Elon Musk’s financial interests put him in a position of having his own personal foreign policy, but new reporting shows that whether it’s manufacturing in China or the Starlink network being used in Ukraine, Musk’s decisions can run counter to stated US policy.

    • Lexam@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      100
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      They should exist, but we are not utilizing them correctly. Once someone has reached a billion dollar networth then they are thrown a big party and then sacrificed to a valcono. I believe this would curb emissions and fix climate change.

      • Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        37
        ·
        1 year ago

        There was a native American tribe that every ten years had individuals return all personal wealth back to the tribe and the threw a big party, then start it all over again

      • doggle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        1 year ago

        Maybe we just seize all their assets, nationalize them and make them start over with nothing. Call it new game +.

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          They just need to make a point system. The incredibly wealthy don’t care about money itself, those are already just points to them. So once you get to say 100 M, you get a trophy saying you won capitalism. After that amount 99% is taxed, you get a penny on the dollar. But all of that taxed money gets you Capitalism points. Capitalism points have no real value and can only be exchanged/traded/gambled with other winners of capitalism. Those with most points will be published each month in the top 100. And the top 10 each year get the prestigous title if honorary economic leader. They can get a medal and a pat on the back by the president.

          You can also donate extra money for more capitalism points at a 10:1 exchange rate to get people to play the game even harder and further drive down wealth.

          (I believe there are slightly less than 10,000 people in the US who would currently get their capitalism trophy. There are >140,000 people worth more than $50M, is 100 to high?)

          Oh and the 100M amount is pegged to minimum wage. Any increase to the capitalism cap has to be matched to the same percent increase to minimum wage.

      • derpgon@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Polluting a volcano with a bag of shit isn’t really green. I say we just bury them so they can at least be used as fertilizer.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      69
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Just too much power for one person. Even if they’re not in charge of a global internet provider, your average billionaire can singlehandedly affect the lives of millions of people (employees, customers, bystanders) with no democratic oversight at all. It’s just not something that should exist.

    • zephyreks@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      China seems to do a pretty good job of keeping their billionaires in check. Maybe we should take notes?

    • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      33
      ·
      1 year ago

      You: Want to abolish billionaires because they do not support the war enough.

      Me: Want to abolish billionaires because they exploit and oppress the working class.

      We are not the same.

          • dumdum666@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            I chose it so you could jerk yourself off about it and feel good at least once in your life :)

            • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              arrow-down
              15
              ·
              1 year ago

              “Patriotic socialist”, someone who claims to be a champion of the working class, but is actually more of nationalist. They only care about the working class of a certain nationality or racial group, and are generally bigoted in their view towards marginalized groups. Real socialists are internationalist. You wanting to get rid of Musk, because he’s not sufficiently gung-ho about a war fought between capitalists on the back of workers, implies you consider the national interest more important than the lives of workers. This is anti-worker class collaborator shit, which is what patsocs are really.

              • dumdum666@kbin.social
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                11
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                What the fuck are you even talking about? Russia is throwing thousands of „working class“ lives away, since it wants to expand its territory in aggressive moves since decades. They are forcing Ukraine to defend itself and yes, those are also working class people.

                So you, as a good socialist, are probably on the barricades because of this unprovoked attack on the Ukrainian working class. How are you fighting to defend them from getting killed? Please don’t answer something in the likes of „Ukraine should give up“ because then everyone would only see that you are actually advocating the Murder of the Ukrainian people.

              • Varixable@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                Lol what the fuck is this? “You’re an enemy of the working class because you don’t support Elon Musk!”

                This is some brain worm shit my dude.

      • Blaiz0r@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Well you’ve jumped to conclusions there, I’m not talking about the war but Billionaires in general and their respective countries in general.

        Billionaires have too much power, live outside the existing system of government and laws, gained their money and power through exploitation and in general are undemocratic.

        So I agree with your second statement, but not the first