Technology

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[+] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today -17 points 2 years ago (3 children)

How many people is the billionaire incarcerating?

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[–] irreticent@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

Good question. He definitely seems like the type that would have a dungeon with captives.

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[–] gnomadic@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

He got his wealth because his parents owned a slave-powered diamond mine.

Also, as he hides his money and doesn't pay taxes the US government is overburdened and one of their tools is relying on prisons for free labor.

Soooo actually quite a lot.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago*

Let everyone incarcerated go and see how that works out for you. Not saying everyone deserves to be in there, but go on. Give it a try.

You also forget that billionaires are wealth, and so is any dictator. They both seek to protect that wealth, so it doesn’t matter in the end. A billionaire buys his politicians and you get the same result. You start threatening their money and power and they’ll come after you, whether you want equal rights or sometimes just clean water.

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[+] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world -19 points 2 years ago (19 children)

That's better than a dictator who only wants to protect his own power. At least a billionaire can be bought.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (8 children)

What the heck do you think a dictator is? A billionaire running a country.

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world -4 points 2 years ago (7 children)

I think there is a difference in mentality between people who chase power and people who chase money. Bull Gates certainly chases money, but he's not trying to take over a country somewhere.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

That may be so, but nonetheless they overlap often enough.

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[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 1 point 2 years ago (5 children)

This Bill Gates?

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Are you saying he is trying to take over the country by buying all the land? Seems like he's just using land as an investment.

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[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 1 point 2 years ago (3 children)

I'm saying that buying insane amounts of agricultural land gives him and his family a permanent rent-seeking position over a basic necessity, so yeah, he is taking over a part of the world.

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Owning land is not the same as governing land.

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[–] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

It's not my problem you don't understand the concept of the "ruling class".

Owning vast capital (and land is capital) does give a degree of undemocratic power over government policy.

But go ahead and keep letting billionaires buy up everything until we live in a feudalist society. I'm sure nothing will go wrong.

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 1 point 2 years ago

I'm more worried about billionaires who have literal armies like Erik Prince.

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[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (7 children)

A billionaire can't be bought, they got billions. It's the dictator that can be bought.

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago (6 children)

A billionaire chases what gets them the most money. The public can manipulate them by making them lose money. A dictator wants power, which really can only be countered with mass violence.

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[–] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Musk has lost a tremendous amount of money between X and his negative effect on Tesla sales. Do you feel this has "manipulated" him into being a better person? 🤣

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Even with all the losses, he is still the richest man in the world by more than $50 billion. Musk dumped more than half of his Tesla stock and is focusing more on SpaceX now.