The Future
-
Yes, people that aren't really poor just complaining because someone else has more than them. Everyone loves communism / socialism until no one has any incentive to do anything and everyone is poorer as a result.
-
And they're fat.
-
Do you think that people only do things for money?
-
[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Realistically, if a couple rich people ever obtain all the money, they no longer have any, because money only has the trait of being money and not merely some piece of metal or paper or information or whatever else when it is used as a medium of exchange, and if almost nobody actually has any, then exchanging it on a meaningful scale is no longer possible.
Under this scenario, one must imagine that people would eventually start growing food and making things on land that they do not "own" and trading it amongst themselves, until some new thing that people actually have access to becomes money. Even hiring security to prevent that ceases to be possible, because paying that security means giving some of that money to someone else, and even if you do that, if theyre the only people getting paid it, then no economic base exists to support things like grocery stores that accept that money anymore, making those security people gain nothing from accepting it and thus have no incentive to do that work for you anymore. For the rich the stay rich, they must leave at least enough money (and resources) in common circulation for the economic system that maintains their power to continue to have relevance.
-
We already have people without incentive, and who make everyone poorer as a result. They're called billionaires. They have no incentive to improve the world, because it's being broken is what they benefit most from. Bezos doesn't benefit from happy healthy employees, he benefits from desperate, powerless employees. They can't fight back if they're terrified of losing their job.
The combined net worth of the 2020 class of the 400 richest Americans was $3.2 trillion, up from $2.7 trillion in 2017. As of March 2023, there were 735 billionaires in the United States.
Meanwhile, poverty is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States. Killing 10 times as many people as homicide in 2019.
As far as the evils of socialism, why is the life expectancy 7 years better for men and 5 years better for women in Canada vs the United States? Could it be socialized medicine and ready access to healthcare perhaps?
-
[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Beautiful weather in 2035? I like your optimism.
-
Daemon Silversteinreplied to [email protected] last edited by
It's not about the money, it's about what money allowed them to possess. If they get to possess all the lands, all the commodities, all the technologies, all the books, everything (as explicitly said by the character's dialogue "We finally given you all of our worldly possessions", notice how the word "possessions" is used instead of "money"), they'll still have it even though money isn't circulating anymore. After all, money is actually their creation to hold what the money really meant to represent: gold and wealthy. Money was created as a "certificate of gold ownership" in a world that used to use gold as a means of exchange resources. People don't possess gold anymore, they possess what is promised to be a "certificate of gold", with gold not being monetary backing anymore because of fractional reserve banking and stock market speculation which together created money out of thin air without actual value other than "guarantee" from the banks that they'd keep accepting it and circulating it, until they don't anymore.
That's why they are investing in robots and automation. Once they have servants programmed within the constraints of their will, servants that (supposedly) won't turn against them because they're non-sentient machines, they won't need "peasants" (as they consider everyone else) anymore.
That's why they're investing in flying to the damn Mars. Once they (supposedly) have a new (supposedly livable) settlement far from "peasants", they can let everyone else die in this scorching Earth that reached this point due to their greedy actions.
-
If you're 'terrified of losing your job', the problem is probably you because your ability to leech off a rich person is in jeopardy, you buried yourself in debt, you're living beyond your means, you have drug addictions, etc.
Bezos is an asshole. Not all rich people are bad (not all people are bad). -Strawman argument.
Meanwhile, poverty is the 4th leading cause of death in the United States.
Asserting something that can't be proven. -Do you have a religion you want to dispense also?
As far as the evils of socialism, why is the life expectancy 7 years better for men and 5 years better for women in Canada vs the United States?
Could be many things like distance from equator, better food ingredient standards, etc. Do you think posing a question makes a point?
-
What kind of stupid question is this? No, I don't believe idiotic things like 'money is THE root of all evil'. There are obviously other incentives in life. What's your point?
-
I'm trying to understand why you seem to think that socialism is a fantasy. In my experience, it's usually a rebuttal about getting paid.
-
Thats a deluded take.
-
I am sure you're a "genius" who thinks people are poor or living paycheck to paycheck because its only their fault. But you wouldn't know anybody.
-
Poverty is about resources. Most people in the US have plenty of that. Most people living paycheck to paycheck indeed did it to themselves.
Talked to someone while returning bottles and cans the other day. They had an electric bike with a trailer. They make ~$80 a week just going around town picking up bottles and cans. -Something I used to do before e-bikes. I made 2x minimum wage doing it when redemption took longer and more effort (feeding through a machine). Almost any idiot is capable of doing this, others are capable of far more.
If you're dependent on an employer in the US; you're probably a lazy leech that simply refuses to do actual work because I could give example after example of work people could do for more money. -When you lack those resources, then complain about poverty.
-
Most people isn't good enough. Homeless people exist and underpin the entire concept of inequity with capitalism. The only thing they did was not have money.
-
I've been homeless, have you?
You're probably ignoring underlying problems like drug addictions, mental illness, and divorce. Also, some people simply choose the life. -
Yeah that minimum wage sure makes people go above and beyond lol
-
Sounds like you were stealing scrap metal to me, right to private prison, you are now happily employed.
-
Getting through all of those conditions requires huge amounts of money, as I'm sure you know. There probably are some folks that prefer homelessness, but it's a substantial minority and likely due to a situation where apartments don't work and they can't afford a house.
I don't need to be homeless to have compassion and a vision for a better world.
-
Experiencing homelessness leads to a better understanding of homelesseness. Same with wealth; if you've never been wealthy; you don't know the experience. Sure, it's nice that you show you care about it, but anything you have to contribute on the topic is about as effective as donating to a scam artist and thinking you did good.
-
Cleaning up other people's litter. lol
The guy does a service. I just return my own and my landlords.
