"Wrong in principle"

[n1xnx@tilde.zone]

@selzero
Riiiight. Go after the poor instead, there are so many more of them.

Nope. Follow the money.

[aapis@mastodon.world]

@selzero we just have different principles. 🤷‍♂️ Sorry rich people but yall gotta go

[christopherbrown@mastodon.social]

@selzero Why are the rich trying to convince everybody else that them having stupid amounts of money that could solve hunger and housing is not the issue at hand? 🤔

[jakekb@mastodon.social]

@selzero The economist has been wrong on pretty much every prediction they have made. Why do people still read that stuff?

[faduda@mastodon.ie]

@selzero ...and a heart

[plantagolabs@mastodon.social]

@selzero do they still think those arguments work on the public ? Neoliberalism is so has been

[finitum@mastodon.social]

@selzero excuse me while I go door to door fundraising for the kid's school to cover PE, music & science teachers while a private luxury jet carrying 6 people and a couple pilots flies overhead costing roughly the same in fuel as the entire school is trying to raise.
Society coming apart at the seams & the leaders would prefer people not look to them to provide a solution.

[erik@mastodon.infrageeks.social]

@selzero Hmmm. Can I get a definition of principle in this context, please?

[ziggyzapf@dice.camp]

@aapis @selzero I agree with the sentiment of "eat the rich," but that's how you get prion diseases. I'd also say we don't know where they've been, either, but the Epstein files are drip-feeding us TMI on that front.

Better to mulch the rich into nutrient filled fertilizer or something.

[nyquildotorg@gts.nyquil.org]

@ZiggyZapf

You don't have to "use all of the rich" like they're buffalo; you can just mulch the brain but eat everything else to skip the prison disease.

@aapis @selzero

[ziggyzapf@dice.camp]

@nyquildotorg @aapis @selzero Fair. I'm not an expert in medicine. I'm under the impression that prions can be spread through cannibalism in general, and that the brain was just the part where it's almost guaranteed.

Still, I think the principle of aiming to get some use out of every part of their body is worth pursuing. It sends a message if there's nothing left to bury, after all.

But yeah, taking their money and means of production will easily dwarf the benefits of maximum biomass utility.

[selzero@syzito.xyz]

@ZiggyZapf @aapis their attitudes may taste like shit but go real good with wine.

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@ZiggyZapf @aapis@mastodon.world @selzero Mulching is not prion-safe. Even autoclave is insufficient. Throw them into actitve volcanos or something.

[nonehitwonder@tenforward.social]

@ZiggyZapf @aapis @selzero *googles* "can plants get chlamydia"

[ziggyzapf@dice.camp]

@dalias @selzero Really? Huh.

I do have to admit fiery death certainly has its appeal.

[dalias@hachyderm.io]

@ZiggyZapf @selzero Prions are extremely scary. Along with maybe certain fungal things, probably the closest to genuine eldritch horror we've found in known biology.

[c_merriweather@social.linux.pizza]

@selzero "Paging Madame Guillotine, paging Madame Guillotine!"

[gatesvp@mstdn.ca]

@n1xnx @selzero

Fortunately, "go after the poor" is actually not a proposal in the article. Instead, it's taking about a bigger picture.

There are simply not enough fat cats to fund welfare states by themselves. The proposed wealth tax in California would raise about 2% of the state’s annual output—not much... in the place with one of the world’s greatest concentrations of billionaires.

They even agree that changes should happen:

Loopholes benefiting the very wealthy should certainly be closed. The biggest problem in the American tax system is at the very top... The dodge is outrageous. Yet ending it would yield only a tiny amount of money, probably less than 0.1% of gdp annually.

The annual US deficit is $1,700B.
The US debt is $38,600B.

How much billionaire tax do you think we can collect against that number?

[gatesvp@mstdn.ca]

@n1xnx @selzero don't get me wrong, we should increase taxes on billionaires. Absolutely.

But it's not going to fill budget gaps and we need to also have those hard conversations about doing that too.