Public opinion used to matter, now they onow that they can get away with quite literally whatever they want.
Billionaires used to build libraries and hospital wings, now they just buy politicians.
Submitted 3 weeks ago by sanitation@lemmy.today to workreform@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/062d19a1-38a1-4957-8f88-debece60029a.jpeg
Comments
Mac@mander.xyz 3 weeks ago
yardratianSoma@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
If they can do anything, and we know humans are corrupted easily when given so much power, is there any other option to stop them, other than death?
AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
You say this as if that weren’t the desirable option…
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
we know humans are corrupted easily when given so much power
Are people corrupted by power?
Or is corruption a means by which people accrue power?
is there any other option to stop them, other than death?
Mass opposition movements can quickly defang a corrupt official.
Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Billionaires used to build libraries and hospital wings
Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Rupert Murdoch laying down bricks. Are you sure those libraries weren’t build by workers?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Billionaires once bribed public officials to put their names on libraries.
But now we don’t fund library construction, so they buy the rights to naval warships instead.
Radical_Socialist_t00t@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Isn’t capitalism great? Aren’t you glad we’re not doing the Scientific Socialism thing?
cavitationfetishist01@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
There are so many alternatives that aren’t definitely this bad that we aren’t trying.
Racoonwithbenefits@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Tbh america should just rebuild their democratic system so it works for multiple parties
In my country we got over 10 political parties parliament
regedit@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Unfortunately, laws are only able to be changed by the same group that stands to lose if something like that law gets passed. The system all but guarantees a two-party system eventually.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The spoiler effect: obvious to literally everyone, except to those innocent candidates who must not know, bless their hearts.
nkat2112@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Therein lies the problem.
Thank you for sharing this, OP.
cavitationfetishist01@quokk.au 3 weeks ago
They have forgotten the guillotine, and only have deranged fantasies of the assassin’s bullet.
It is on all of us to remind them.
Formfiller@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m going to correct you. Billionaires were also evil during the guilded age they literally burned company housing down with families in them and had the army shoot down stikers. The thing is people took up arms and we were able to gain some workers rights because the pedophile class was scared not because they were kind. After all that they started doing things like that to repair their reputations. We’re at the part of the story where an uprising is needed but the mass surveillance police state is being rapidly built in anticipation of this
explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
That’s a stupid thing for them to build, too… it could easily inform the next “Terror” who to kill as well.
Formfiller@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
We can only hope
K1nsey6@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They rewrote the tax laws to get the tax breaks where they didnt have to do philanthropic works
adarza@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
if you wanted a single image or chart or graph to illustrate what happened and when, to get where we (the u.s.) ‘are’ today…
this is it.
Janx@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
boltzbruh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
JFC. Would be interesting to have this adjusted for inflation as well!
DokPsy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You know, I don’t think inflation will make much of a difference in this case
Doomsider@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The modern wealthy are completely divorced from country and city. They no longer build a mansion and improve the town they built it in…now they own several mansions in different countries and the real status symbol is the private jet. The ability to go anywhere at anytime without any strings attached.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Before, the millionaire/billionaire was raised with the classist attitudes that often included charity works for the masses to keep favor with “the people” despite the horrible working conditions that they often kept the lower classes in. Orphanages, libraries, schools, hospitals, homes for the disabled, etc were all on the board for these kinds of “giving.” Of course there was no secret who donated, if their name wasn’t on the building.
Now the donations come with strings attached, rights to any profits from the research these facilities generate, naming rights, tax writeoffs, and can even be donations to charities already owned by a family member or someone already a subdivision of a subdivision of an LLC owned by a parent company of the billionaire.
boletus@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
This goes to show America is a democracy for coorporations only. If you are a natural person, you are merely a wage slave.
jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Wealth redistribution, American style
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m sure it’s true.
However, currently in Boston(U.S.), there are new hospital buildings going up at Mass. General Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer center that have Billionaire names attached.
A few more in the near pipeline.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Great, build hospitals we can’t afford to use.
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Not true. MA actually has universal healthcare. Matter of fact the state insurance called MassHealth can be better than private insurance.
Massachusetts is a lot better than the majority of the U.S.
jbrains@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Threaten the guillotines more aggressively. That’s what worked previously.
moustachio@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Better yet, start forming / joining militias, so we have some working class mobilization efforts going on.