For example: private equity firms buying trailer parks and raising rents so high that people go bankrupt

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[–] 2 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

If you at any time hold assets more than, let's say $250 million, all of your property is seized and you get a iridescent credit card that says "I won capitalism". You can use it for $5k a day (growth linked to minimum wage) to do anything, and we'd offer a concierge service to rent mansions or yachts through a point system

My department would then be concerned with handling their investments to fund the program and reinvest what's left over in the form of grants (mostly to start and run small businesses with no repayment if certain metrics are met)

But mostly we'd be game masters. We'd keep the capitalism winners busy competing for prestigious (but meaningless) prizes. They want to fly people in for a party? You can pay their way with points to flex. You want to shake hands with the president? We'll run a point auction occasionally and have award ceremonies for the special winners

Otherwise, they can use the money however they want. They can play the games and compete with their "peers", or they could fuck off and live like a big shot...5k a day is a lot of money. And we're happy for them to use it, they can buy things and donate their remainder to anyone they want. They could let their entire family live in comfort and safety

But if they ever touch money, literally or figuratively, or fail to register into the system, they lose their freedom and are forced into our little summer camp games for a length of time determined by the offense

Silly as it sounds, we'd be literally saving the world

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  • [–] 1 point 10 hours ago (1 child)

    $5K a day wouldn't put in dent in a wealthy person's payroll. So, we just gonna fire all their workers?

    BTW, Take 40-50% out of that $5K for worker's comp, liability insurance, taxes, unemployment insurance, and on and on and on.

    Most of the overly complicated plans can be realized with "tax the snot out of them and fix the tax code".

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago

    At $35k a week, you could have a dozen employees, easy. Rich people don't usually tend to pay nearly as well as one would think

    Plus, the company that is a billionaire is getting possessed by our department, it's part of their wealth, and the jobs go with it... Security can run security, housekeeping and maintenance will work the properties, even cooks and nutritionists can float between our special guy/gal properties the way they do now, just following a schedule instead of their billionaire. Their finance people can apply to join the department, although they'd probably not be a good "culture fit"

    They're free to hire a few people as bodyguards or an entourage if they want. It's their stipend

    The whole idea here is to distract these people so they don't destroy the world. Taxing the shit out of them is all well and good, but they're always going to try to exploit the rules and lobby politicians. It'll be an endless flight - we ended up here in a century, we'll end up here again

    Instead, we turn it into a prestigious thing and give them new games to play, new ways to flex on each other that doesn't use the rest of us as a game board.

    If some servants of billionaires end up out of a job? Sorry, enjoy having a working social safety net while you job hunt. Enjoy a flourishing job market now that the velocity of money is no longer hampered by dragon hoards

    Or hell, with the insane assets billionaires have, we could pay their wages for life and barely touch the bottom line

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