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This is what happens when Billionaires own the news media.
(thelemmy.club)
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this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2026
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Work Reform
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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
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Bezos bought the Washington Post after he had already been the richest person in the world. What do you think you mean when you say "how they get their status in those circles"? He's got the status. There are only two people who have more wealth than him today. You think he's just embarrassed hanging out with those two guys? Give me a break.
His best move to close the gap right now with Musk is to advocate for a wealth tax. If Musk paid 1% of 800 billion and Bezos paid 1% of 280 billion, that's actually closing the gap.
And what are you even saying about how taxes are spent? Everybody has to pay whatever they're told, even if it's spent poorly. But if the government could demonstrate that they were using the tax money well, do you think Bezos would change his mind? If not, then it's not even the bare minimum criteria for a point and you shouldn't have brought it up.
And whatever else you think of the American government, it at least enabled Bezos to become the richest person in the world. There are a lot of countries where that couldn't have possibly happened. We're talking about Bezos's taxes here, not taxes in general.
I'm not sure why you are apologizing for the richest people in the world being bad citizens. It seems like an obviously losing argument, as well as counter-productive to me.
I agree with you, America is the best country if you want the opportunity to become extreamly rich. Its also a bad country if you are poor. Right? I think we can agree on that.
Im not making apologies for billionaires, I just try to see it objectively and rationally. The argument that billionaries should pay more taxes has the underlying meaning that it would benefit society right? I'm just saying I'm not sure it would.
If it's just about taking their money away because it feels good, then sure, it would have that effect. But then we should also say that we want to do it because we feel it's morally justified to take their money since they have too much, and because their amount of wealth is making them too powerful and controlling. I think thats a fine opinion to have.
I was only speaking about taxes. They are not improving America in my opinion.
And my point was that the motivation for these people is simply to see that little number go higher, and they really have no other motivation that holds up to objective scrutiny. Which is a perspective that lacks basic humanity in my opinion.
So, when you offered alternative reasons, I simply shot them down.
That's again a very strange perspective to me. These are two nearly separate things. One is collecting taxes, and the other is spending. As far as I'm concerned, government spending is completely off-topic.
We don't need moral justification to raise taxes, and so I think this is also off-topic, since it's really about what a billionaire thinks about paying taxes, but if you want one, here you go.
Our income tax system is supposed to be progressive, but the richest people pay about the same percentage as the poor. In 2018, there was big news that the richest Americans paid 23% income tax, while the bottom half paid 24% in income tax. So, the rich paid less than the poor in percentage of income. That's the opposite of a progressive tax.
The richest people have been shirking their civic responsibility and paying less than poorer people. And they've used that immorally gained tax money to become even richer. The government needs to find a way to reclaim rich people's ill-gotten gains, and simply raising income tax won't do it anymore. The fair way is to make the richest people pay wealth tax.