this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2023
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Work Reform
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- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
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When you think about it, at that point at least the rich are spending their money again in order to buy another yacht, actually putting money into the economy.
It's like trickle down economics, but we gotta shoot some holes in the water tower to make it trickle down.
This is actually an example in The Wealth of Nations; Adam Smith considers whether a hooligan smashing a window is a benefit to society because it creates work for the glazier.
Smith concluded that no, it isn't a net benefit because the glazier could have made a new window instead.
However, given that megayachts are net negative to society, I'm not sure how he'd view this case.
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/villains/images/4/4a/Zorg.jpg
Money goes from the billionaires to the millionaires that owns the yacht companies 😅
Building a super yacht means that dozens or hundreds of people work for the benefit of one person. As craftsmen, they could have improved the lives of tens of thousands in their community instead. As engineers, they could have built products serving millions.
Not to mention the natural resources used for one person's benefit.
There's nothing positive about super yachts (and mansions, private jets,...) being built. Don't let the flow of money confuse you.
The argument is sloppy.
The working class makes gains when our work helps us as a class, not when we are forced to serve.
If the wealthy are able to support the creation of wasteful luxuries for their own vanity, then they must be able to support activities that help the working class.
The difference is that the latter may require some encouragement.
My comment was satire. Stop arguing with the wind.
Many comments being posted are intended as satirical, but the actual apologia resembles satire so much that I think the intentional satire is rather creating confusion above all else.
Creating confusion for you maybe. Nobody else took my comment that seriously.
I said "shooting holes in a water tower to make trickle-down economics work" as a reply to someone making an obvious quip. IDK if you've just never been around leftist discussions, but joking about how fucked trickle-down economics is isn't an endorsement of building megayachts that wreck the environment and provide no good to society.
Stop being intentionally obtuse, or just don't blame others for your inability to read between the lines.
EDIT to add: I also explicitly stated it was satire in response to the only other comment that replied to mine taking it seriously. But even their comment just seemed more like a clarification for anyone else reading, not someone actually taking my comment seriously.
The general view is one I have reached after reading hundreds of threads or more.
So then why reply to my comment with a hostile argument when there was already a thread in reply to mine which cleared up any possible confusion?
You can't read satire, got confused and replied without spending the time to even read the other reply saying the same shit you said.
And you wanna blame satire for creating confusion.
If u smell shit everywhere you go, check ur own shoe bud.
You are applying overly broad extrapolations, distorting the sense of my comments, and also imposing an inaccurate view that I expressed hostility.
So leading with "the argument is sloppy" is a nice friendly way of opening a conversation?
Please tell me exactly what I'm broadly extrapolating or distorting here, because your comment makes broad accusations without actually talking specifics, while mine does exactly the opposite. If anything, ur the one extrapolating bs.
You're the one that chose to make a useless comment in the first place, don't bitch when you get called out for it.
You just literally don't know how to accept/respond to satire, and when you realized you took satire seriously, instead of saying "oh okay" u got defensive and offended.
Grow tf up dude. Let satire exist. Read other replies before adding to meaningless drivel like you did.
I am rejecting your characterization that I have been hostile, which is also not supported by the text you quoted.
Your tone consistently has escalated toward one that is petty and oppositional.
Starting a reply with "the argument is sloppy" is unfriendly, yes. Deny it all you want.
Your first comment was 100% unnecessary if you'd spent 30 seconds to read further into the thread instead of taking those 30 seconds to tell me I'm wrong.
That's antagonistic.
Now go look up the definition of hostile.
Yeah bc ur comments from the first one have been utterly pointless, added nothing to the discussion, and shown that you have an inability to just admit when you're wrong.
The other person who took my comment seriously just up voted my reply saying my comment was satire and left it at that. U just got something up ur ass and can't handle ppl correcting u.
Bye lil bro, have fun arguing with the ether. Hope you can grow tf up someday.
People who think the rich just have vaults full of money are so fucking ridiculous.
Poor people sit on cash. Poor people hide cash in their house. Almost the entirety of any rich person's wealth is invested, because rich people generally pay smart people to handle their money.
You are willfully ignorant.
You're an idiot if you thinks fucking safe holds any real amount of money, or that one South African semi-rich person counts as any sort of evidence.
Cash depreciates over time. No rich person keeps a ton of cash, because it means they get less rich every day.
Yeah, all those poor folks literally sleeping on cash under their mattresses because they don't have to spend it immediately on things like, you know... staying alive.
It boils down to poor people are poor because they don't invest, and rich people are rich because they invest 😂 nothing else matters!
He's talking like poor people can just put money into a savings account and make money lol. What a fucking out of touch clown
What internalizing articles from "the economist" does to a mfer.
Tell me you don't actually know any poor people without telling me you don't actually know any poor people.
Lol. Sure sure. Apparently I've been living poor incorrectly by immediately spending my money on things like food, shelter and childcare instead of hoarding it like some kind of Scrooge McDuck wannabe.
You think poor people have money they don't need to spend, so they just keep it stashed away in a shoebox or something? How out of touch are you?
This is an endemic problem with poor people, actually, because poor people are often conditioned not to "trust" banks.
You'd know that, if you knew them.
You must be right. I've never lived in and among poverty. Thank you for explaining my life to me. Is there anything else I didn't actually experience?
Tact and schooling, apparently.
Good to know you're keeping those gates safe. Keep up the good work!
You'll eventually matter if you stay in school and work hard
No foolin'!? Gee, thanks mister!
Eh I was being nice. Probably not.
Yeah, cause poor people and low income people are so much more rare to encounter during a day, then a millionaire/billionaire or people in top 5%..... /S
Damn, maybe poor people should just hire a full-time broker and give them the $20 they can spare this month and let that smart person invest it so they're not poor anymore 🤓
Being poor in the US is a literal trap. It is intentional. It is exploitation. The lack of financial education isn't the fault of poor people who grew up going to schools that could barely afford to run, and/or went to school hungry.
And once you're poor, it can be extremely difficult to escape, bc the system is designed to punish poor ppl. Poor ppl sit on cash bc if it's in a bank the money they need for food might get taken away bc of some bullshit overdraft fee or similar. I know bc I've been poor and know poor ppl.
Poor people aren't poor because they don't invest wisely enough. They're poor bc the system is designed in so many ways to keep it that way.
Also rICh pEoPle dOnT Sit ON tHeiR MoNey ThEY iNvEsT it
Yeah, putting billions of dollars into stocks and letting it sit there is still hoarding wealth. Call it "investing 🤓" or whatever. It's still hoarding, it's still immoral and detestable.
You sound like you're 17 and just started listening to Fox Business for financial advice.
This has no factual basis.
You seem like you think I'm attacking poor people for not having money to invest rather than making fun of people who believe the quoted statement.
Yes it does.
See I used as much logic in that response as u used in ur comment, so my answer is just as valid as yours. But since I used more logic in the comment you're replying to, my original point still stands. Try again, lil bro.
I do not give a flying fuck whether you were making fun of someone or trying to get a billionaire to see ur comment so they'd let u suck their dick, bootlicker. You're wrong.
Also billionaires can literally just use their stock value as cash, genius.
Why you simp for billionaires bruh. U ain't gonna become one.
Imagine caring about the opinions of someone who calls you a "bootlicker" for simply understanding how reality works
And again no reasoning given. Yup, certified brain rot.
You can't be this dumb 😂
Are you saying that you believe the wealthy just have large vaults of cash?
The only one talking about vaults of cash is the comment i replied to 😂 what no reading comprehension does to a mfer, the "vaults of cash" is something he pulled out of his ass.
What i am saying is that he is dumb to think rich people are rich because they invest and poor people are poor because they don't invest.
Don't make fun of other people for reading comprehension and in the same comment demonstrate that you failed to comprehend what you read. The guy you replied to was saying that the wealthy generally invest their money while the less wealthy generally just save it. The former earns some kind of return while the latter slowly loses value. He didn't say anything about why anyone is rich or why anyone is poor.
Poor people generally don't have the luxury of investing. They don't have extra money to invest, and if they do, they generally can't take the chance of having their money tied up in investments when a situation might arise where they need access to it.
Wow...The mask came off, huh... who else from what base is notorious for saying "Go back to (insert country here)" yeah.. the mask always comes off
Fucking right wing fascist apologists are worse than commies but that nuance may be lost on you due to brainwashed propaganda you have been consuming...
Lemmygrad is not a country.
Comprehension is hard, huh.. I'm sorry buddy
Lemmygrad got defederated, which is as big a "not welcome" sign as can be put up on Lemmy.
Communists should be shouted down everywhere because they do not exist in reality.
Poor people live paycheck to paycheck, 1 disaster away from bankruptcy and absolute poverty. What the actual fuck are you taking about??
You're kidding right?
The yachts are probably insured
Just because they don't literally have millions sitting in a checking account doesn't mean they can't liquidate some of their investments and get it in short order.
This person veliev s rich people have millions sitting in checking. This belief is widespread, and is not just misleading, it changes the entire discussion from wealth to money.