Comparing myself to the ultra rich doesn’t affect me any more than comparing myself to super athletes. It’s the people around me that matters and they’re not significantly more wealthy than me. You’ll never be content in your life if this is the bar to reach.
Other people’s health is not a zero-sum game. There is an increasing wealth gap wherein the resources and value of humanities labour are being increasingly concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority to the detriment of everyone else.
It’s like being at a party where just before the food is served some unhinged lunatic runs in and manages to somehow fit all the food for the entire party into their underwear and run off with it.
People saying “hey, maybe we shouldn’t invite that person to parties anymore” and you reacting like “well, I don’t compare how much food I have with people who have stolen all the food. All that matters is that you’re all just as hungry as I am. You’ll never feel full if you compare yourself to someone who stole all of the food!” is very difficult to respond to in a way that is compatible with the way the Beehaw community works…
I think that the comparison is a bit flawed in the way that comparing pretty much any of us to one of the super-rich is more akin to comparing a patient in a state of clinical death to the Warhammer 40k™ top-tier warriors, not just pro athletes
If I were to dedicate all my life to sports I would maybe make it into the pro level during the lifespan, even if that would mean that I’d have to choose some sport that allows old people 🌚
I I were to continue working the way I work today and get a hundred times raise in payment, it would take me about 60 thousands of years to get what Jeff has and that is if I don’t eat or rent a flat anymore.
That’s quite a bit of difference, don’t you think?
Except pro athletes don’t earn more than the rest of the world combined. Pro athletes don’t control the prices of everything you’ve ever bought or rented. Pro athletes don’t supply the politicians with enough legal bribes in a corrupt system that they’re effectively in charge of the country.
If you don’t think billionaires sucking up all the resources and political power matters to your daily life, you’re either delusional or wilfully blind.
I wasn’t talking about the wealth of pro athletes but their athletic capabilities. Your workouts will be miserable for the rest of your life if those are the people you’re comparing yourself to.
Again, the comparison itself isn’t the point.
The point is that the astronomical levels of income and wealth of centimillionaires and billionaires aren’t possible without ruining society in thousands of ways that DO affect YOU directly and profoundly whether or not you’re actively comparing yourself to anyone.
“Congratulations you have won capitalism! Here is your signed certificate.”
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we may have to start making excuses for the lack of terror
Many years ago, I used to work in infosec. One of my employer’s clients was a big and famous brand well-established in the luxury sector. One day, a colleague of mine was sent to test their POS. Inside one, he found a single transaction for around 6M € from a credit card swipe. It wasn’t a payment made from a bank transfer or a check, just a single credit card swipe! At the time, I couldn’t even dream a card with such a credit allowance would exist. I had a pretty good living then, with money for the rent, daily expenses, and even some savings. Still, for an instant, I remember feeling like a poor child living in a house made of mud.
When there are so many that don’t have their needs met this is pretty disgusting
I agree. Seeing stuff like that and how, more often than not, the clients treated their employees and consultants was just bad for the soul. In such contexts, you understand why workers aren’t called people but “resources.” In the end, I got burned out and quit the job.
I went to that link and it was horrible, no the site is simple it’s just when it went to Bezos … then look at all the things we could have to make things better (free healthcare, free college, etc) just sickening.
BuT hE’s A pHiLaNtRoPiSt! He HeLpS SoCiEtY…
…to maintain the status quo of undertaxing rich people and letting monopolies rule industries.
And actually he does not have any money because its just his assets and what other people think they are worth but he is actually quite poor because he immediately spends all the money he makes to invest into new ideas to make the world an even better place for everyone.
We know he can’t quickly withraw the money at a good rate bit that does not make him not rich AF.
Spoilers!
I love how after they said everything they said, they leave you to keep scrolling the last third of the 3 trillion. No more commentary, just letting the scale of it sink in.
Also, there’s another one on the page about prison incarceration in the US, you should check that out as well
That actually is directly addressed on that website https://github.com/MKorostoff/1-pixel-wealth/blob/master/THE_PAPER_BILLIONAIRE.md
That’s actually the best argument I read against this. I will be honest, I was thinking the same while scrolling, but this page made me think differently.
Very well made. Is the definition of doomscrolling.
I’ve lost the will to live. Why do this place even exist?
i feel you, but i keep living just in case this ever changes. getting a job is unironically one of the best things i did for my mental health. helps paying for my hobbies too, still not enough to move out though. my solution is to endure and wait until i can sustain living on my own.
I don’t see the hope you see, unfortunately.
it’s hard, i lie in bed every evening unable to sleep thinking about how everything’s rigged against me. seeing no reason to live is perfectly rational.
but i don’t want to end up in a statistic no one’s going to do anything about. that’s not what i do. i have a few things that distract me from the thoughts, but it’s a constant flow of reasons why i don’t want to live here anymore.
Depression is one hell of a mental illness. unfortunately, the cure is normal living conditions. and that’s not happening anytime soon.
hang in there, and maybe you can look back on your life and say “i’m glad i stayed”.
I feel this. Fuck it’s dark.
That’d be awesome. I wish I had willpower to actually change some things in my life
If you can afford it, may be worth trying to get a check for mental health, because lack of willpower may as well be because of depression or other issues. For me getting treatment had changed a lot (even though rn it is kinda bad again but not that bad)
Thanks for replying. I don’t think I’ll get checked up not only due to financial struggles right now, but also not having strength to do anything. I’m just going on with life, day by day, month by month, year by year. If I’m correct with my terminology, I’m burnt out.
you’re pretty much the only one who can do anything about it. don’t seek immediate success, make little steps. next time you get a productivity boost, go for a walk. clean up your room a little.
and most importantly, prove life wrong. giving up is not why you exist.
it’s going to be worth it. i believe in you.
There is no reason
That’s the best part!
None of this, anywhere, exists by any other means than chance. The entire universe has no reason to exist. It has no reason to not exist.
It also showcases the most unique thing about awareness of the human problem - If the meaning of life isn’t a thing, what is it? Well, maybe it’s not a question to be answered, but a journey to be experienced.
So we can say “well, fuck, we’ll be miserable forever.” Or, we can individually ask if we are ok with that, and if we aren’t, how can we influence this journey to be worth experiencing?
Unfortunately most people endeavor to make other people’s journey a living hell for their own enjoyment.
That’s quite lovely.
It’s just mindless competition
Do you know what the difference is between a millionaire and a billionaire? About a billion.
Do you know what the difference is between a thousand and a million? About a million.
It’s almost as if there’s a pattern in how we name large numbers 🤔🤔🤔
The point is that 1 million is a big number (or a lot of money), as is 1 billion. But 1 billion is so big, it makes 1 million seem small by comparison. 1 thousand is not a big number.
Unless you’re talking about the number of spiders on your face
A million seconds is 11.574 days, a billion seconds is 31.7 years
I always think it as the difference between a nice vacation and a whole generation.
I’m saving this one 👍
That’s great
Now This is Doom Scrolling.
“It has to stop” I agree. But how do I make it stop? There’s a lot of talking about what is the issue and its consequences, I say this also for climate change. But they don’t say what can we do about it
A possible solution could be to limit the personal (family?) wealth, fortune, possession, etc. to for example 100 million. That should be enough to live a luxury lifestyle and give your children’s children a ‘care free life’. Everything above that amount goes to the aid of the less fortunate, public and social improvements, energy transition, solving pollution problems, etc. (worldwide). In exchange you get a certificate with: “Congratulations you won capitalism!”
P.S. When you ‘cheat’ you get 1 dollar (or equivalent) and may start over. In addition and not exclusive of all possible legal proceedings.
P.P.S. The above is just an example to illustrate that there are possibilities. But this doesn’t solve all problems of inequality or everything else that is wrong on this planet.
P.P.P.S. Too many people think the have the possibility to also collect wealth above the 100 million ( or think they are entitled to an amount above that). They will protest and vote against any such solution. (I’m not talking about those 400 Americans from the website graphic).
Reminder that the money is printed out of thin air and it’s not really that we need anyone’s stored wealth. Not even liquidating a mansion or ten from a billionaire, or from all billionaires, is going to solve our problems. Sure they are worth a lot to one person, but how much is a mansion worth to society in effect? Not much really.
The system is designed to have poor people. It must so that there is incentive to work. Otherwise we would have to force people to work. I’m not trying to justify the ways things are, I just don’t see going after stored wealth as solving the problem especially when it is not their assets we need or their made up currency.
Marxism has a rich history of thousands upon thousands of books, millions of adherents, influential thinkers across nations, disciplines and social stratae; it’s not as if there is no-one with a solution on their hands. They are just being willfully ignored.
I think their question is more about how we would implement that. Marx believed that proletariat uprising would be the “how,” and that it is an inevitability of end stage capitalism. But the nature of capitalism keeps people from attempting that. This is a system that we are forced to participate in if we want to survive. We need food and shelter and we don’t want to get arrested and/or murdered by cops for revolting. With that in mind, we have to get to a point where we collectively have nothing left to lose.
With all due respect; do you think that Marx, let alone Engels and myriads of Marxist thinkers over the centuries overlooked the idea that people are dependent on wages and therefore not likely to throw their lives to a revolutionary effort? I think the historical intricacies of revolutions are perhaps the most studied part of history for Marxists.
That said, there is obvious truth in the fact that obviously people will not join a revolutionary mass movement today or even tomorrow in the world that we live in. The circumstances ought to be life-or-death for many of them to consider that much of a sacrifice; not that I advocate that at all of course, but revolutions have not historically been staged as fun and games for all those involved.
The sad truth is that the permanent solution to our woes is a revolution that can only really happen when things are already boiling.
Not to be fatalistic deliberately, but what can we do about it? If we try to take on the system individually, we face the Plucky Ninja problem. If we try to coordinate, it’s too big a movement to keep secret, so the rich and powerful can subvert it before we get anywhere. (They’re doing a pretty good job of it already.)
Ok tankie
“Derpa derpa dankie”
See, this is the fucking problem right here. You are a commoner. The person you replied to is a commoner. Compared to the ultra rich anybody but that tiny tiny subset of people are commoners. As long as we keep name calling and pointing fingers at each other this shit will never change and we’ll be rolling around in the mud until we all fry under the sun.
I understand your frustration, we all feel the same way. Let’s direct that frustration at the people and the system that is telling us to turn on each other simply so we are blind to how we’re all being played for fools.
Aye the rich are likely very nutritious
It’s interesting that the wealth bar of the 400 richest Americans is about 6-times as long as the author needs to say some interesting points.
I’d argue that’s another good argument for seizing their assets and making them pay for their asshole behaviour.
The owner’s deluded peasants would never allow that.
Honestly, probably the only way to save the Environment and Democracy. Too much power in the hands of the few leads to perpetual effective monarchy. It’s why the Founding Fathers were against large amounts of inherited wealth, particularly inherited wealth that creates dynasties in perpetuity.
I know people don’t like the Founding Fathers that much lately, and I see why, but conservatives really don’t understand them, and deliberately misrepresent them, because not doing so would undercut all conservative “policies”.
World’s a mess because of inequality and the concentration of almost all wealth and power into the hands of a small amount of sociopaths. I honestly think the only way to solve this permanently is to cap the amount of wealth and power any individual or family can have.
You put that perfectly. Thank you.
I’m actually ok with wealthy people being wealthy, but when they took over the government as a way to make even more money at our expense is where I draw the line. We need to take back regulatory power, it’s the only thing that can compete at today’s scale.
Wealth is power. If you allow a tiny sliver of society to amass society warping levels of it, this is the outcome. There need to be limits and controls, or this will always happen.
We need to recognize that janitors are also integral and valuable. An MBA large company well paid executive doesn’t provide value to society in general, only private shareholders.
Our society’s values and incentives are perverse and self-destructive.
You ever see those comments on youtube that describe themselves as future entrepreneurs or whatever and absolutely slobber over shitty companies and rich people? Makes me cringe so fucking hard
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I have a friend that used to be super into watching morbid stuff like gore and snuff videos. He stopped a few years ago and last time I asked him he told me that he can’t handle them anymore, same goes for another person I know.
In my case I’ve never been able to watch too much of those things, but I know I’m able to handle situations where blood and stuff is involved as I’ve studied anatomy with dead human bodies and also worked with injured people. I like to think I’ve had a bit of a healthier relationship with the effects of violence on humans.
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They are so rich that my browser crashed while I was trying to speed scrolling the page to the end
On Android - it just kept resetting back to the left again…
to the left
Sounds like Android is correctly interpreting how to respond to this webpage.
Same on my iphone lmao
