• I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    I vote for wrecking the rich’s yachts. There’s even a great capitalist reason to do it: the companies that build them might make new sales! Win-win!

    • clanginator@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Qwertzwertz@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 year ago

        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.

        • IHaveTwoCows@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          And here’s another aspect: all those craftsmen are taxed at a higher rate to cover for the losses incurred by tax cuts on the wealthy who hire them…literally working to pay someone else’s taxes. Rush Limbaugh kept selling this as “job creation”: if the rich get tax cuts “they’ll buy a private jet and someone has to wash it!” So the jet washer gets no security in a gig economy and has to pay his clients’ taxes.

        • starclaude@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          the problem is actually how the rich keep buying the houses and making the prices increase for inorganic reason making people who really needs house cant afford it while at the same time the rich keep the house they bought empty

        • clanginator@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          To be clear my comment was intended purely as satire. I definitely don’t view the construction of yachts as positive in any way.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Building a super yacht means that dozens or hundreds of people work for the benefit of one person.

          And then they take the money they earn and they buy shit, directly helping other people

          • clanginator@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Nah, directly helping other ppl would be the person who bought the yacht instead spends their money on things that enrich their community/society/their workers.

              • clanginator@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                No, like building public third spaces (that aren't built around consumerism), building free housing, paying off people's houses, paying for medical facilities, improvements to schools, public transit (or something like free mechanic services), paying off medical debt, taking care of homeless, etc.

                Billionaires are the ones with the power to change the status quo and fix so many issues with society.

                Look at what can be accomplished with just a portion of a single billionaires wealth in a single area (Mark Cuban with CostPlus). Billionaires have an ethical obligation to use their wealth for the food of humankind.

      • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

          • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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.

            • clanginator@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              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.

              • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Creating confusion for you maybe. Nobody else took my comment that seriously.

                The general view is one I have reached after reading hundreds of threads or more.

                • clanginator@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  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.

                  • unfreeradical@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    You are applying overly broad extrapolations, distorting the sense of my comments, and also imposing an inaccurate view that I expressed hostility.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

        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.

        • Miqo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          “We were very wealthy,” says Errol Musk. “We had so much money at times we couldn’t even close our safe.”

          With one person holding the money in place, another other would slam the door.

          “And then there’d still be all these notes sticking out and we’d sort of pull them out and put them in our pockets.”

          You are willfully ignorant.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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.

        • Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Poor people live paycheck to paycheck, 1 disaster away from bankruptcy and absolute poverty. What the actual fuck are you taking about??

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yes, and a big part of that is that rather than get bank accounts, savings accounts, and any sort of money discipline, they fly blind and end up turning to terrible shit like payday loans.

            See, one of us has actually worked to help change the spending habits of low-income people and the other person gets their information from memes.

            • Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Source- trust me bro!

              That’s a pretty cool story you’ve got going on in your head there lol. You’re a fucking 🤡

                • Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  7 million out of 39 million living in poverty don’t have bank accounts. Lol, that’s your proof for your argument. And that’s not including the working poor. Wow, I don’t know what’s scarier- the fact that you think this is proof that the PoOr aRe CoNdItiOned tO noT uSe bAnKs- If OnlY thEy’D oPen Savinzgs AcCoUnts, or that you think that you “got me” with that stat. Fucking 🤡

                  • SCB@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    What I think is scary is that people born into immense privilege, like you, think you understand how the “working man” feels, but I console myself with the knowledge that you’re not very important.

            • zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              1 year ago

              Underbanking is a problem, and so is underinvesting. Both are caused by profit motives because investors rather put in pay day loan services instead of grocery stores in historical redlined districts🤷

              But sure, blame the habits of poor people.

        • lingh0e@lemmy.film
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          1 year ago

          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.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Tell me you don’t actually know any poor people without telling me you don’t actually know any poor people.

            • lingh0e@lemmy.film
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              1 year ago

              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?

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                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.

                • lingh0e@lemmy.film
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                  1 year ago

                  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?

                • Evie @lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  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

        • clanginator@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Almost the entirety of any rich person’s wealth is invested, because rich people generally pay smart people to handle their money.

          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.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            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.

            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.

            • clanginator@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              This has no factual basis.

              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.

              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.

              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.

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Imagine caring about the opinions of someone who calls you a "bootlicker" for simply understanding how reality works

        • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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          1 year ago

          You’re kidding right?

          1. The yachts are probably insured

          2. 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.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            actually putting money into the economy

            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.