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Me_irl
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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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me_irl
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It's so easy to turn billionaires into the main villains of the story, but it's a lazy thing to do. The real evil is the unregulated and unchecked system that allowed billionaires to be a thing. Keep that in place and grifter billionaires will just keep on popping up.
Billionaires are the capitalists that maintain capitalism.
Nah. Billionaires didn't force Reagan and Clinton to deregulate the US and set the stage for what we have today. Capitalism existed while FDR implemented the new deal, etc.
I think you're confused. Do billionaires own the means of production, or don't they?
I am not confused, and I don't think we are necessarily disagreeing. My point isn't that billionaires are faultless or good. My point is that they are not the root of the evil. We cannot just rid ourselves of the billionaires, pat ourselves on the back and call it a day. We have to do that, and then go further. We have to, at the very least, put the guardrails back in place to ensure a new crop doesn't pop right back up.
The great crash and the following great depression took care of the robber barons. We regulated in order to avoid them again, but eventually forgot our lesson. I suspect that the AI crash will take care of this current batch of rich fucks, and we will once again regulate and focus on people like FDR did. I just wish we would stop forgetting the lessons of the not so distant past.
Ok, I think I see what you're getting at. Billionaires constitute the capitalist class, but individual capitalists aren't the problem; it's the capitalist class that needs to be abolished
Exactly! We need to set checks in place to make sure the mega rich are not allowed to be a thing. I am sorry but nobody should be rich enough to set up space tourism as a side hobby while his employees piss in bottles at the warehouse. That's fucking insane!
Judging from your vote scores on this comment chain, its apparently very unpopular to think radically.
You know, what actually is the cause, how does cause lead to effect, we should address the cause, not the symptom, etc.
What seems to be easier is 'billionaires bad'.
But not 'how is there billionaires, why is there billionaires?'
Right.. The people at the top weren't billionaires, but they were the wealthy elite, who had hundreds of millions of dollars, and before that, tens, and before that just millionaires.
The wealthy elite are always the ones that pull the strings in a capitalist organization of the economy..
I think you are GREATLY, GREATLY misunderstanding the level of lobbying the rich do to keep and expand their power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Money_(book) gives you a peek behind the curtains of just a few billionaires. Its scary how deep their roots run through society. Now imagine that times 1000's of billionaires. They litterally control how 95% of the population, eat, sleep, think, pray, and vote.
Gee I wonder who would have been motivated to create such a system. Perhaps people like Smedly Butler would know
Yes, that's right. But the responsibility for this lies with none other than the American people.
This is by no means a law of nature, but the failure of what is called democracy in the U.S.