politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
I’m wondering what makes you think that becoming rich automatically makes you a parasite. No doubt many are, but even as a Linux user it’s hard to see for example Bill Gates as a parasite. Or Warren Buffett for that matter, despite his flaws.
I mean, we can somewhat argue about millionaires, but Billionaires? No way anyone EARNED that much.
I get your point but I don’t think that’s equates to being a bad person. At least the two folks I mentioned as examples are doing major philanthropy with their funds and I don’t think not earning the money is a bit different than just straight up calling them parasites. It’s a systemic issue that we as a society need to work on together rather than all the hate and division that has driven a lot of countries to populism.
Every moment they live with that kind of wealth is a moment that a poor mother cries because she can't feed her kids, some poor folk dies because he can't afford healthcare, some kid learns what it means to be poor.
I understand enjoying life and some luxuries from time to time, I don't want anyone to renounce their humanity for ideals imposed by others, but every time I read about billionaires' antics I can't help but think of my mother checking all the price tags at the supermarket, driving cars unfit for the road and so on... And we have never even touched real poverty, I can't say I ever skipped a meal.
So yeah, I can be tolerant as much as you want, I sure don't plan to go Luigi anyone, but no super luxury hotel stay is worth kids going hungry, not to mention other bullshit.
Gates is leaving 1% of his wealth to his kids. Rest goes to the causes you mentioned.
He still has it
Right but when he’s dead it will go to charity and hopefully to far better use than giving it to the US government to waste on interest payments and military spending.
Yeah or he could just not extract it from his employees and let the economy distribute it around, or give it to charity NOW, I mean even if he gave billions it wouldn't change his life one bit, except he'd lose power, and that's all these psychos care about.
Don't be fooled by the philanthropic image they've worked so hard to cultivate:
https://inequality.org/article/true-cost-of-billionaire-philanthropy/
The change handed out by billionaires as philanthropy is PR to keep them from paying their fair share in taxes. Calling them a parasite class is completely accurate— they couldn't have earned that much wealth without exploiting both the laborers who created it and the society that their extreme horde inherently destabilizes. If they paid their fair share in taxes, then their donations would be appreciated.
I think it would be pretty naive to think the US government would spend it any better.
I think it's pretty naïve to think that oligarchs are benevolent, and at least we have a say on how government money gets spent.
What we have now is billionaires rigging the system in their favor; like I said, that kind of wealth disparity is inherently destabilizing to society, and they accumulated it through exploitation.
Finally, if the people could spend the money better than the government, why do we have taxes at all? It's because there are things that we need to address as a society instead of relying on charity that may or may not come.
Surplus value my friend, it's all in the surplus value.
Absolutely, I just disagree with hating on some collective group instead of trying to fix the issues we have in our societies together.
If the term collective group is referencing the exploiters, then those are the cause of the issues. These cannot be solved without altering the economic system, which is a direct - and in their eyes violent - attack on the exploiters.
I agree with being careful stigmatizing groups or people, but that does not count for exploiters. They are the heinous villains of this world. They deserve no compassion.