#CAN WE PLEASE TAX THE BILLIONAIRES !!!!

[cannibalpool]

just paid my state taxes and set up a measly little payment plan so Daddy IRS can drain me of an extra $250/month

i <3 capitalism and taxes

[sepdet]

Try to imagine Trump going to campaign HQ to reassure those working to get him elected with a speech like this after one of his unwelcome surprises.

Of course, that's impossible. This classy speech is all about "we" — the team, and the American people — although of course it's got a few "I's" in there to contrast herself with Trump and sketch out goals.

First five minutes: Squaring the circle of saluting Biden graciously, thanking and reassuring his election team, and moving forward

05:40 - rundown of major accomplishments of President Biden's administration

8:45 Harris lays out how she sees this election and I'm actually gonna transcribe it despite my arthritis because YES YES YES. (It's not very long.)

"It is my great honor to go out and EARN this nomination, and to win.

"So in the days and weeks ahead, I together with you will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic party, to unite our nation, and to win this election.

"You know, as many of you know, before I was elected as Vice President, before I was elected as United States Senator, I was the elected Attorney General of California, and before that I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds. [chuckles start around the room, she smiles.] Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump's type.

"And in this campaign I will proudly — I will proudly put my record against his. As a young prosecutor, when I was in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, I specialized in cases involving sexual abuse. Donald Trump was found liable by a jury for committing sexual abuse. As Attorney General of California I took on one of our country's largest for-profit colleges and put it out of business. Donald Trump ran a for-profit college, Trump University, that was forced to pay $25 million to the students it scammed. As District Attorney, to go after polluters, I created one of the first environmental justice units in our nation. Donald Trump stood in Mar-o-lago and told Big Oil lobbyists he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution. During the foreclosure crisis, I took on the big Wall Street banks and won $20 billion for California families, holding those banks accountable for fraud. Donald Trump was just found guilty of 34 counts of fraud.

"But make no mistake — all that being said, this campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. There is more to this campaign than that. Our campaign has always been about two different versions of what we see as the future of our country, two different visions for the future of our country. One focused on the future, the other focused on the past.

"Donald Trump wants to take our country backward, to a time before many of our fellow Americans had full freedoms and rights.

"But we believe in a brighter future that makes room for all Americans. We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead. [Calls of "That's right!"] We believe in a future where no child has to grow up in poverty, where every person can buy a home, start a family and build wealth, and where every person has access to paid family leave and affordable child care. That's the future we see! [Applause.] Together we fight to build a nation where every person has affordable healthcare, where every worker is paid fairly, and where every senior can retire with dignity.

"All of this is to say that building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. Because we here know that when our middle class is strong, America is strong. And we know that's not the future Donald Trump is fighting for. He and his extreme Project 2025 will weaken the middle class and bring us backward — please do note that — back to the failed trickle-down policies that gave huge tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and made working families pay the cost, back to policies that put Medicare and Social Security on the chopping block, back to policies that treat healthcare as only a privilege for the wealthy, instead of what we all know it should be, which is a right for every American.

"America has tried these economic policies before. They do not lead to prosperity. They lead to inequity and economic injustice. And we are NOT GOING BACK. We are not going back. (You're not taking us back.)

"Our fight for the future is also a fight for freedom. Generations of Americans before us have led the fight for freedom from our founders to our framers, to the abolitionists and the suffragettes, to the Freedom Riders and farm workers. And now I say, team, the baton is in our hands. We, who believe in the sacred freedom to vote. We, who are committed to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. We, who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence, and that's why we will work to pass universal background checks, red flag laws, and an assault weapons ban. We, who will fight for reproductive freedom, knowing if Trump gets the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban to outlaw abortion in every. single. state—but we are not going to let that happen.

"It is this team here that is going to help in this November to elect a majority of members of the United States Congress who agreethe government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. And when Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as President of the United States I will sign it into law! [cheers, someone shouts "we the people!"] "Indeed, we the people.

"So ultimately, to all the friends here I say: in this election we know we each face a question. What kind of country do we want to live in? A country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, ["Yes!"] or a country of chaos, fear, and hate? [Boos] You all are here because you as leaders know we each — including our neighbors and our friends and our family — we each as Americans have the power to answer that question. That's the beauty of it, the power of the people. We each have the ability to answer that question.

"So in the next 106 days—" looks around the room smiling at various people, "We have work to do. We have doors to knock on, we have people to talk to, we have phone calls to make, and we have an election to win. …" [a few final crowd -whipping-up platitudes like "Do we believe in freedom"]

------

Note: Yes, I know, she spoke about rights for all Americans without getting into any specifics besides reproductive and voting rights, because those two are core values of the Democratic party and the ones most Americans agree with. Unifying a party and coalition building starts by finding common ground. The approach Harris is taking will pull away some old-school moderate Republicans who are reluctant to leave their party even as it changes beyond recognition, but who really don't like Trump. Many of them have been poisoned more or less by Fox News, so they need to see she's not a crazy crazy liberal.

[octuscle]

I want to turn myself into a twinky fuck toy for a wealthy man. Can chronviac help me with that?

Well, as they say, everything's bigger in Texas… I'm a junior partner in a large New York asset management firm. We take care of the high net worth clients. To get into our client file, you have to have over USD 100 million in free liquidity. Our clients are demanding. But we are the best. And we do everything for our customers. Really EVERYTHING!

When I took over the clients of a colleague who had retired a month ago, I thought Chuck Tex was a stage name. Until I had my first appointment with him. His record was more than impressive. Heir to old oil and cattle nobility. Classic career of the Texas oil barons. School in New England, studied in Paris, Oxford and Zurich, founded his first start-up company at the age of 20. And sold at 25 for USD 500 million. Now in his mid-30s, he had not yet inherited a cent from his family, but thanks to his excellent education and connections, he had already amassed a fortune on a par with that of his old man. I expected… Actually, I had no idea what I was expecting… But I certainly didn't expect this:

Chuck looked like a porn star. Or a marriage fraud. Or just like a man who I couldn't wait to throw me on the bed and fuck me mercilessly. His handshake was firm, but finely dosed just before the pain threshold. His gaze could certainly cut through steel plates. But I was a professional, I kept my composure. After I asked him what I could do for him, he got straight to the point. First of all, he needed some cash for his stay in New York. USD 10,000 would be enough. Gladly 100 dollar bills. But hot off the press, please. That was no problem. I sent a short memo to my assistant and she would take care of it. But the real reason for his visit was a project in Greenwich Village. He had bought a few buildings there that he was renovating. His aim was to restore the Village to its former charm. That's why he wanted to create cheap apartments, studios and stores and eliminate expensive office space. The whole thing was not intended as an investment, more as a hobby. A kind of gay and creative Disneyland. I briefly wondered why I wasn't actually a billionaire… And then I asked Chuck what my role was. Whether I could help with the financing or with saving taxes.

Chuck just grinned. No, saving taxes wouldn't fit in with his understanding of patriotism. And he would have financed it all with his last start-up exit. But he would need someone to take care of the real estate. Someone to ensure the right tenant mix. Someone to give his studio apartment the right finishing touches. I briefly went through my network in my mind. I had a gay acquaintance who owned a number of bars and restaurants. And I also knew a good project developer. And one of my school friends was a hip interior designer. I smiled and said I probably had just the people he needed. Chuck smiled back. It made my heart stop. He didn't want anyone from my network. He wanted me. I was about to say that I was flattered, but that I wasn't available for such projects right now. But instead I said "Of course, Daddy". Did I want to accompany him to the construction site? "If I may, Daddy!" At that moment, my assistant came in with a bundle of freshly pressed banknotes. Chuck smiled and said he needed me for the rest of the day. Please cancel all my appointments. I nodded to her and followed Chuck like a dog to its master.

In his limousine, Chuck asked me if I had ever been to Texas. I answered in the negative. But the boots I was wearing looked authentic. Yeah, they were my pride and joy. But I wouldn't have ridden a bull yet. I shook my head and giggled like a schoolgirl. Chuck kneaded the bulge in his pants and said that I would definitely be fucked by a bull today. I only got out a "Thank you, Daddy". Chuck let me sit on his lap. He undid another button of his silk shirt and exposed his right nipple. Like a puppy on its mother's teat, I began to suckle. Chuck kneaded my bulge and said that I was a good boy.

The car came to a halt in the second row in front of an old brick building. The walls were covered in high-quality graffiti. There was a closed table dance bar downstairs and some kind of jewelry store upstairs. Some kind of jewelry on display. Made of stainless steel. On closer inspection, piercing jewelry, cock rings and stainless steel dildos. I looked in the shop window like a child in the window of a candy store. Chuck took my hand, pulled me into the stairwell and told me that I could choose something later if I was good. He stroked the long hair on the back of my neck. I love my Mullet. I look a bit like the young cowboys on Daddy's Daddy's farm.

We had just arrived at Chuck's empty apartment when I got down on my knees in front of him and unbuttoned his pants. "First you strip for me, boy," Chuck ordered. He tossed me a cowboy hat that was in a closet. "Everything but your briefs, boots and hat!". Eagerly awaiting the reward, I did everything I was told to do. "And now lube yourself up". He threw me a bottle. And I did as I was told. I could feel my hard-earned muscles disappearing. I felt younger and younger. Although it was hard as steel, my cock was getting smaller and smaller. "I think you need a little more decoration, boy," Chuck said and put a chain on me. Satisfied, he looked at me as I sat on the floor and could hardly wait for my reward.

Chuck took his boner out of his pants. And I leaned back in anticipation. I wanted to be a good houseboy. And today was the housewarming party.

Chuck's pic found @mensuited, yours @hellishin

[progressivepower]

Please remember that no matter how snarky you are on a keyboard, this won’t save a democracy. Billionaires can be stopped and taxed, if we #GetInvolved https://ow.ly/nnFc50SnAoH http://dlvr.it/T8cB2F

[rainbowdaisy13]

Hi, I hope you're doing ok. I was browsing down your blog to read some of the asks about what is happening in the Taylor Swift fandom and I had a lot of ideas to share.

I'll start off by saying I'm not American, therefore I'm not gonna actively take part in the 2024 elections and I don't know all the details about US politics outside of what my country media outlets say and write. Also English is not my first language so sorry for any misspelling or mistake.

To focus just on the Taylor Swift current matter: to me this situation is yet ANOTHER proof of her sheer disinterest in speaking up about anything polarizing and potentially dangerous for her net worth. And the worst part is that if she stays bland and money driven like this she'll only show how she considers everything an era. There is no commitment for her.

Lover era feels comically fake now for the stark contrast to nowadays, it was all a stunt. Where's all that activism now, especially as an "ally" for the LGBT+ community? How can we really define her as a feminist when she only speaks up when it affects her (let's not forget her radio silence on reproductive rights)?

And granted we will never know where "Taylor Swift real person" ends and "Taylor Swfit TM" begins, and I personally don't really care, what I mostly care about, and that I noticed recently, is the consequences she - and people like her - have directly or indirectly on media and pop culture: I may be extreme when I say that NO philanthropic billionaire/multi millionaire will ever do enough good for the world EVER, because the very same system that got them to that level of wealth is the faulty system that condemns the majority of the worlds population to exploitation and poverty.

Add this to the fact that most of the ultra rich and rich people don't give a damn about anything if it's not affecting their pockets, while they're also powerful and influential enough to drive politics and culture in their favour (ie. anything concerning taxes, systemic exploitation of low income countries, etc, and don't get me started on the absurdity of finance as a whole), we are in a situation where we actually are influenced by these people that have all the interest of staying out of anything for the sake of their money.

All of this to say that to expect Taylor Swift to be a source of information and potentially an inspiration to decide who to vote is very dangerous and takes away all the agency that every single one of us ideally has in a democratic system (let's not forget that Taylor herself keeps very conveniently reminding that she does not want to be a 'guiding light', that she's 'too soft for all of this' indeed).

I don't want I try not to and am not driven by celebrities in my choices but I do recognize their influence on pop culture as well.

I'm not the first to say that lately there has been a need of belonging to a community, to feel a part of something, and music has always had this power, but has been enhanced with social media and especially after the pandemic imo. For a lot of people, and I'm personally not totally immune to this as well, supporting an artist and interacting with their fanbase became a way to define who they are/want to be and it can be difficult to keep some distance from the idol, because you more likely support someone if they seem to have an affinity with you, your interests, what you stand for, etc. Sometimes it pushes us to believe we have more intimacy with what are complete strangers and sometimes it can bleed into parasocial relationships, which I don't think are healthy and can get quite extreme (respect Chappell Roan please!)

In the end, my personal impartial advice to this would be to discern the art from the artist, and detach the fields that don't concern the artist from said artist, unless they are active in those fields.

This doesn't mean that I don't think celebrities don't have the power to influence and change important events, nor that they shouldn't speak up and get more involved, but I find myself growing more and more disillusioned with celebrities and more and more eager to reclaim my agency as a commoner.

This doesn't even exclude the fact that we shouldn't criticize Taylor for her general inactivity (from the AI crap to the Democratic endorsement) when she has every mean avaible to do differently and actually have an impact.

P.S. I'm still uncertain about the whole matter with BM, and Taylor being surrounded by people with questionable opinions, because we can't blame her for the doings of others BUT she still hangs out with those people. But again it's very likely they don't talk/don't give a damn about politics.

Sorry for the long ass ask.

First of all, whenever you guys say English isn’t your first language it just blows me away—all of you read & write better English that many Americans, so please never feel weird about sending in asks! They are always very articulate and have less spelling mistakes than I make 😆

Secondly, you bring up lots of good points—for me, Taylor getting involved this election isn’t because I hope she will sway votes away from Trump and towards Kamala—I agree it would be dangerous to rely on wealthy entertainers and billionaires as beacons of the common persons best interests. Rather, Taylor speaking up would confirm for me and many other fans that she IS who we all thought she was back in 2018-2021. That the person she claimed to evolve into—a more empathetic socially conscious braver Taylor who knew that her voice does impact so many younger impressionable minds, one who wanted to stand up for what and who she believed in, someone who claimed the LGBTQ causes, the BLM protests, gerrymandering, etc were worth speaking up about, wasn’t just an era to try on until she got tired of it

Damn you have so many excellent points here, but yeah you’re right, at the end of the day Taylor and other billionaires aren’t going to stand against a system that is still actively keeping them at the top

Thanks so much for your input 🙏🏼

[awakefor48hours]

Imagine: we are a few stages away from the Hunger Games's stage of capitalism. Everything is even more expensive and instead of taxing greedy rich billionaires and other CEOs as a way to lower the prices, you can now watch ads to pay for things like food, rent, water, and electricity bills

Please consider reblogging for a larger sample size.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri:

I live in a red state, and I hope you will listen to my warning. Those who want to demolish democracy won’t stop with my state, or any of the other GOP-dominated states. They are rolling over our rights to get to yours.

I know you’ve heard of it, and may be sick of reading posts about it, but Project 2025 will introduce the entire nation to red-state rule if Trump is elected. I don’t know why they bothered to write so many pages on autocracy, theocracy, and kleptocracy. They could have just pointed a finger at GOP-dominated states like Missouri. Copy. Paste. Missouri has been under the boot of a GOP supermajority for 22 years. Over two decades. When I knock doors and someone blames anything Missouri-related on the Democrats, I always ask, “Who? What Democrats?” I knock doors in Northwest Missouri — there is not one elected Democratic State Rep or State Senator in the top section of Missouri. It’s deep red. The electoral map looks like the state has been scalped. There is no Democrat to blame for the state of this state. Not one.

So, what is Project 2025? It’s the playbook for the next Republican President, written by the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation is funded primarily by Koch money. Koch money is derived from the oil and gas industry and has been doled out to “conservative” think tanks and politicians and grifters for decades. David and Charles Koch used their money to push a Libertarian agenda — taxes are their number one target. David has since died, but Charles remains and he is trying to cut the very fabric of our country while many of us stand stunned into silence. [...] So, back to the beginning…Project 2025 didn’t need to be written. The billionaires have already instituted their plans in GOP-dominated states and you can see the impact on everything to reproductive rights to education to environmental issues. They don’t plan to stop with my state — the point is to get to yours too.

The silver lining of living in a regressive state is that I have seen the damage and I can warn folks. The awful part of forced prescience? Some will say an easy fix is to move. But, that’s my entire point. There is nowhere to move. There is not one state that won’t be impacted if we don’t stop the billionaire-inspired plans that have already been implemented in Missouri. The answer is to stand up in every state with the backing of those of you in less regressive states. Please, stand with us. Talk back, link arms, and say to these politicians and billionaires, “we see you and we will stop you.”

Jess Piper with another banger of a Substack article, this time on the harms on Project 2025 that are already taking place in red states and eventually nationwide.

[magical-oppas]

People nowadays are way too fucking soft about radios, I BEG people go back to even just the early 2010's and listen to some of the way worse things that have been said, and even beyond that

Sky also said that they thought Lando's radio was delayed, because it was more likely when Oscar seemed to cut Lando off instead of letting him by, even though the McLaren app shows their radios too and Oscar had been told "don't make it difficult for Lando" so presumably Lando had also been told a similar thing, because of the difference in tyre age and their lap times

the amount of discourse over this is ridiculous 🙄

I agree with you. People act like these grown ass tax evading billionaires needs to be protected at all time. I PROMISE YOU they do not care what other drivers say about them on the radio, and if they do they are fully capable of confronting them on their own. They do not need little fans to go after people and call them names.

Also like, can we please enjoy the pettiness? The drama? The entertainment that they provide? Like, we are here to be entertained no?

[bisquid]

There are days when I feel like I am legitimately going mad

I just-

There is so much going wrong - all over the world! - that can be fixed! Maybe not easily, but certainly possibly!

So much that needs to be done that seems to me, and many many others, to be basic common sense! Simple cause and effect!

And yet

And yet

We're forced to watch, helpless, as politicians and corporations and fucking billionaires just go 'yeah... No. Not gonna do that, because it might be mildly inconvenient for me personally' and there's just... Nothing we can do? Like, yeah obviously vote in the best people and attend protests and whatnot, I'm not saying don't do that, but it's all just so

How fucking dare they? How dare they waste our lives and our planet and our fucking FUTURES in a selfish short sighted bid to line their own pockets??

It just feels so.... Just. How? Why? In what possible world is this a fair and equitable system??

"please stop burning fossil fuels so the planet doesn't become uninhabitable within our lifetimes?" "....nah"

"please spend some of our tax money to fund the NHS?" "Ah but see all that tax money is gone! We spent it deporting immigrants, because they're clearly the problem here"

"could you maybe stop allowing demonstrably destructive farming techniques because they're bad for the environment, the natural world and human health?" "....well Monsanto have paid me twenty million dollars to say they're not doing anything wrong, so... No. Too bad"

I just????

And everyone's going on like this is normal, like the whole world being held hostage to imaginary currency - which about 90% of economics is - is a perfectly reasonable state of affairs and not completely ludicrous-

Why are people working themselves into an early grave to line the pockets of a handful of already-rich businessmen? Why is this allowed?? How?

I am a firm believer that violent revolution will cause far more problems than it solves, with a nice bonus of 'mass mortality', but I can see how people decide it's the only option. What's the alternative? Spending every precious moment of free time working to get more leftist politicians in at every level of government, everywhere, while large chunks of the population too stupid or selfish or willfully ignorant to understand the stakes try to block you at every turn? Waiting for years for more progressive policies, while people die and forests burn and rich white men in suits throw tantrums because the line on a graph went up slightly slower than they imagined it would?

When do they get to be the ones forced to compromise again and again because the people in power don't give a shit about their precious stocks? When's our turn to say "yeah we're not gonna do that, because that's a demonstrably fucking terrible idea, and would make us personally less happy"?

The worst thing - the worst thing of all - is that their greed and destructive policies will fuck them over too! There will come a point where they discover that you can't negotiate with wildfire, or famine, or rising sea levels, but by the time they've learned the contents of their bank accounts does not actually affect the laws of physics.... It will be far, far too late for almost everyone else. Telling Bezos and Musk and fucking BoJo 'we told you so' will be cold fucking comfort by then

[simonalkenmayer]

This is just so absurd I can’t not talk about it, so please read this short political analysis, even if you don’t usually read these, because this is…hilarious.

This election, almost 70% of the vote below the age of 21 went to democrats. Single women by a margin of 30 points voted Democratic. Minorities (particularly black women) broke for Dems overwhelmingly, black women mobilizing over 95% of their members in some constituencies.

The GOP is taking time to analyze this, running numbers, wondering how they can appeal to young people and women instead of only angry racist old white men…and these are their solutions so far as stated by multiple pundits on FOX, and why they are stupid:

Single women vote for Dems? Answer? Men, marry these women. Literally someone said “put a ring on it”. They said “it’s easy to see why single women vote Democratic—their policies keep women single”.

Why is this stupid? Well beyond the obvious misogyny of “we should just woo and marry women and then control them so they align with us politically”? There’s the fact that because women no longer need a man, to survive, men are now forced to bring character to the table, something many men (I’m thinking the alpha males of tiktok) never had to grow because of their privilege. You cannot just send men out into the world to literally conquer a woman’s heart. They’re not stupid. They can see when they’re not dating a decent guy. That’s why they stopped marrying them.

They’ve been, I kid you not,debating RAISING THE VOTING AGE TO 21.

Here is why that’s fucking idiotic, broken into many easy parts. 1. If they can’t vote, then they cannot be taxed, nor recruited for the military, nor jailed as adults. How’s that going to affect prisons, the military, taxes?

Well there’s over 600k active duty military below the age of 25 out of 1.35 million…you tell me.

16% of our tax revenue comes from the under 25 bracket

Oh right and what are they supposed to do? They can’t go to college, since….how are they going to be able to sign contracts for student loans if they aren’t being fairly represented or given adult status? Are they going to raise the legal age of adulthood since adults age 18-21 can no longer do anything of their own accord, extend high school again to stockpile them while they’re not being busy or just recruit them straight into the terrible service jobs in which the GOP hopes they remain?

I’m telling you…there is nothing to offer but no climate, rich billionaires, more debt, less freedom, less rights, and bigotry in that party. They want to destroy education to keep people stupid. They want to use religion to control. That party is not a party. It’s an evil conspiracy. Meaning the kids and the ladies will shy away. They have nothing to offer. Nothing. So they have to cheat.

Make no mistake the the abortion ban idea was specifically to encumber these two groups with crippling debt and dependency. That party has nothing to offer. Especially with trump running it. And this they well know. Most of his candidates lost. Most. And the red wave that was expected was nonexistent. One of two things will now happen:

My predictions:

Expect lots and lots of redistributing debates to cheat, I.e. gerrymandering but that’s a given.

1. Trump is a malignant narcissist. He doesn’t care about party or the country. During this election he said “if they win I should get the credit and if they lose I shouldn’t be blamed” a “head I win, tails you lose” if ever there was one. He will run again in 2024 despite the overwhelming repudiation by voters. He will (not?) win the primary, but he will take so much of the GOP base vote with him that it splits the vote and hands Dems a second Biden presidency.

Or

2. If the house is taken by the GOP, they will bargain with him to shut down federal oversight of him (including J6 hearings) to convince him not to run. He will still likely screw them in meaningful ways.

Unless he ends up in prison because of other investigations they can’t control…so the first seems most likely.

TLDR:

The kids and women are alright. Death to the Boomers. Enjoy your avocado if you can afford it. Don’t get married. Keep voting for change and keep using these platforms to educate your peers.

[godlytransurfer]

PART 3) GENERAL BLISS - MY MASTER AFFIRMATION TAPE

PLEASE CHECK FIRST: PART 1 HERE - PART 2 HERE

------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9 - Money

Me and my family have always been rich and wealthy.

We are fully financially free.

I am extremely rich and wealthy.

We have always been billionaires.

We’re billionaires.

I am an actual billionaire.

I am actually rich.

I am one of the richest people in the world.

Me and my parents are fully financially literate.

My parents are extremely rich and wealthy.

My (insert family member, spouse, sp, whatever) does (their desired career) for a living and it sells for millions. He/She/They is/are a very successful (insert career).

Every amount of money I spend comes back to me quickly and safely by a thousand fold.

I can always afford anything I want.

I always have more than enough money.

I never have to work for money.

I get paid to exist.

I get paid to be me.

I get paid for nothing.

I make thousands of (insert currency) a day.

I always safely have billions of (insert currency) available to me.

Large sums of money safely and consistently appear in my bank account and in front of me out of thin air.

I have perfect credit score.

I am always the lottery jackpot winner.

I just won the lottery jackpot.

I always win mad money in scratch offs.

I always win tons of money if I enter a casino.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10 - Lifestyle

I am living my dream life permanently.

My life is always entertaining and interesting for me.

Everyday is an amazing day for me.

Life is easy, fun, smooth sailing for me.

I always get tons of genuine compliments.

I am always spoiled with the things and gestures I want.

People love gifting me the things I desire.

People always spoil me and they love doing it.

I can always afford the lifestyle of my dreams.

I always have huge discounts in everything I buy.

Money and all the items I desire always safely appear in my bedroom out of thin air for me to keep.

I always have my dream tech for free.

I can travel the world in total comfort and luxury whenever I want and in excellent company.

My life is full of romance, happiness, blessings, money, luxury and amazing experiences.

I am living a life of luxury.

I am living a happy life.

I love my dream house.

I own my dream house.

I love living in my dream house.

Everything in my homes is my preferred aesthetic for each one of them.

My parents have their dream houses.

I have my dream house in my ideal location.

I always have nice, good, respectable and considerate neighbors only.

Everything in my life is in perfect order.

It is completely safe for me to be beautiful.

It is completely safe for me to be successful.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11 - The State of the World

Everything in my life, reality, this world and universe are always exactly like I want it to be.

The world is a prosperous, peaceful and happy place.

We are living in a futuristic, environment respecting utopia.

Pollution is nonexistent.

The world is a wonderful place.

We live in a positive balanced world.

This world is always positive and balanced.

Reality is my own utopia.

This world and universe are my own utopia.

Governments all over the world are fair, efficient, responsible and trustworthy.

(Insert your country) is my ideal of the perfect country.

(Insert your country) is the most modern and advanced country in the world.

(Insert your country) is the most beautiful and rich country in the world.

(Insert your country) has high salaries and decent taxes.

(Insert your country) is the most aesthetically pleasing country in the world.

(Insert your country) is one of the happiest countries in the world.

(Insert your country) has the most flawless and super advanced transportation and healthcare system in the world.

(Insert your country) is the safest country in the world.

(Insert your country) always pays people extremely well and gives them excellent work conditions, schedule and rights.

(Insert your country) always has an extremely respectful and nice population.

(Insert your country) has extremely good work conditions and rights.

(Insert your country) applies perfect human rights.

(Insert your country) has the best education system in the world.

(Insert your country or area) is the perfect place to live according to my standards.

(Insert your country or area) sell every item that I want to buy.

Everything cool that (somewhere that has something you would like to be sold where you are) has, we have here too.

We live in a safe, peaceful world full of prosperity.

We live in a modern world.

We live in a fully sustainable modern world.

We live in a high tech, high life world in communion with nature.

We live in a utopian, futuristic world.

We live in a technological utopia.

We live in a sci-fi like utopia that also supports the environment and nature.

We live in a world where people are healthy, happy and safe.

Good health in all contexts is the norm in this world.

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Chapter 12 - Beauty

I have my desired appearance.

I am extremely attractive.

I am perfectly perfect.

I am so perfect that (insert desired celebrities) deeply admires my beauty.

I am considered to be extremely beautiful and attractive no matter where I go.

I look like a futuristic supermodel.

I am a goddess.

I effortlessly embody my dream aesthetic.

I have healthy blessed genes that have the tendency to express themselves exactly how I want them to.

I always remain young and healthy looking.

I am completely free of any unwanted marks on my skin.

I never had any marks on my skin.

My skin is permanently clear and perfect.

My skin has always been clear and perfect.

My skin is so perfect it looks photoshopped.

I have the natural glass like skin effect.

My appearance is perfect, glowy, radiant and full of health.

My skin is extremely even and soft.

My skin type is normal.

My skin tone is completely even.

My pores are invisible.

My under eye area is even, healthy looking and extremely light.

My under eye veins are never visible.

My face is perfect.

I factually and objectively have my desired face.

I have my ideal face.

My face is super symmetrical.

I look perfect from all angles in person and in pictures.

I naturally have the perfect lifted face look.

My nose is perfect.

My nose is perfect from both sides of my profile.

My nose has the perfect bridge.

I have perfect super white and healthy teeth.

My lips are perfect.

I have my ideal lips.

I have doll like lips.

I have the most beautiful eyes.

I naturally have my ideal eye shape.

I naturally have my ideal eye color.

I have the perfect eyebrows.

I have long, strong and curly eyelashes.

My jaw and jawline are perfect.

I have an angel skull.

I have a v shaped jaw and chin.

I have my ideal hair.

I have perfect scalp health.

My scalp always grows me a lot of thick healthy hair.

I naturally have the perfect hairline.

My hair is thick and full from roots to ends.

My hair is extremely beautiful.

My hair is extremely healthy.

My hair is extremely strong.

My hair is extremely long.

My hair is so long it touches my hips.

My hair is always frizz free.

My hair is so perfect it looks like I always just came out of the best salon in the world.

My hair is always silky and soft.

My hair is 100% damage proof.

I have goddess hair.

I am a natural (insert desired hair color).

I can change my hair color on command at any time I desire.

I absolutely love my hair.

I naturally have my ideal body.

I naturally have the perfect body.

I can eat whatever I want with no consequences.

I am naturally skinny with a fast metabolism.

I am always (insert desired weight) and I am always healthy no matter what I eat.

I am naturally my ideal amount of toned and fit.

I am (insert desired height) tall.

I have my ideal body shape and proportions.

I have my ideal waist.

I have my ideal breasts.

I have an amazing ass.

I have long beautiful legs.

I have beautiful hands and nails.

My body is always naturally hairless from the neck down.

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Chapter 13 - Fashion and Wardrobe, etc

I am the ultimate it girl.

I am extremely elegant.

I am the most fashionable person in the world.

I am the most stylish person in the world.

I have my dream wardrobe.

I always find the best pieces.

I always find the most amazing, ideal pieces for me.

Everything I want to shop is always in stock for me.

I have every designer item that I want for free.

I can always afford designer items.

I have my dream makeup and skincare collections.

I have my dream jewelry collection.

I have unlimited shopping sprees anytime I want them.

I never have to pay taxes or costums for international orders.

All my favorite online stores ship to where I am tax free.

I always receive my packages extremely fast.

[msnikkimoneypenny]

Can we please stop wasting tax dollars on these dumb ass billionaires now?

[centrally-unplanned]

Tyler Cowen is alas pretty deep into his journey of being a "cranky old man" in the commentary-sense; more and more his preferences and priors are overriding his charity. I found this post to be one of them, where he outlines his objections to Yglesias's calls for expanded welfare from the perspective of his expanded immigration stance:

Matt recently wrote a (gated) piece arguing that we should raise American taxes and increase the American welfare state.  I never understand how this squares with this desire to reach one billion Americans in the not too distant future.  To be clear, I also favor a much larger population.

If you ever have done hiring, and I believe Matt has at Vox, you will understand that so, so often selection is more important than ex post incentives.  That is, you need to get the right people into your firm, start-up, media venture, non-profit, or whatever.  And the right people can be very hard to find and attract, as I think Matt also has noted.

Now, on which basis do you wish to select people arriving into your country?  Do you wish to offer them a lower-risk, more secure, more egalitarian, less upside option?  Or do you want to reward ambition to a disproportionate degree?  Don’t forget you are building up the home base for most of the world’s TFP!

To me it is obvious that you should prefer the structure of rewards that attracts the harder-working, more ambitious people.  You want to send out the inegalitarian bat signal.

If you asked Matt, or anyone on his more progressive camp, what their response would be, it is an extremely obvious "what on earth are you talking about?". Immigrants aren't making immigration decisions based on slightly differing tax rates! "At the margins" sure sure whatever but the delta of expanding US immigration is 99.9% contained with our ludicrously restrictive immigration policy. I could trivially swap a 10% increase in net taxes on everyone (way higher than anything Matt is proposing in that piece) to go into welfare, in return for open borders, and increase US immigration along every axis of 'talent' ten-fold. I personally think the evidence for "low taxes is why the US is economically strong" is quite weak and that is a very consensus position, if we redistributed 5% more GDP we would still be a low-regulation massive-market wealthy techno-sophisticated financial hub, you would still have billionaires and VC funds and whatever you care about. These taxes will not create selection problems. (This doesn't make them a good idea necessarily, just saying they wouldn't overly impact immigration today)

Now its fine for Tyler Cowen to disagree, if he thinks a 5% margin is make-or-break on where a talented Indian chemistry researcher will find a job, that is fine, many people do. What makes him an 'old man' is nowhere in this piece to me is him acknowledging these differing assumptions. You are smart Mr. Cowen, you *know* your target doesn't think this is how labor force composition is determined, 10 years ago you woud have addressed that directly, maybe cleverly pointed out some sort of contradiction between his dual beliefs. Now its all handwaved away with an 'of course' that can convince no one who doesn't already agree.

I have seen this tendency more than once from him in the past few years; hopefully he recognizes it! Take a note from your coworker, 10% less confidence in your priors please.

(I am just gonna ignore the fact that the *political economy* of immigration and welfare means that immigrants often don't qualify for the benefits, and 'taxing immigrants to buy support for increased immigration' is probably the best tactic one has to get a deal done. Its obvious but not directly on topic, so I can forgive it being overlooked)

[anti-workshop]

Like, yes, ok I know it’s a ridiculous thought experiment to play the “what if I was a multi-billionaire?” game, because that would necessitate me being a completely different person and having a WILDLY different upbringing, but let’s play it anyway it’s free.

If I had multiple billions of dollars (yes I know most of these ass-pimples’ wealth is in illiquid assets and valuations blahj blah yadda) I would use some of it to be literal santa claus and gain the good favor of every human on the planet.

Estimates put the population of children on Earth at around 1.9 billion (at time of me doing a very lazy duckduckgo search (please use firefox and never use google ever again)) so I would make a 501(c)(3) trust or something that was specifically designed to accrue a certain amount every fiscal annum. It would invest in low risk ventures and I’d pump about 10 bil into it. It would also be an easy place for other rich assholes to drop some spare millions for a tax break every year to say they were doing something good etc. etc.

So a big part of the infrastructure of the whole project would be communications because we would have a contact form where kids can reach out with the thing they want the most up to a max amount, something like $300 or something? I dunno, I’m spit balling ok? Like I said this is a stupid post but I am on the couch drinking tea and feeling fine, so fuck it.

So we have a dedicated staff of like, 25,000 people who reply to the requests and bargain lower costs with the  manufacturers/providers of the things the kids want (they’ll get a tax break too, the fucks) so we buy all this shit at cost and ship direct to the kids.

“How do you verify they’re kids?” I dunno, I don’t? This whole thing is a stupid and arguably pointless thought experiment, and yes I am sort of accidentally discovering why this isn’t actually feasible, but you know what I don’t care.

So yeah, maybe this whole silly post actually is just reinforcing for me that the ultra wealthy will never do shit to solve the dramatically terrifying shit that faces us all every day because they’re (A) assholes and (B) that shit is complicated. So like, yeah, we need deeply structural fixes to get everyone housed and fed and safe and etc.

But if I was a multi-billionaire I would certainly spend way too much time and money trying to figure out how to get every kiddo presents once a year. It wouldn’t even need to be xmas, I’m Jewish, so whatever, who gives a shit? I hope people would drag me for trying to do such a stupid thing with my ill-gotten wealth and then I hope I’d be viciously eaten by a fat happy bear because I would be a billionaire and thus deserve it.

Chag sameach y’all, and anything else you celebrate or don’t.

[australianwomensnews]

As she wraps up the US leg of her Eras tour in LA, Taylor Swift has given farewell gifts to the crew and support staff who brought her show to life. This isn’t uncommon; performers regularly give end-of-tour bonuses or gifts.

What is unusual is the amount. Swift has given a total of $US55 million ($84 million) to hundreds of her staff, including the road crew, caterers, dancers, and truckers. (The truckers reportedly received about $US100,000 each, along with handwritten notes of appreciation.)

It’s a fantastically generous gesture but, of course, Swift can afford to give some of her fortune away. The Eras tour is grossing almost $US13 million a night – a night! – and is expected to surpass $US1 billion. Swift herself is worth about $US740 million, according to Forbes, and is only getting richer as the Eras tour continues.

But plenty of people can afford to give money away, and many of them do not. We hear fairly regularly about senior executives in profitable companies receiving huge bonuses, but how much of the profit trickles down to coalface staff? How many Australian truckers or data-entry clerks or admin assistants are receiving significant bonuses when an organisation does well? (And please don’t mention billionaire Gina Reinhart’s $4.1 million in staff “bonuses”; giving $100,000 each to only 41 staff chosen in a lottery is more a PR strategy than a genuine profit share.)

No one can build a multimillion-dollar company without enormous support from staff. That goes for Australian CEOs on $5 million or $20 million salaries. No one can be the queen of a hive without worker bees.

When rich people buy into the myth of meritocracy, they develop a sense of entitlement to their own wealth. They don’t feel the need to pass on their good fortune or their profits because they believe they have earned it all themselves.

Netflix’s Ted Sarandos rakes in $US40 million while writers and actors strike for the right to fair pay. In Australia, meanwhile, philanthropic giving declined in 2022 by 2.3 per cent on the previous year. And only 15 of the donors who made The Australian Financial Review’s Philanthropy 50 List last year were also on the AFR 2022 Top 200 Rich List.

The Centre for Social Impact analysed tax office data last year and found that only 2 per cent of top earners donated more of their income than did lower-income earners. More than half of top earners reported no tax-deductible donations or gifts at all in 2018-2019.

Taylor Swift’s generosity is admirable. The bonuses she distributed will be genuinely life-changing for some crew members. But it is truly sad that sharing profits with staff is so extraordinary. No one builds an empire without help, and no one amasses a multimillion-dollar fortune on their own steam.

[queen-susans-revenge]

Why is it increasingly such an oxymoron to be progressive and anti-communist?

Me, a kulak: As a small and prosperous householder, I'm really scared about increasing inequality in our country! This is totally the kind of thing that could get my family killed! Please can we build more housing, make medical care available to all, invest in public education and transit, and please pay for it all by increasing taxes both on myself and people like me...

...but definitely also way more on the people above us? Personally I would feel so much more safe if the people around me weren't so hungry and desperate!!! PLEASE TAKE MY MONEY AND FIX THIS

Them, my fellow small and prosperous householders, with their friends the actual billionaires lurking around in the background: Lol, no.