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Are Billionaires Bad For The World?

It's not as easy as just don't support for a good portion of people. You think a parent/family who is struggling to make it is thinking about the global implications of shopping at Walmart vs a local store or considering which store would give them the best deal. You can't blame people from having to choose between two fucked up options if those options are all they have.

I said this in a thread a while ago that many people need to ask themselves if they made/make good decisions or are they simply able to choose from better options. And because of the way society is set up the average person has little to no control over the options placed in front of them on how to navigate the world. You can only control which choices you make within that given framework.
I get all you saying but would you sit by and watch people deal with options they think they are limited to or would you try to guide them to better or more options?
 
Only on Earth can wanting those blessed with excess to help out the less fortunate be considered an affront. Lol Thanos was right
How many want that sacrifice for more excess or how many pretend to be ok where they are.
What are some of the less fortunate willing to do to get help or more, outside of a handout from someone else’s hard work or trying to get over?

So you ok with telling someone who works 1& hr days and hardly seeing his family that a portion of that should be given to some just cuz?
Not him willingly donating but just because , that person worked hard so he owe more people than his family?
 
So only the rich and wealthy owe?

Middle and lower class dont owe the homeless?

What do y’all owe?
 
Billionaires aren't bad, they just need to be taxed accordingly. Too many loopholes for rich folk to use to get out of paying what they should. Companies need to be held to account for bad labor practices.

All those Scandanavian countries that American socialists tout as perfection are capitalist and they, too, have billionaires. Sweden, Iceland, and Norway all have more billionaires per million people than America. Those countries also are among the top-15 or so countries with the lowest income inequality. They are all countries with robust social safety nets for the lowest earners.

Again, billionaires are not inherently bad. Terrible tax policies and regulation is bad. The economy is not a zero-sum game.
 
Billionaires aren't bad, they just need to be taxed accordingly. Too many loopholes for rich folk to use to get out of paying what they should. Companies need to be held to account for bad labor practices.

All those Scandanavian countries that American socialists tout as perfection are capitalist and they, too, have billionaires. Sweden, Iceland, and Norway all have more billionaires per million people than America. Those countries also are among the top-15 or so countries with the lowest income inequality. They are all countries with robust social safety nets for the lowest earners.

Again, billionaires are not inherently bad. Terrible tax policies and regulation is bad.
Do you have that same smoke for the lower income folk who game the system to get paid as you do those who not paying?
 
Do you have that same smoke for the lower income folk who game the system to get paid as you do those who not paying?
Yes. Everyone should pay their relative "fair share". That is how we maintain society.

It does need to be said that poorer folk are a lot less likely to have access to the tools of the trade to beat the taxman the way the wealthy can. IIRC, the vast, vast majority of audits by the IRS are of low-income people.
 
10 times out of 10
I dont get why people cheerlead it

What one does with it matter most but again 10 times out of 10 what they end up doing with it is the equivalent of passing out turkeys

Greed is God
 
I get all you saying but would you sit by and watch people deal with options they think they are limited to or would you try to guide them to better or more options?

I'd try to guide but i would also understand if those better options aren't a consistent viable solution that they would have access to and wouldn't judge or fault them for that
 
The explosion of billionaires and even millionaires (there wasn't always an abundance of them) directly correlates with the decade after decade downward trend of standards of living.

This subject goes beyond philosophy & personal feelings of the economic landscape...it has real material implications
 
the decade after decade downward trend of standards of living
This is very, very much a lie. The standard of living, both worldwide and solely in the developed world, has been consistently improving.

 
This is very, very much a lie. The standard of living, both worldwide and in the developed world, has been consistently improving.


Well, my statement was directed towards the us...in that context, its accurate

And there are several global trajectories ... places of improvement like india, and places of stagnation and regression bangladesh pakistan Eritrea somalia etc..
 
Well, my statement was directed towards the us...in that context, its accurate

And there are several global trajectories ... places of improvement like india, and places of stagnation and regression bangladesh pakistan Eritrea somalia etc
Again, it is still not accurate.

U.S. standard of living has not been declining for "decades and decades". Income and consumption in the U.S. has been on an upward trend for decades save for the global economic crisis in 2008. Despite this, the real GDP per capita of the U.S. is up $16,000 since the year 2000. Since Q1 2008, household wealth of the bottom 20% has gone up $1.26T, household wealth of the second 20% has gone up $1T, household wealth of the middle class has gone up $2.18T. I do suggest giving the Brookings article a read.

Since the year 2000, globally, the number of people worldwide who have completed some post secondary education has gone up 6% and the number of people without an education has decreased 6%. Child mortality rates are down 4%. Illiteracy rates are down 5%. The amount of people living in extreme poverty is down 19%.

 
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Again, it is still not accurate.

U.S. standard of living has not been declining for "decades and decades". Income and consumption in the U.S. has been on an upward trend for decades save for the global economic crisis in 2008. Despite this, the real GDP per capita of the U.S. is up $16,000 since the year 2000. I do suggest giving the Brookings article a read.

Since the year 2000, more people worldwide who have completed some post secondary education has gone up 6% and the number of people without an education has decreased 6%. Child mortality rates are down 4%. Illiteracy rates are down 5%. The amount of people living in extreme poverty is down 19%.



Life expectancy has been declining in the us for the last several years. Dramatic EMPIRICAL explosions of drug abuse drug overdose deaths homelessness etc... maybe we have different interpretations of "standard of living"

Climate refugees... climate displacement...even climate related warfare (alot of conflicts gets reduced to "tribal warfare " in the West if it even gets much mention at all) the devolution of the global diet to a standard handful of cash crops. Hegemonic agribusiness damn near dictating what gets grown and where

I can keep going and going but these are issues that have been sprouting and intensifying for decades and they are directly related to concentrations of power and control of resources ...i.e. billionaires


Thats a 2016 article...its 2023... and what exactly isn't accurate about? Im making specific points...and mentioned particularly nations.
 
Life expectancy has been declining in the us for the last several years. Dramatic EMPIRICAL explosions of drug abuse drug overdose deaths homelessness etc... maybe we have different interpretations of "standard of living"
Since the year 2000, life expectancy is still up nearly a year. 2 years of dip is not "decades and decades".

Climate refugees... climate displacement...even climate related warfare (alot of conflicts gets reduced to "tribal warfare " in the West if it even gets much mention at all) the devolution of the global diet to a standard handful of cash crops. Hegemonic agribusiness damn near dictating what gets grown and where
As opposed to that point in time decades and decades ago where there weren't any refugees anywhere.

I can keep going and going but these are issues that have been sprouting and intensifying for decades and they are directly related to concentrations of power and control of resources ...i.e. billionaires
You said the standard of living has been falling for decades and decades and I showed proof that it wasn't the truth. I'm none too interested in fighting for the good reputation of rich folk but this connection you are making it weak and anecdotal.

Thats a 2016 article...its 2023... and what exactly isn't accurate about? Im making specific points...and mentioned particularly nations.
It shows the trend that the standard of living has not been on the decline for decades and decades, which is what you stated as fact earlier in this thread.

The world faces challenges but the standard of living, globally, has increased. The world is vastly wealthier than it was decades ago. The developing world has some of the fastest growing economies and middle classes in the world.
 
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