• pyre@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      the idea is that the guillotine is for the current ones.

      you can get rid of billionaires altogether by taxing 100% of every dollar above ten million, for example.

      • mustlovehuskies@lemmy.today
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        3 days ago

        Problem with that is it just transfers the money to the government, which is an own-goal for the people - look how it’s being used now, that’s how it’ll be used with any added tax. Trusting the government is just as foolish as trusting corporations or billionaires - and that goes for any government, honest people don’t become politicians. Going about it by way of tax just transfers power to the political system even more.

        For the people to have any power the government needs to have reduced power. The best way to address billionaires is to address the system that creates them - by constraining capitalism enough to prevent monopolies and concentration of executive power in any one person or small group.

        All corporations over 1,000 employees should be required to be employee owned co-ops with executive compensation approved by 70% employee vote.

        • pyre@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          no, trusting the government is not as foolish as trusting billionaires. I won’t take this Reagan crap. the government is about a million times more useful than all billionaires have ever been combined. and it has to answer to the people. billionaires don’t. unless you start making them answer.

          • mustlovehuskies@lemmy.today
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            3 days ago

            I take it you’re ok with $200bn to another pointless war in the Middle East? Countless billions wasted? Politicians answer to the people in theory, but not practice.

            • pyre@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              yes because that’s what i said. sorry to burst your bubble but they do answer to the people. this is literally what the people voted for. the fact that they didn’t think about it much doesn’t change this.

              • mustlovehuskies@lemmy.today
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                3 days ago

                Cute, you still think that lobbyists don’t have the most control, along with other interest groups, which are all controlled by billionaires - who also shape public opinion of gullible people through the media.

                Why was the big healthcare bill that was so “controversial” essentially a gift wrapped present to the health insurance companies? The only benefit of Obamacare for most people was the elimination of denials for pre-existing conditions. Lobbyists ensured that and billionaires even fought that via republicans. Both parties are bought and paid for by corporate America.

                DNC panders to minorities and pretends to give a single shit about the poor (but nothing more than a pittance of concern) while lining their pockets with bribe money from corporations while RNC thinks we should be happy if we even have a job that pays us sustenance and should suck billionaires’ cocks for being so generous with us lesser than people by paying us $11.25/hr to do all the real work in their corporate slavery.

                Government is the enemy. Corporations are the enemy. Billionaires are the enemy. The only ones that can be trusted are those close enough to you to have earned trust. The only real solution forward is to tear this shitty system down and begin anew without the billionaires or existing political class.

                • pyre@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  you’re literally talking about moneyed interests having too much control over the government. so yeah, billionaires and corporations are worse than the government in general. if you get rid of billionaires and shackle corporations, the DNC wouldn’t need to care about them over their constituents. same with the media. remove billionaires and chop up media conglomerates.

                  • mustlovehuskies@lemmy.today
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                    2 days ago

                    Name a government of any significant nation (ie not Luxembourg) and I’ll list the atrocities where they’ve wrongfully arrested and killed their citizens. The DNC doesn’t give a solid fuck about you, they like all politicians seek power and will do whatever they feel gives them the best odds of acquiring it. DNC panders to identity politics for the useful idiots that want to pat themselves on the back for accepting everyone’s fetishes, while the RNC wants to make every dumbass think they’re gonna be the next billionaire.

                    Go far enough left and you get Communists who murdered millions for wrongthink, go far enough right and you get Nazis who murdered millions for being the wrong race. Governments exist to abuse and enslave, that’s it. The more power you give them in either direction the further they take it towards one direction or the other.

              • cobalt32@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                3 days ago

                Have you considered that the people were only given two options, bad and worse? The bad option wasn’t working out for people, so they decided to try the worse one, and now we’re here.

                There are countless examples of the government ignoring popular demand. Extensive polling shows that most Americans support a wealth tax. It’s not going to happen because almost every politician is paid for by billionaires. Have you heard of super PACs?

                • pyre@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  this is just more argument for billionaires being worse than the government. remove moneyed interests and you’ll have a functioning government beholden to the people.

                  • cobalt32@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                    2 days ago

                    Government never has and never will be beholden to the people. When we put someone in a position of power, we become beholden to them. The whole idea that the people consent to being governed is ridiculous because we’re never given the option to vote against having a government.

    • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      Its not about the guillotine, its about sending a message.

      Sure, theoretically, if you “guilloize” the first round of billionaires a second round will pop up, but if you “guilloize” that second round then each successive round that you “guilloize” will get smaller and smaller … that is my theory at least.