World News @lemmy.ml Garibaldee @lemm.ee 2w ago

Wealth of the World’s Billionaires Has More Than Doubled Over the Past Decade

truthout.org Wealth of the World’s Billionaires Has More Than Doubled Over the Past Decade

Driven by massive inequality, the world’s richest grew their fortune from $6.3 trillion to $14 trillion.

News @lemmy.world return2ozma @lemmy.world 3d ago

truthout.org /articles/wealth-of-the-worlds-billionaires-has-more-than-doubled-over-the-past-decade/

35 comments

It has to be fucking taken by force, and I dont wanna hear any of your goddamn neoliberal whining about it. It's not "the world's billionaires"; it's "world billionaires propped up by US monetary policy". It has to stop. Bezos, btw, literally destroys companies and competition with a simple mouse click. He single-handedly controls the entirety of online commerce. One guy. Controlling EVERYTHING.
- They took it by force, why can't we?
- Some of them literally have their money in Euros and European companies, which the US does not control. I'm not going to whine if you wanna revolution, that's understandable, but be factual on the way.
- I'm sorry that I whine about not killing people.
  
  As someone that has taken beating after beating I'm not down with violence except the verbal type. But worry not they take crazy-ies like me out to fields, make us dig our own graves, and then shoot us into them.
  
  So maybe I have a different view of "violence for change" than you do.
- A cabal of Digi-tech-al robber Barons running the country openly. Elon Musk is going to be a staff member of the US Government.
- Then why aren't you doing it?
For what benefit?
- Honestly, I think a lot of it is just to support the idea that those who have more, deserve more.
  
  Useful idiots are in vogue. They live vicariously through their oppressors while working service jobs for scraps.
- Unfortunately, only for their own benefit.
  
  Increasingly not even for their own benefit. They are like a parasite that is killing it's host and therefore it's means of subsistence
- so the adjuster notices them
  
  For what benefit?
- None, that's the funny part. You could almost call it a flaw with humanity as a whole.
  
  We can't focus on any sort of task-at-hand for any greater good. We simply are just that self centered and greedy, despite those of us that fight against that nature, it's still our nature.
  
  Climate change? You can't make people wear masks in grocery stores or vaccinate, good luck with the climate.
- Two options, if you're shilling for billionaires:
  
  They're intrinsically 10,000x better than you and me and deserve to be 10,000x richer.
  
  It's just theirs. It says so somewhere, no backsies.
  
  Pure trickle-down had it's day too, but it's it's a joke again in modern times, for the most part. You may object that these are all weak arguments, but basically, you and what army?
  
  Edit: "We need a remote chance of becoming a billionaire for anyone to go to work" is kind of a blend of trickle-down and argument number one, but I suppose I should mention it, just for the sake of completeness
  
  I guess even as a billionaire, the difference between your first 50 billion and your second 50 billion is that with your second you can make frivolous purchases of social media companies without going back to being poor.
  
  It's still bullshit in the big picture of history.
- This is either a boring rhetorical question or a very confused one.
- I mean, my wealth has more than doubled over the past decade. The stock market has been going absolutely bananas, and my retirement accounts have done well.
  
  I guess when corporate media told us the economy was doing great, it was you they were talking to, and not the other ~80–90% of Americans.
  
  OK for some I guess.
The system is working as intended.
- Past time to change the system.
  
  Those who benefit and think they benefit from it will fight back, though.
They'll double next decade too, don't worry. We humans aren't really good at this planetary dominion shit. We've only really been at it for 200 years or so and we're already fucking up.
Everyone's wealth doubled.
- Why would you think that?
  
  Because inflation and stock markets are going nuts. And since everyone working has their pension invested, their wealth went up as well. Plus house prices went up. The problem is that people confuse wealth with money. And wealth is not money. You can't buy bread with wealth.
It's more like they have tons of more money and larger numbers in their portfolio. it's however not a significant increase in actual wealth, since the money they have is increasingly wort less and the worth of their assets are increasingly more and more speculative in nature. The pockets of billionaires is where all the printed money eventually ends up and society is no richer for it. The money contributes to inflation, but it really doesn't get invested or anything.
- That's not how it works. They use it as Capital to influence politics and things like that, which buys them more influence, which they use to reduce workers pay, rights, and benefits even further, which they absolutely use to acquire more wealth.
  
  Every billion they gain comes at the cost to worker rights.

35 comments