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.
this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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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.
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.
I’d argue that’s another good argument for seizing their assets and making them pay for their asshole behaviour.
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.
They are so rich that my browser crashed while I was trying to speed scrolling the page to the end
Unpopular opinion maybe but this is a great deal more important than rude Hexbear comments. Visit the site yourself and tell us we're wrong.
"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
Ok tankie
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.
Aye the rich are likely very nutritious
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).
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.
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.)
I've lost the will to live. Why do this place even exist?
I knew the ultra-rich were unimaginably wealthy but this still blew my mind. Got through Bezos, expecting for the site to end, stopped when I saw the blue rectangle starting.
You made it almost halfway
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
I went to that link and it was horrible, no the site is simple it's just when it went to Bezos ... then look at all the things we could have to make things better (free healthcare, free college, etc) just sickening.
BuT hE's A pHiLaNtRoPiSt! He HeLpS SoCiEtY...
...to maintain the status quo of undertaxing rich people and letting monopolies rule industries.
And actually he does not have any money because its just his assets and what other people think they are worth but he is actually quite poor because he immediately spends all the money he makes to invest into new ideas to make the world an even better place for everyone.
Starts off with median income and then switches to wealth. These aren't the same things.
Edit. Lol, check out the idiot counter
You didn't scroll as far as the "total earnings in your lifetime" and "total earnings of a doctor in their lifetime", then, I take it.
Total income is not wealth either.
Damn bro you got them good. Great contribution to the discussion. Thanks.
The irony
Sad cunts moaning that life isn't fair is soooo edgy.
Yeah, it's the lifetime theoretical reward for highly skilled work vs what someone has right now.
You might think "that's just on paper", but cut it by 10 and it's still a nonsensical comparison. The scale is insane
It's a moon base built ASAP. It's build a floating country in the Atlantic the size of Delaware. It's buy a prefab house for everyone in the US who is renting or homeless. It's give everyone in the world a plane ticket to anywhere they want, round trip. It's build a maglev train network across a continent. It's wake up every day, go anywhere, and buy a new house at such an insane price the existing owner would agree to leave within the hour. It's build something the scale of the Washington monument at every rest stop across the US
These aren't things that would use up the wealth, these are things individuals could do, then go on to live the most extravagant possible life. Sure, a lot of these things would require careful planning and take decades if you actually wanted to do them, but that's the scale we're looking at - it's choose an issue and affect global change kind of money.
Yeah, wealth, income, and lifetime projected income are all very different things, it's apples and oranges. Except it's more like a single apple against every orange ever eaten - the sheer difference in scale makes any comparison meaningless. Simply spending their wealth, in any way, would drastically change the lives of countless people for the better
If they spent their 'wealth' they'd have to convert their assets into cash, making it income, their wealth is shares in the companies they built. If they sold their shares the prices would tank
Those companies employee millions of people who receive income and pay taxes on it
A top band Amazon dev is earning 1m a year...
Regarding the last point: so it will take said dev just another 185 thousand years to get to Bezos level
Regarding the first, there is a link to explanation about why this is not correct in the infographic
They also get stock options regularly and dividends...plenty of people have started successful businesses after gaining sufficient wealth.
So, if we convince billionaires to sell all of their company slowly it'll all be fine? That's your logic?
A, why the fuck would they do that?
B, the shareholders via the board make the decisions, you think they'll be happy with a CEO who has no skin on the game? And would have to be compensated by fuck tons of cash, which would hurt the business
My logic is that not every "successful business" is worth billions. And maybe there's sense in doing something with ones that are, like split them into several businesses that are not owned by a single person
Comparing myself to the ultra rich doesn't affect me any more than comparing myself to super athletes. It's the people around me that matters and they're not significantly more wealthy than me. You'll never be content in your life if this is the bar to reach.
Other people's health is not a zero-sum game. There is an increasing wealth gap wherein the resources and value of humanities labour are being increasingly concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority to the detriment of everyone else.
It's like being at a party where just before the food is served some unhinged lunatic runs in and manages to somehow fit all the food for the entire party into their underwear and run off with it.
People saying "hey, maybe we shouldn't invite that person to parties anymore" and you reacting like "well, I don't compare how much food I have with people who have stolen all the food. All that matters is that you're all just as hungry as I am. You'll never feel full if you compare yourself to someone who stole all of the food!" is very difficult to respond to in a way that is compatible with the way the Beehaw community works....