Summary
Oxfam’s 2024 inequality report revealed a record $2 trillion increase in billionaire wealth, reaching $15 trillion, while global poverty rates remain stagnant.
The top 1% own 45% of all wealth, and 44% of people live on less than $6.85 daily.
Oxfam predicts five trillionaires within a decade, citing inheritance and cronyism as key wealth drivers. Elon Musk may become the first trillionaire by 2027.
Oxfam calls for tax reform, monopoly regulation, and income redistribution to address inequality.
Critics warn unchecked wealth concentration threatens democracy and economic fairness.
Mentally unwell hoarders
They should get therapy rite?
I can’t remember where I heard this but apparently there are therapists for very rich people.
The therapist was on a podcast I think and discussing what they talk about.
Basically all rich people fear not having enough money. No matter how rich they get, they fear and obsess over not having enough money.
I thought it was interesting. These are people richer than God and they always want more.
A single million could really change someone’s life. Just one million.
With all of my expenses tallied up, for 15 years, I’m covered worry-free and all I’d need is at least $500k. That’s it. Another half of that, make it 30 years.
These rich people, having billions at their command, are set for like twenty lifetimes over.
Their children’s children’s children will be unimaginably wealthy. There is no need for any one person to have that much. We’re supposed to be in space ships exploring the galaxy, not lining up to work ourselves to death so some mentally unstable chode’s great-great-grandkids can go to an Ivy League school.
One million invested to the stock market pays you on average 70k a year in interests. Now imagine having a billion on the stock market.
Almost all the world could live anywhere from insanely comfortable to fairly comfortable with $70k/yr
These rich people, having billions at their command, are set for like twenty lifetimes over.
I get your point and hate to be overly pedantic but even a billionaire with “only” one billion dollars, using the most conservative investment strategy would literally have enough money for 200 people to earn $200,000/year forever.
Assuming you pull a salary for 60 years you could earn $100,000/yr for over 150 lifetimes with literally just one billion dollars.
If this is true, why then do they need to buy super ultra giant mega-yachts, private jets, mansions, islands, etc?
If you are worried about running out of money, you should be living a very meager and humble life. Is that what their therapist tells them, as part of their therapy?
I think they are more worried about running out of asshole.
Taking someone out on your yacht to finish a business deal is extremely common.
Like a Hollywood supervillains. Sounds like a cry for
Luigihelp to me
They take that as “hoard more money yes yes”
These are direct results of the government’s failure to govern. The whole purpose of government is to regulate.
Billionaire wealth should have immediately been taxed at the highest historical levels. Now we’re past the tipping point and have to simply endure living in an empire as it crumbles around us, while masses of rubes cheer their oppressors.
Thank Reagan for that
‘Now we’re past the tipping point and have to simply endure living in an empire as it crumbles around us, while masses of rubes cheer their oppressors.’ - I can still vote and will do everything in my power to tax the s**t out of those billionairs. So help me the flying spaghetti monster.
You’re forgetting about the masses of rubes. Who also vote. And are pure morons.
What are rubes in this context?
Simple farmers, people of the land, the common clay of the new west…you know, morons.
More seriously:
rube (noun): a country bumpkin
bumpkin (noun): an unsophisticated or socially awkward person from the countryside
‘rube’ also has the connotation of someone being taken advantage of or otherwise fooled
Well said.
Absolutely obscene.
this should be illegal
One billion should have been illegal.
Agreed
UwU
Every developed nation should tax these motherfuckers’ entire assets at 99%. If they want to flee with all of their money to Honduras or Haiti or something, let them enjoy that paradise.
I mean, the issue is getting all nations to agree to that and making any agreement binding because otherwise the nation that decides to tax them at 98% gets all of the tax revenue…
I’d be fine with just taking them out of the entire system. Like I said, let them live in a place like Haiti if they want to be rich and keep them out of the rest of our lives. Let them build themselves a Dracula castle in Port-au-Prince.
They’re not going to go to Haiti though, they’re going to go to Monaco or Switzerland or Ireland or The Netherlands. That’s my point, for this to work all of the “developed” nations need to agree despite having a massive financial incentive not to.
Why would they have an incentive not to tax 99% of their wealth when that money would literally be going to them?
Because, as I said, if they instead tax 98% of their wealth then all the billionaires will move there and they’ll get 98% of a lot more while everyone else gets 99% of nothing. Until a country works out they could get 97% of all that wealth to themselves and so on and so forth until you get down to the sort of tax levels we actually see. It’s just basic game theory in the end.
Billionaires aren’t going to move to those other countries. The whole point of their lives is to flex their wealth where the other rich people are. If they did decide to leave the US for some reason then tax the shit out of any stock trades they make on the NYSE. Hike their corporate tax rate on any transaction with US citizens. Freeze their assets if they don’t pay what they owe. There are lots of ways to do this we’re just too chicken shit to go down that road.
They don’t need to move there, they just need to base their business there.
As a smaller example that is happening today, Delaware is a corporate tax haven state in the US. Over 2 million business entities are registered in Delaware including more than half of all publicly traded American companies and almost 70% of Fortune 500 companies. If you go to Delaware you will see maybe 20% of those have an office location in the state.
Delaware will never change this because if they do, every corporation immediately pulls out of the state, sets up a new ghost office in Texas and then continues business as usual.
This is the same dynamic on a larger scale and is subject to the same problems. It requires cooperation from many entities who are not well aligned to cooperate with each other, and it also requires regulations with teeth, and the regulators are also not well aligned to cooperate because they share in the profit.
98% of… what? Billionaires don’t get a paycheck like working people. They’re already sitting on all that wealth! If they spend money, it’s buying something once like a football team or Twitter and waiting until the value goes up before selling it. Same thing with stocks. And those realized gains are taxed lower than payroll taxes. They even take out unneeded loans like Trump just to avoid paying taxes! There’s a reason people say the rich pay less taxes than us…
Of the wealth this hypothetical tax would apply to. If you want to criticize the original premise you’re replying to the wrong person.
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That assumes national borders mean anything to this class. They travel by private plane and go directly from the tarmac to the car. They don’t even need passports.
Well it matters for their companies.
Yeah, let’s nationalize that shit.
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They couldn’t flee with everything, most of their assets are things we pay to use every day.
We lost more valuable stuff leaving them in charge: manufacturing capacity.
Capital flight is perfect, they can’t take the means of production with them. It’s an empty threat.
They’ve taken more away just being allowed to stay here. Let them flee, just means less time needed sharpening the guillotine blades when we’re fed up.
Ahh yes, report all civil disobedience.
What? What does this even do with civil disobedience?
Deny, defend, depose.
I still have no idea what your previous comment was accusing me of.
Not every comment is an accusation.
Okay, then what exactly were you trying to say to me? Because I still have no idea.
Can’t. Got removed. Wasn’t about you.
When money is used in society as security for basic rights like a home, food and clean water, healthcare, political representation in government, then people hoarding wealth at the detriment of others are responsible and shouldn’t be surprised when those same people they oppress become violent.
This is why they are shoveling so much money into loyal robots.
Bullets don’t care about your net worth
Drones are extremely cheap.
The fact that we even have billionaires (and they should not be a thing. The notion of a trillionaire is even more fucking atrocious) is probably why donvict and elon are assuming power right now.
Without the broligarchs and their thumb heavily on media, both “legacy” and not, do you think there would be so very many stupid people willing to vote for the convicted felon?
I just wanna say that Zimbabwe had trillionaires before it was cool.
Say it with me: Billionaires should not exist.
Decamillionaires should not exist as long as there is still poverty anywhere in the world.
BE Luigi.
See Luigi
and yet, no one will stop using their services.
They have so much money, the services aren’t even where they make most of it anymore. Trading and investing are.
only way I see an option to not is to live similar to Amish lifestyles in the US, but even then, I assume AWS, Meta and Alphabet can make some money off their existence through satellites and IP cameras
I don’t disagree with you and not arguing not to be aware of individual actions. it just seems the situation is more dire than just not giving them our money or data
Even if every single person stopped using them. They would still be billionaires, and still be making money by other means.
Interesting you think if everyone stopped using Amazon it wouldn’t effect him. What’s your twitter handle?
I don’t have Twitter. I use bluesky exclusively for gay porn.
amazon makes most of their money from AWS, not from retail
Missing the forest for the trees
Unfortunately I don’t have a viable alternative for some goods from Amazon without a good price increase because local sellers up the price on top of the import fees.
On the bright side, I don’t shop there often and it’s mostly limited to electronics.
Your local sellers are probably buying from Amazon and marking up, then.
Jesus Christ, I’m getting hungry! When do we eat?
Time to call the plumber, I guess.
I’ve heard Mario’s brother takes on… Social plumbing.
Simply famished
