cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/57305272
Total billionaire wealth in the EU reached €2.4 trillion by late November, exceeding Italy’s entire GDP of €2.2 trillion and approaching France’s €2.9 trillion economy, a new Oxfam report found.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20260118190308/https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/ara3abf5ee
Capitalism is a threat to democracy.
But thanks for getting on nearly the same page, Oxfam.
We’ve been pointing this out ever since the concept of currency became a thing, but I’m sure we will learn our lesson this time and stop doing it. This can’t just be how it will always be until we drive ourselves to extinction stuck on this miserable rock, Right?
Structural issues make egalitarian economic systems difficult. Wealth and social influence compound once another in a virtuous cycle. Wealth has a strong hereditary bias, even in socialist economic models. And violence is historically a powerful tool for accruing wealth. Very difficult to establish universal deterrence against violence.
This isn’t a question of people being smart or stupid. It’s an elaborate balancing act that becomes exponentially more difficult as population size expands.
As a very wise Irishman once so eloquently said it: “People. What a bunch’a bastards.”
Hey, the rock is fine, we’ve made society a miserable place. The pack is calling me…
i think some german said this 100 years ago already
Screw Idiocracy. People reference it not understanding there were positives in the negatives. This is “Don’t Look Up”, that nailed our current corrupt leadership and techno-corporate lunacy, as well as ignoring what is right in front of us because shiny things are more interesting.
You mean letting a small group of people consolidate power under themselves is a danger to a system designed to evenly distribute power? No way!
So when are we going tondo what about this?
This. Has. To. Stop.
We cannot allow a single person or family to control a single news organization, let alone multiple. Anyone who thought that was a good or even okay idea has been, and continues to be, delusional.
They own so much more than the news organizations. They own the special interest groups, the lobbyists, the elected officials, the land and natural resources, every single company we buy goods and services from, the banks, the hospitals, everything. Slavery didn’t end, it just changed its business model.
It’s not that they are rich, we’ve always had rich people. The problem is that we now have rich people with enough wealth to compete with nations, and they are getting even stronger. They are now starting to cut their own deals with nations that benefit them personally, with no regard to the nations, and millions of people that could be harmed by that policy. We’ve already seen Musk manipulate Starlink to steer a war in his direction, and unleash his hacking squad to rig an American election, just so he could use the opportunity to cripple all the government agencies that were investigating his crimes.
And it will only get worse. They are approaching Trillionaire status, and will be even more powerful. How long before multiple trillionaires form an alliance, and build their own personal military?
Eventually we will reach a point where it will become impossible to reign them in, and then we will all wonder why someone didn’t do something about them when it was still possible, like NOW.
There already are private military. Black Water and alike are absolutely private armies. But that could be expensive, even for trillionaires. It’s a much better strategy to privatize the existing military and get it paid by the government. Watch it, it’s going to happen!
Yeah, this isn’t anything new. Literally centuries old analysis here. I guess it’s nice they updated it for the contemporary society, though.
No fucking shit.
The sky also happens to be blue. That gotta be news too.
Edit: Okay, having read the summary, it seems like they have proved causality between growing economic inequality and democratic backsliding. Which yeah, most people could have guessed, but now we have a fancy bunch of paper that says so.
oh rly?
Fork found in kitchen
