this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2023
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Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg increased their net worth by $96.6 billion and $58.9 billion, respectively, thanks to rising share prices on the Nasdaq

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[–] Hairyblue@kbin.social 45 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Tax the rich a lot. There really shouldn't be billionaires.

[–] Smoogy@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There’s no good reason for that level of hoarding beyond need. Waste of the use of money. If there’s enough money to feed everyone and we can’t, there’s something wrong here.

[–] _finger_@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

That’s not a liquid cash though

[–] Hello_there@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago

Related: poor are more food insecure and savings amounts decreased

[–] great_meh@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They have won life. Give them a Medal, then take away all they have so they can start a NewLife+

[–] justhach@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Once someone hits $999,999,999.99, we should give them a trophy that says "Congrats, you win capitalism" and then ~~banish~~ send them to an island ~~prison~~ paradise where ~~they are hunted for sport~~ all their needs are met, 24h a day.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So... Is "eat the rich" still a thing?

[–] MercuryUprising@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I don't want to eat Elon Musk's flabby ass. I propose we just "beat" the rich, so that they're afraid to walk around in public.

[–] Pooptimist@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

We should hang them up like piñatas and beat them until the money trickles down

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

We could always cheat the rich... out of all their money and distribute it to the poor.

[–] Pooptimist@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

We should hang them up like piñatas and beat them until the money trickles down

[–] Pooptimist@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

We should hang them up like piñatas and beat them until the money trickles down

[–] redpen@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Welcome to the revolution.

[–] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 27 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I have mixed feelings about measuring their wealth based on share prices because they couldn't sell their shares without tanking the price, right? Elon didn't actually increase his wealth; just the value of something that he has a shitton of went up.

We could also tank the value of his stocks by not buying or using his stupid shit!. For example, anyone angry that he is rich should definitely not be using Twitter.

"Eat the rich"... blah blah blah. Much easier to just protest the rich and take our money back by not giving it or our time to the rich in the first place.

[–] DessertStorms@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Much easier to just protest the rich and take our money back

That's pretty much what eat the rich means lol

Difference is you think it can be done simply by not spending our money with them, when in reality, like others have pointed out, they've not only made that not matter (because they can get more money anyway), and left us no choice (we can't all run off and live in the woods, and if we're not spending our money on one billionaire's products, we're spending it on another's), but they also have the police as their guard dogs, as well as governments who control militaries under their thumb, not to mention their own private militias and defences and bunkers and all that jazz.

So the only way it actually can be done (protesting the rich and getting our money back, that is), because they have left us no choice, is by force - 'When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich'

[–] meat_popsicle@kbin.social 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They don’t need to sell to realize gains - they take out loans against the stock value from banks for almost no interest. If they choose to, they could get large amounts of that paper gain in liquid cash through just a handful of steps.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

they take out loans against the stock value from banks for almost no interest. If they choose to,

Those days are coming to an end though...

[–] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, someone else mentioned that. That's bullshit.

[–] internetofsomethings@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have mixed feelings about measuring their wealth based on share prices because they couldn’t sell their shares without tanking the price, right?

Technically this is true, but remember that the wealthy can borrow money backed up by their stocks, so no: they couldn't sell those stocks without tanking the price, but yes: they have access to even more money because of this.

[–] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 6 points 1 year ago

Ohhh!! That makes sense. Goddamn the wealthy, lol

[–] nul@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you're exactly right. Social media is just the first thing we should be federating. Next should be farming, manufacturing, timber, construction, shipping, sales, and energy. If we crowdsource our solutions while using logic and algorithms to enforce quality control, we can exceed efficiency of the greedy ruling class and share profits among everyone who contributes so contributor ever faces starvation or living on the streets.

The billionaires can hoarde all the resources they want. If the masses stop contributing to their system, they will find that endless consumption is not as competitive as true justice and fairness.

[–] SIGSEGV@waveform.social 3 points 1 year ago

You should check out the book "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez (if you haven't already). Based on your post, you'd probably like it a lot. There's a sequel, too: "Freedom".

[–] oo7goofy@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago

Shhh… this is Lemmy

[–] queermunist@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

lol but inflation is being caused by poor people demanding higher wages, right?

[–] Steeve@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Didn't their total wealth drop significantly last year because FB and TSLA stock absolutely tanked? So their wealth is only up so much because it was down more and the market is on it's way back up.

By all means eat the rich and all that, but this doesn't paint an honest picture for anyone who doesn't follow the stock market.

[–] 1019throw@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I didn't read the article, just the headline, but both can be true. They lost money but made a ton again. It's no different than someone losing a huge amount in a 401k but then having even more money in the future by not selling and the market going back up.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, unopened the post and it's just "due to riding NASDAQ prices" and it's like okay. Basically just like saying my wealth increased because house prices rose. It's not a lie or anything but the title imies there was a change of assets rather than a change of valuation of assets.

[–] carbonprop@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They could have instead made 852,000 new millionaires or 8.52 million people could have a cool $100,000 to save for retirement or pay off debt. But the rich get richer.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ugh. I just ate breakfast and this makes me regret it.

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

Next time, eat the rich.

[–] aeternum@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Beans for breakfast? Do you think I'm a filthy British person? On American Independence Day? How dare you!

[–] TaleOfSam@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

On this, the most Holy of American Days??

sets mushy peas ablaze

[–] el_cordoba@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am convinced I'd be a terrible rich asshole. I'd never be able to hold on to that much money considering how fucked up the world is. That said, I have a conscience. Lacking one seems to be a prerequisite.

[–] justhach@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hoarding wealth is like any other form.of hoarding. Its a mental illness.

If there was a monkey in the jungle somewhere who had stockpiled enough bananas, through killing other monkeys or other exploitative means, to last a thousand lifetimes and refused to share any, we would study that monkey like crazy to figure out WTF is going on there.

When a person does it and someone points out that its fucked, we say that the person pointing it out is just jealous, and if they only worked harder, they too could be sitting on a banana fortune.

[–] aeternum@kbin.social 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

meanwhile, people are dying of starvation and malnutrition

[–] Moohamin12@lemm.ee 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

So in 6 months he can buy 2 Twitters...

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure he could buy 10+ twitters by now, that cesspool's real value must have crashed hard since his acquisition

[–] amoretpax199@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

He can buy Reddit at this rate...

[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 6 points 1 year ago

Seems like a totally fair and appropriate system to me. Let poor people starve. Better yet, just hide them somewhere I don't have to see them. That'd be awesome. /s

[–] cheeseblintzes@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Great.

When's dinner?

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