• saltesc@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager who has backed President Donald Trump in the past, on Thursday pledged to use his money to bankroll a challenger to Mamdani in the general election.

    Case in point.

    • MyRobotShitsBolts@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      And how did he get those billions? How many peoples necks did he have to step on to climb his way up. It’s not so much what you do with your billions, it’s how you got them that makes you evil. The only exception to this is probably Bezos ex wife, maybe.

    • mienshao@lemmy.world
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      14 days ago

      This might induce me to donate to Mamdani’s campaign. I live in fucking Illinois btw.

    • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
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      13 days ago

      Honestly, even if you think billionaires should exist, it’s still the most logical action for Mamdani to oppose them as billionaires will do everything to stop him.

  • Prox@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Wholly agreed. There are no ethical billionaires. Fight me.

  • Fandangalo@lemmy.world
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    14 days ago

    Imagine life was a game. You lived for 2025 years. You worked 260 days / year. You made the median US salary.

    You would need to relive that process 3,145 times to match an Oligarch.

    That amount of wealth is unethical while humanity suffers. No one can really fathom “1b dollars.”

  • Suavevillain@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    This needs to become the mainstream opinion. Billionaires and ultra wealthy shouldn’t exist. There is no trickling down or any of that stolen wealth coming back into the hands of average people.

    • raptore39@lemmy.ca
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      13 days ago

      Imagine if billionaires paid their fair share of taxes. Municipalities would fight to get them to live in their area

    • x0x7@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      They will just live in other countries if being a billionaire is illegal.

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        That’s fine, billionaires do not add to an economy, they drain it. So if they leave it will remove a useless burden on the economy and whatever country is dumb enough to take them in can deal with them instead. Meanwhile, if they are pulling money from our country we can find ways to tax it and prevent them from draining our resources (and yes, money is a resource like any other).

      • EldenLord@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        Lol, no. This is a strawman argument. Billionaires will absolutely not give up their precious connections and real estate to live on a private island or move away. Even if 50% would do that (lmao never) the tax would still be a huge benefit. Even without the money, not having these greedsacks meddling with local politics and laws would be a dream.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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    14 days ago

    Mamdani added in his response: “I have already had to start to get used to, get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I’m from, who I am, ultimately, because he wants to distract from what I’m fighting for, and I’m fighting for the very working people that he ran a campaign to empower, that he has since then betrayed.”

    Goddamn, this reads like a response that came from a real socialist playbook. Don’t take the bait on the culture war bullshit, say it’s distraction from helping workers. Wow.

    • x0x7@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      It will lead to more dark money. It’s very hard to accurately measure a persons net worth when their financials aren’t just a house and an IRA like the average person. Especially if they don’t want you to see it. You’ll never be able to implement that tax in a consistent way.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        Thing is, that ability to evade that is intentionally built in. It has to be. We have KYC laws here and anything over 10K is tracked.

        The fact that the ultrawealthy are able to manipulate money in ways so that it’s not tracked and/or not taxed has to be by design.

  • splonglo@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    The wealth of the rich is still growing and it will continue to grow automatically until the middle class ceases to exist. If we do not take the assets back, it will become impossible for normal working people to ever buy a house, or have any economic power over their own lives at all - nevermind the political control or the media manipulation.

    Extreme wealth concentration is THE biggest issue facing society. Mamdani is absolutely right.

  • DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works
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    14 days ago

    Before the oligarchs say this is “violence”.

    This can be done peacefully. Just enact a law that taxes everything above like 999 million (or a fewer amount, to be debated on), and if you don’t comply, that’s tax evasion and you go to jail. Complelete peaceful (other than the tax-person we’d have to send to arrest the rich for non-complance), comply and everyone is happy.

    Voila, no more billionaires, and that wealth redistributed will let everyone become a millionaire. Everyone is happy, maybe the 1% cries that they now have a few less yachts and mansions, but like, they can still enjoy that one house, same as everyone else would also have.

    • OddMinus1@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      But could this really be done? As far as I’ve understood, billionaires typically don’t have a billion liquidized and ready for spending. Rather, their value is distributed in ownership of several companies. How would the 100% taxes on ownership in companies be applied?

      Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see it work, but I feel like it’s a lot more complicated than stated. And if a good way of applying those taxes would be introduced, I’m sure the billionaires would either find new ways to make the money untouchable or personally move to a country with looser tax laws.

      • simsalabim@lemmy.world
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        14 days ago

        As far as I’ve understood, billionaires typically don’t have a billion liquidized and ready for spending. Rather, their value is distributed in ownership of several companies. How would the 100% taxes on ownership in companies be applied?

        If you can leverage assets to apply for a loan to buy twitter, then you can levarage assets to pay your taxes.

  • Et Al@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Once you go beyond $100,000,000, there is no measurable difference in lifestyle. However, power accumulates. That amount of power shouldn’t be in the hands of so few.