Billionaires also aren’t the problem. They are the symptom.
The problem is the system of economics and politics, by extension the various institutions they manifest, that allows individuals to become billionaires through the exploitation of other people’s labor via private ownership over the means of production that should rightfully belong to the people through collective ownership.
The guy owning the local car dealership that has a nice yacht and a holiday appartment in Mallorca is not actually even remotly the same kind of problem like jeff bezos or elon musk.
Sure, noone needs a yacht, but the irder of magnitude is not even remotely comparable.
The small capitalists have a unique set if interests. They’re not the biggest beneficiary of the system, but they tend to be fascism’s most rabid soldiers. These are the people who did J6.
It all depends on how Bernie earned that money then. Was it through his own labor or was it through the system of exploitation that is owning and making profit off of the labor of others through having a claim to private ownership over the means of production?
If he makes his money legitimately then no. If he makes his money through being a rentier, his income being primarily being generated through the stock market and shareholder dividends, then yes.
I don’t claim to know how Bernie made that money so I abstain from making any speculations. Bernie has been an advocate for shifts towards the left, but the man isn’t perfect. Though, he is clearly good intentions so I won’t make any base judgements against him until I have more information.
And yes, I understand that retirement and stuff is incorporated into the stock market. That is a giant problem of how the owning class forces the working class to go against their own benefits as a class to ensure their own personal safety and security. That’s a much larger can of worms and nuance.
Millionaires aren’t really the problem, billionaires are.
Billionaires also aren’t the problem. They are the symptom.
The problem is the system of economics and politics, by extension the various institutions they manifest, that allows individuals to become billionaires through the exploitation of other people’s labor via private ownership over the means of production that should rightfully belong to the people through collective ownership.
I feel this is not stressed enough.
The guy owning the local car dealership that has a nice yacht and a holiday appartment in Mallorca is not actually even remotly the same kind of problem like jeff bezos or elon musk.
Sure, noone needs a yacht, but the irder of magnitude is not even remotely comparable.
The small capitalists have a unique set if interests. They’re not the biggest beneficiary of the system, but they tend to be fascism’s most rabid soldiers. These are the people who did J6.
Am million dollars isn’t yacht money, though. It would take several millions to actually get close.
1 million isn’t even enough for a comfortable retirement these days.
A “millionaire” doesn’t mean much compared to three decades ago.
And this was 29 years ago. It’s even less now!
Yuup. Forgot about that. Decades ago they joked that he didn’t know about billions or trillions.
Not that he didn’t know, he didn’t account for inflation since he was frozen.
Seriously. The difference between someone with 2 million dollars and 800 million dollars is about 800 million dollars
Owning-class is owning-class. Regardless of the magnitude, they are still exploitative and that is the point.
Individuals aren’t the problem, the system that allows individuals to have exploitative and unjust power over others is.
Bernie’s a millionaire. Is he exploitative?
Yup. No one earns a billion dollars without exploitation.
Millionaire, not billionaire. The difference is about a billion dollars.
Oh my apologies for misreading.
It all depends on how Bernie earned that money then. Was it through his own labor or was it through the system of exploitation that is owning and making profit off of the labor of others through having a claim to private ownership over the means of production?
If he makes his money legitimately then no. If he makes his money through being a rentier, his income being primarily being generated through the stock market and shareholder dividends, then yes.
I don’t claim to know how Bernie made that money so I abstain from making any speculations. Bernie has been an advocate for shifts towards the left, but the man isn’t perfect. Though, he is clearly good intentions so I won’t make any base judgements against him until I have more information.
And yes, I understand that retirement and stuff is incorporated into the stock market. That is a giant problem of how the owning class forces the working class to go against their own benefits as a class to ensure their own personal safety and security. That’s a much larger can of worms and nuance.
Yep. A million dollars is much closer to 0 dollars than it is to a billion dollars. An even bigger problem is the ultra billionaires.
Aside from that simplistic argument, billionaires are much much more parasitic to society than millionaires are.