Original post from u/Kvolti on reddit
More informations and pictures here:
https://www.greenpeace.org/italy/storia/27709/abbiamo-contestato-jeff-bezos-a-venezia/
Tax property, tax inheritance, tax capital gains no matter if realized or not, tax passive income of all kinds. Tax them progressively and tax the highest brackets high enough that these giant fortunes actually shrink. There is no other way (well... besides revolution) to reduce the spiraling inequality which is at the root of major problems all over the world.
Always hated that they pretend you cant tax unreleased gains when they are perfectly capable of raising loans against them. If unrealized gains can be used to secure loans then they have a quantifiable value that can be taxed.
The problem is they have found it cheaper to buy ALL politicians than it is to actually pay tax. It only leaves a few options left....
Imagine if you took $100 billion from any of these Goblins, they wouldn't even notice it, but that money could fund homeless solutions (or any other problem) forever.
$100B would put you at #19 richest person. If taken from Elon, he wouldn't even lose a spot...
There is no other way (well… besides revolution)
The backlash that you'll receive from the cronies of mega-capital will make revolution inevitable. That's assuming you can get so far as to democratically reform the tax code in an electoral system that cages voters, manufacturers consent, and manipulates the courts to guarantee only their people hold office.
I can't even really disagree with you, but not trying still isn't an option. It's our job to at least try to convince our immediate peers.
Minimum tax that they can never go below. Start penalizing tax havens like Ireland.
There are already inheritance taxes but they should have caps on them since they hit intergenerational wealth and social mobility for lower and middle classes far more than the upper.
It's trivial to design an inheritance tax that doesn't tax a family's (first) home and starts above a certain amount (500k, a million, two, make it 10 for all I care) that still allows lower and middle classes to build reasonable wealth. It's also not that hard to not have a million loopholes for the excessively rich. That only gets difficult when people fall for the usual lies, like "businesses will close down and you will lose your jobs".
Start penalizing tax havens like Ireland.
Tax based on passport, allow for taxes at their place of residence to take priority (so, you can pay low taxes in Ireland, but if it's less than our tax, you pay the rest here), tax them a lot if they relinquish their passport. No need to start international beef about this.
Oh, of course it is trivial, the issue is the political will to do it. As for tax havens I was thinking more along the lines of corporate tax evasion by companies like Apple.
If only poor people could purchase senators and congressmen (and Supreme Court justices).
Venice? Wow, that's actually kind of on-the-nose for a show of excessive wealth.
https://historywalksvenice.com/article/early-venice/why-did-venice-get-rich/
TL;DR: Venice exists in its current form (canal city on an ever sinking atoll) not because of climate change, and not because of some fishing village put their backs into it for hundreds of years, but because of money. LOTS, and lots of money from a shipping/trade boom a very long time ago.
The fact that Bezos built his obscene wealth on shipping and international commerce, just makes this even more appropriate in a gross kind of way. Like he's deliberately connecting himself to Venice's history, and everything that implies.
Talk about a gross oversimplification. Venice grew out of mosquito infested lagoon due to necessity. The Venetian people were driven into the lagoon multiple times over centuries as a means of protection from Germanic invasions in the 7th century. They capitalized on shipping and trade just like any other population would do and used those riches to make their citizens lives better. What would you have expected them to do? Turn away from the money spice trading and Mediterranean shipping traffic brought them because it would make them too rich? Because again, they were a people used to fleeing into a mosquito infested lagoon when their farming population was invaded by multiple armies.
For that reason, comparing an entire cultural population like Venice to a singular person is a false equivalency. Bezos hasn't used his shipping fortune to enrich anyone but himself, but at least Venetian royalty built buildings and public spaces for their population.
Shipping of enslaved peoples even
Checked Reddit and Fb, thousands of bots booing Greenpeace and defending Amazon.
It seems that picture got its results.
Classic bots
Good news, the first few dozen or so top-level comments on the r/pics thread are 100% anti-Bez
Mirror:
This is where God gets to prove he's real, and he's on the side of the people. If it's true, Venice will finally sink into the sea and become a legend, like Atlantis.
If that happens, I'll finally go to church every Sunday. Hear me God? That's what it will take.
Once this doesn't happen remember that god is not real and that destiny it's in your hands.
God knows you're faking, because he knows that to believe in him you'll have to give up on women's rights, science, etc
One day people will say “why do we let these weird weak old losers steal from us? We shouldn’t. Let’s get these assholes.”
15 minutes later it will be over
15 minutes later it will be over
Worse, we'll have users telling us how this (somehow) is good for the left and downvoting everyone who lives there and says otherwise
The people are too blind and mute.
A sphinx cat has more sex appeal that this slimy lizard motherfucker
true
Ok so I'm out of the loop on the memes but this song james. Sounds like something out of a 90s sega side scrolling beat em up. I love it!
I can’t think of a moment in human history aside from now that a man can gather that much wealth, and piss of that many people and still keep his head. Most states would have taken his fortune by now. Hell even Crassus got his, and was rumoured to have had molten gold poured down his throat for his greed
So the Venice entrance fee was introduced to deny access and make this event possible?
I don't get it, what's to stop people photobombing his wedding with lots and lots of annoying drones
I think workers would be better than drones. Drones can't even sting.
Video of the police removing it:
Jeff Bezos, probably: get tanks out there tomorrow…
noys
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