Steve
@Steve@communick.news
- Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 2 hours ago:
You could ask Bezos’ ex-wife. It’s common in divorces.
- Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 2 hours ago:
Now you’re literally fat shaming
- Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 3 hours ago:
so to introduce a “wealth tax” would mean to create a new category (“Federal Wealth Tax”) that taxes all net wealth except real estate (which is already taxed on the state level), am i seeing this correctly?
The details haven’t been worked out. It may or not include locally taxed properties. California’s one time billionaire tax I don’t think cares if it’s been taxed or not already.
how do you assess the total wealth of a person, once they have moved their stuff abroad?
They can’t move a lot of it. It’s mostly shares in companies, bonds, commodities, all traded on public markets. Some is in private markets. But that’s still all managed by banks. Banks all around the world started sharing data in 2016. So governments now have access to people’s international holdings.
Things like cars, boats, paintings, various high value sundries, they have insurance values that could be used.
In short, very carefully. Some things may be missed, but the vast majority of their wealth can be found and calculated.
- Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 8 hours ago:
Fixd
- Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 8 hours ago:
I responded to eq0.
Don’t know what you’re seeing - Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 10 hours ago:
I prefer “Financial Hording”
It literally is a hording mentality. But because it’s money, people give it a pass. - Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 11 hours ago:
What does that matter?
The point is that it’s absolutely possible. There is no technical reason it can’t be done, it just isn’t often. - Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 12 hours ago:
The US doesn’t have a wealth tax… Yet
The point is, not taxing leaving people who live outside the country, or aren’t even citizens, isn’t a fixed law of the universe like the speed of light. It’s a policy choice. Different choices can be made. There’s no reason tax law can’t be written to account for it.
- Comment on just temporarily embarrassed billionaires, one good idea or lottery ticket from making it rich 12 hours ago:
US citizens pay US income tax, no matter where in the world they live.
China makes foreign nationals pay taxes on any revenue that comes from China.
You don’t need to end free trade.
- Comment on The System does not work. 2 days ago:
I tried to look, but I’m at work. Got busy.
Where did you find that? - Comment on Billionaires hate democracy 2 days ago:
5% is less than the passive income that amount of wealth makes that year!
- Comment on The System does not work. 2 days ago:
Mods could police it. Would be a good rule
- Comment on The System does not work. 2 days ago:
The link I found says 18-29yo.
It’s also from 2020 at the peak of COVID - Comment on The System does not work. 2 days ago:
What age range is young adult here?
- Comment on Amazon executives are enraged about a Mamdani proposal 3 days ago:
Is just straight up copy paste less lazy?
On the streets of New York City, thousands of workers hustle to deliver nearly one billion packages a year. Now, a high-stakes battle that could force Amazon and other big delivery companies to take full responsibility for those workers has reached a turning point.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani is throwing his support behind the union-backed legislation that is at the core of that battle. On Monday, Mr. Mamdani announced that he backs the Delivery Protection Act, a measure pending before the City Council that is aimed at regulating the “last-mile” operations of Amazon, FedEx and other distribution companies. It would require them to hire delivery workers rather than relying on contractors.
“Corporations like Amazon build billion-dollar business models by insulating themselves from accountability through a system of exploitative subcontracting,” Mr. Mamdani said in a statement. He called the Council bill “common-sense regulation that protects delivery workers, safeguards the communities where these facilities operate and ensures that the corporations benefiting from workers’ labor are responsible for the consequences of their business practices.”
The campaign to regulate the last-mile operations is playing out in a city in which consumers are enthralled with delivery to their doorstep, often within hours of placing an order online.
Global distribution companies save money by using contractors to provide the labor needed to get packages from their distribution networks to customers. That model allows the companies to avoid regulations regarding minimum pay and benefits that would apply if they employed those workers, supporters of the measure argue.
The bill’s opponents — including Amazon — counter that the measure would drive up the costs of delivery to consumers while slowing the arrival of packages. And they warn that it could force Amazon to move its distribution hubs out of the city to evade the new rules, eliminating thousands of local jobs.
Amazon has marshaled a coalition of business groups, including chambers of commerce and the Real Estate Board of New York, to oppose the legislation. Union officials estimate that Amazon has spent more than $5 million on an opposition campaign that includes TV ads. A study commissioned by an Amazon-funded group found that the regulations could increase the cost of delivery by as much as $5.20 per package, or $664 annually per household.
“We’re committed to creating good jobs, supporting our thousands of employees and local small business partners in New York City, and providing fast, reliable delivery for New Yorkers,” said Kelly A. Nantel, a spokeswoman for Amazon. “But as written, this legislation would directly undermine that commitment — threatening the small businesses that deliver to customers, putting the jobs of more than 5,000 of their employees at risk and forcing us to consider relocating delivery operations outside of the city.”
If the legislation passes and Mr. Mamdani signs it, New York could become the first city in the United States to regulate these last-mile operations, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has been lobbying for the bill. The delivery workers in New York start at about $20 an hour, and, Amazon said, average close to $24 an hour. The Teamsters reached a deal with an Amazon contractor in California to pay about $30 an hour.
“We’re in a new era of politics in the five boroughs, one where workers and their advocates are in the driver’s seat,” said Thomas Gesualdi, president of Teamsters Joint Council 16.
Eric Blanc, an assistant professor of labor studies at Rutgers University, said that the bill would be “a great fight for the administration to pick” because it pits “young Black and brown working-class New Yorkers against Jeff Bezos,” the billionaire founder of Amazon.
Mr. Blanc, who studies union organizing efforts, said that by supporting low-paid delivery workers against one of the nation’s biggest employers, Mr. Mamdani is demonstrating his willingness to spend political capital for workers beyond “just showing up at the picket line.”
Mr. Mamdani, who was elected with the backing of the Democratic Socialists of America, has spoken at several rallies of unionized workers and walked picket lines with striking nurses and Starbucks employees. But the delivery protection bill could be the first major test of his willingness to take on big corporate interests on behalf of low-paid workers. Editors’ Picks
With his statement of support, the mayor signaled that he was ready to confront one of the world’s most profitable industries over a practice that it has spent significant sums to defend.
The bill, sponsored by Tiffany Cabán, a councilwoman from Queens, has drawn more than 30 co-sponsors.
Jumaane Williams, the public advocate, testified at a hearing of the Council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection in April and said the measure could help to ensure that delivery workers’ rights to organize are protected.
“Companies that bust unions and skirt labor laws like Amazon will no longer be able to hide behind subcontractors and will be held liable for any and all violations,” Mr. Williams said.
Luc Rene, 27, who has driven Amazon vans for nearly four years, works from a depot in Queens that the Teamsters organized last year. He said that he delivers as many as 400 packages a day. But he said that when he has asked for a lighter load during a heat wave or after a snowstorm, the contractor he works for has told him that Amazon wouldn’t allow it. The contractor whom Mr. Rene identified as his employer, DNA Logistics, could not be reached for comment.
Amazon did not address Mr. Rene’s allegations specifically but said that the company regularly adjusts drivers’ routes to account for inclement weather.
Some Amazon contractors said that the city could wind up hurting delivery workers more than helping them.
Rudy Cazares, who owns companies that deliver in the city for Amazon and FedEx, said that although his employees wear uniforms bearing the names of those brands, those companies do not decide whom he hires and fires and promotes.
“It’s very easy to say it’s workers against big corporations and that Amazon is the big bad wolf here,” Mr. Cazares said. But he said the city is full of small businesses like his that are key to the distribution industry.
Mr. Cazares’s company, Cazar Logistics, is a member of the New York Delivers Coalition, which is led by Amazon. Amazon also funded a group called Five Borough Jobs Campaign, which commissioned a study by the consulting firm AKRF that calculated the potential consequences of the bill for the city’s economy. The study said that the bill “would destabilize the city’s delivery ecosystem” and suggested that its impact would fall disproportionately on lower-income communities.
The consulting firm estimated that 83 percent of the “last-mile facility” workers live in boroughs other than Manhattan and that about 80 percent of them are minorities.
“I believe what’s at stake is thousands of local jobs,” said Christine Chan, who owns a Harlem company that uses cargo bikes to deliver about 5,000 packages a day in Manhattan for Amazon. She said that her company, Highgate Logistics, had about 175 workers making about $20 an hour and “plenty of applicants.”
Her message to the Council: “You’re betting that Amazon is going to employ these people directly. I’ll take the other side of that bet.”
- Comment on 92% of American adults aren’t going to a doctor because they cannot afford it. The health insurance industry must be dissolved & all of its executives criminally prosecuted for murder, conspiracy, an… 4 days ago:
For roughly 40 years now, no party has been all that serous about changing it?
- Comment on Amazon executives are enraged about a Mamdani proposal 4 days ago:
Kagi Ai Summary:
A Fight Brews Between Mamdani and Amazon Over Delivery Workers details the escalating conflict regarding the labor practices of major delivery companies in New York City. Mayor Zohran Mamdani has officially endorsed the Delivery Protection Act, legislation designed to regulate the last-mile operations of corporations like Amazon and FedEx. The proposed measure aims to compel these companies to hire delivery workers directly instead of relying on third-party contractors. Proponents argue that the current subcontracting model allows corporations to bypass essential regulations concerning minimum pay and employee benefits. Mamdani contends that this shift is necessary to ensure accountability and protect both workers and the communities impacted by distribution facilities. However, the bill faces significant opposition from companies like Amazon, who argue that the regulation will increase costs for consumers and cause delays in package deliveries. Critics of the legislation also warn that these rules could force firms to relocate their distribution hubs outside of the city. Such a move would potentially result in the loss of thousands of local jobs. The debate highlights the tension between the modern consumer demand for rapid delivery and the push for stronger labor protections in a gig-dependent economy. - Comment on "It's not work" - Austrian Chancellor Stocker declares that in his view caring for children isn't work 1 week ago:
Is he advocating that child care should be free?
It does sound like it. - Comment on Somethings wrong about a system where nearly half of its workers need two jobs to survive. 1 week ago:
Anyone know where these numbers came from?
- Comment on Hopeposting 1 week ago:
That’s so Punk Rock
- Comment on In Star Wars, what would it mean "to bring balance to The Force?" 1 week ago:
I think the Jedi incredibly stupid in Episodes 1, 2, 3.
They had a prophecy about one to bring Balance in a time when the Jedi were unquestionably dominant. Well Balance during that time, would obviously require the Jedi to be taken down. Anakin was that balance. The Jedi order was destroyed and the Sith began their period of domination. Creating Balance.The next obvious story for Episodes 7, 8, 9, would have been a the creation of a new order, neither Jedi or Sith, that fostered Balance within each member. That’s where Rian Johnson was going with Ep. 8. But the idiot Glass Union came back and shat the bed trying desperately to unravel all that, going back to what he thought the fans wanted. Which was the same old thing all over again.
- Comment on They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back. 1 week ago:
Yah. That’s what was already pointed out.
- Comment on They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back. 1 week ago:
Were looking a 2 different things here. I’m doing the math on a specific policy and how it would effect a specific company. You come back with generalizations and broad conceptions.
You are right generally. We agree generally. But here specifically this policy won’t do any to help that, and is bad policy-making. We’re both right.
- Comment on They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back. 1 week ago:
That’s not how math works.
2024
Revenue was $147B
Profit was $3.8B or 2.8%The lowest estimate of sales volume through self checkout is 38%.
So a 10% self checkout discount is 3.8% hit to revenue. When profits are only 2.8% they’ll take a 1% loss.The CEO pay being only 0.4% of that $3.8B profit. Isn’t remotely enough to matter.
- Comment on They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back. 1 week ago:
That’s kind of the only way it could work.
Grocery stores average margins of ~3%. They can’t do universal 10% discounts. - Comment on They eliminated cashiers and keep the profits. NY Democrats are fighting back. 1 week ago:
I understand, even agree with the principal.
But don’t grocery stores average low single digit margins? A universal 10% discount might not be workable. Unless the point is to eliminate self-checkout. But then why not simply do that? - Comment on Is the sea calm beneath the surface during a storm? 2 weeks ago:
The depth of a wave is half its wavelength. With waves 8 meters apart meters down the water is calm.
- Comment on Is this true that Snapdragon X2 Elite chip 38% faster than apple silicon M3 pro and beats apple M5? 2 weeks ago:
Probably. Is it 38, 35, or 40% faster? That may be debatable.
But, yah. It’s absolutely faster than Apple silicon in general. - Comment on Please critique this in terms of its raising awareness of the less aware. It's old news to us, but will it help people wake up a little? 2 weeks ago:
That’s a common phrase I’ve heard about lots of thing, for most of my life.
- Comment on Will Hollywood's remake of Parasite really succeed? 2 weeks ago:
Girl with the Dragon Tatoo
Let Me In > Let the Right One In
The Ring > Ringu The Italian Job
Insomnia
12 Monkies > La Jetée
True Lies > La Totale!
The Departed > Infernal AffairsThey all have better production quality. Most keep the same story with minor alterations. A few make real story improvement or expansion.