just got sucked in through the power vacuum and ended up becoming the new ruling class. The French revolution in particular had massive amounts of bloodshed during the reign of terror, and despite that within 15 years there was another emperor on the throne and a new aristocracy in France.
For examples where long-term improvements were made to regular people, you have to look at examples such as constitutional monarchies where systems were built that limited the powers of the powerful. For much of history, the powerful were the people controlling the governments, so limiting what the government was allowed to do using Constitution and courts was an effective means to improve a common man's lot.
Unfortunately, the modern bureaucratic state was not predicted for by those who came before us and so a lot of power has aggregated into unelected, unaccountable, undemocratic parts of government that perhaps wouldn't have previously. Without constraints, such bureaucrats are eminently corruptible. Perfect for the aggregation of power into billionaires, whoever's ready to pay for play to bureaucrats who will have their jobs whoever's in congress or the whitehouse.
The other thing is that our business structures are set up in such a way that you can let a business grow and grow and there's few natural constraints on growth. I think the way to limit the size of businesses and the amount of active wealth someone can be using at one time is to change it so the owners of companies are responsible for what those companies do when it's something catastrophic enough. Why shouldn't the shareholders of BP be responsible for the damage BP did by cutting corners in the process of making them money? And selling your stock before the court case goes through should not be enough to divest your responsibility.
lol
It's just one step towards banning gas furnaces and having a winter where every scrap of furniture is burned because you can't heat your homes in winter in the midwest using solar panels.
It's just one step towards banning gas furnaces and having a winter where every scrap of furniture is burned because you can't heat your homes in winter in the midwest using solar panels.
It's definitely true that a lot of people have forgotten that you can die and you can make bad decisions that kill a lot of people.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times you tell someone not to put their hand on the stove, eventually you need to just let them do it and understand why viscerally since they won't listen logically.
The only sad thing is that putting your hand on the stove will mean the death of millions, and the temper tantrum after people realize what happened will likely mean the deaths of millions more.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times you tell someone not to put their hand on the stove, eventually you need to just let them do it and understand why viscerally since they won't listen logically.
The only sad thing is that putting your hand on the stove will mean the death of millions, and the temper tantrum after people realize what happened will likely mean the deaths of millions more.
To overcome fear to do the right thing is different than to disregard fear entirely.
Failure is an option. Death is an option. The end of your bloodline is an option. So we should in fact fear.
Failure is an option. Death is an option. The end of your bloodline is an option. So we should in fact fear.
I had a "girlfriend" in like grade 6, but for actual dating that didn't start until after college. Long story, but prior to grade 9 I just wasn't in it, in grade 9 I stayed at home most days so flunked out of school, the next year onwards I was hyper focused on graduating on time, then when I was in college I recognized I couldn't be a good partner being in a really hard course I had no spare time to give someone the attention they'd deserver so I avoided dating then, and then I started dating when I had my first professional job.
Been happily married 13 years now.
Been happily married 13 years now.
I wanted this to be real, but I can't find an actual sauce. Just this tweet. Probably just a joke. A funny joke, but just a joke.
I expect any experiment with federating from big tech to end once they meet dark fedi.
Over on Lemmy which has exploded with new users from reddit, top posts in the past 6 and 12 hours include...
Conversations about defederating from corpos, conversations about defederating from political opponents...
You can take the redditor out of reddit, but you can't take the reddit out of the redditor.
Conversations about defederating from corpos, conversations about defederating from political opponents...
You can take the redditor out of reddit, but you can't take the reddit out of the redditor.
Problem is that high house prices makes line go up so politicians do whatever they can to keep it going despite it being bad for everyone but homeowners (and it's even kinda crappy for them)
There are fixed rate mortgages, but many people went with variable rate and 90% of fixed rate mortgages are 5 years or less. After 5 years the rate starts to rise quickly because after 5 years "fixed" means fixed open so you can refinance with only 3 months interest as a penalty.
I refinanced at a good rate for 10 years and I'm feeling like those economics lessons are really paying off right about now.
I refinanced at a good rate for 10 years and I'm feeling like those economics lessons are really paying off right about now.
https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/06/27/rising-mortgage-rates-fixed-payment-woes-some-homeowners-seeing-amortization-periods-skyrocketing.htm
Cue the clip of smug Trudeau saying "interest rates are at all time lows" a couple years ago
Cue the clip of smug Trudeau saying "interest rates are at all time lows" a couple years ago
Literally happened to me this week.
Wtf strawberry and raspberry bushes? Why u doin this to me?
Wtf strawberry and raspberry bushes? Why u doin this to me?
"Ah, the power of psychological manipulation!"
This is and amusing and dystopian way to start a message.
This is and amusing and dystopian way to start a message.
Tbf most of the wealth is fake and frothy bubble.
"I have all this stock in a barely profitable car company that's more valuable than the rest of the auto industry combined"
"I have all this stock in a barely profitable car company that's more valuable than the rest of the auto industry combined"
Holding parents accountable when their kids go off on murderous rampages seems like a good idea, tbh. Within reason, of course. But after 5 nights of murderous rampaging, I'm thinking the parents might want to step in and be like "hey champ, you're staying home tonight!"
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/07/02/france-deploys-45000-police-on-fifth-night-of-nationwide-riots/
I think these guys really need to learn from the Americans how to respond to violent riots.
Watch and learn, you cheese eating surrender monkeys:
“Everything is fine. They’re doing such a good thing. Where’s all so glad they’re doing it. Thank you, heroes.”
I think these guys really need to learn from the Americans how to respond to violent riots.
Watch and learn, you cheese eating surrender monkeys:
“Everything is fine. They’re doing such a good thing. Where’s all so glad they’re doing it. Thank you, heroes.”
They were deeply upset he didn't turn out to be a fascist. He was supposed to sieze power and use violence against his political enemies.