#The Rich

[my-midlife-crisis]

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[without-ado]

"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor."

— Voltaire

[guilty-feminist]

[bethanydelleman]

There was tea, the equipage for which was as handsome and as ugly as money could purchase.

-Ruth, Elizabeth Gaskell

This makes me think of rich people buying clothes with holes in them because it's fashionable.

[nando161mando]

The rich will never surrender their power peacefully

[mistprints]

9 to 5 is an insane amount of the day spent working. We just aren’t being paid enough to work fewer hours because we aren’t paid what our work is worth. Bigger companies hide behind small ones with the “we can’t all afford to pay workers fairly” excuse. Well then the business fails at being profitable because workers’ wages are not margins you can cut to be profitable.

And then the big corporations spend obscene amount of money bribing politicians to make sure things stay this way: that minimum wage stays below cost of living so people are forced to work often multiple jobs just to survive, keeping them desperate and forced to work jobs with poor wages.

Education advancement is a potential major debt that many people cannot afford or risk even to get into the highest paying industries. Not all school systems are created equal due to budget cuts and poor, outdated standards, putting many students at a disadvantage for college already. People who would be amazing teachers are dissuaded by the state of these schools and the lack of support they get. It is one of the most important jobs of society and much like many vital services, is taken for granted.

We pretend the threat of homelessness is only for people who are “undesirable” and just didn’t want to work when in reality, many people are one missed paycheck away from being out on the street due to predatory housing situations and unchecked landlords that can give as little as a week’s notice for eviction if not less in some places.

“Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is an old saying that’s been twisted. It’s an impossible task. That’s what it means. It’s a tongue in cheek saying that’s been mockingly turned into a political statement and I think the people using it know that people aren’t going to look it up or know this. You cannot pull yourself up by them, you need help.

Society works when we rely on the group. That’s how all civilizations have worked. Others have fallen for not doing this or for doing so poorly with too many people at the bottom of the ladder holding it up (capitalism relies on this to function). Social programs have always been a facet of this and grouping it all into one big negative buzzword drives me insane.

The fire department is a social program. It’s free to call them and it’s paid for by the city because the rich decided that a poorer neighbor’s house fire was a risk to their property and so there should be someone that handles that without costs to an individual that would deter them calling for help. Same with 9-1-1 (unless of course if the person is in the US and needs a personal ambulance ride. Then they’ll charge thousands).

All I’m saying is with the state of the majority of people in the U.S., we could stand to have more support beams to help out before it collapses around us.

People are reaching a breaking point and this stress test of how much they’ll take (costs rising while what you get decreases and wages remaining stagnant; the growing population of homelessness and their solutions being to make homelessness illegal; cuts to people’s rights to their own body by people who are not doctors and should not have anything do to with it but want political points to remain in power by voters who are too uneducated to know better—again, keeping the populous too tired and poorly educated to realize the branching issues with this outside of their narrow-minded ideals they want to force on everyone else) won’t end well.

These problems all branch from a source. That source is always, ultimately, corrupted people in power, driven by money. They are shortsighted and only care about their own benefits. And by letting them, believing their lies and keeping them in power blinded by promises that are at best empty and at worst detrimental, it’s making this world a lot worse to live in for the rest of us. Even if the consequences haven’t reached you directly yet, we are already seeing what happens in this Tragedy of the Commons situation with the greed of a few.

We have to stop people from being able to exploit it. There needs to be laws in place that even the rich are subject to for this to ever work.

[thoughtlessarse]

Rich individuals in all countries must pay more to tackle the climate crisis, whether through taxes or charges on consumption, one of the architects of the Paris Agreement has said. There is a growing consensus on the need for some kind of global wealth tax, with Brazil, which will host the Cop climate summit next year, an enthusiastic supporter. Meanwhile, poor countries are struggling to raise the estimated $1tn (€920bn) a year of external finance needed to help them cut emissions and cope with the impacts of the climate crisis. Another proposal is for a frequent flyer levy, as the richest people tend to take far more flights. Laurence Tubiana, the chief executive of the European Climate Foundation, said a levy could be targeted at business class and first class seats. Other possible sources of revenue include a carbon tax on international shipping, which could raise billions without disrupting global trade, according to research from the World Bank. Levies on fossil fuels could also play a role. The richest 1% of people in the world are responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the 66% at the other end of the scale, yet they experience little of the vulnerability to climate shocks that are causing suffering and death, mainly among poorer people.

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[autumnsprophecy]

The poor have always been steps of a ladder in the eyes of the rich. Just another thing to step on in order to reach the top. They don't care if the step breaks or crumbles, as long as they can continue climbing. To them, nothing matters but themselves, and the others of their kind climbing the ladder. They race, and race, and race, climb, and climb, and climb, yet they will never reach the top. This is because there is no "top." There is no "winning." There is no glorious "prize". Even if they could climb for eternity without death or sleep, they would find no enlightenment. The higher the ladder takes them, the more the light of humanity fades behind them. They are the kings of dust, the harbingers of their own downfall. Their legacy is the crumbled steps in their wake, the stench of blood and poison gas.

[pinkfrogbreathing]

"Boris Johnson committed a "clear and unambiguous breach" of the rules by taking a new job as a Daily Mail columnist, a government watchdog has said.

The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) on Tuesday wrote to the government and said there was urgent need for reform of the “good chaps” approach to ministerial jobs."

Boris Johnson’s Daily Mail column job was ‘clear breach’ of government rules | The Independent

Wow ... literally weeks after he was found to have repeatedly lied to Parliament! It's almost as if he is incapable of understanding that the rules apply to him!?!

[cottoncandiescupcakes]

Normal people: I had Starbucks and then I went to the movies with some friends

Rich people: For fun I ran over a bear and put the bear's corpse in the middle of the city

Normal people: I finally had the courage to tell this girl I like her

Rich people: I kidnapped an underage girl to my private island

Normal people: My school days were pretty boring

Former UK prime minister: I had sex with a pig at school

Normal people: I'm really into skincare and love to use Korean products

Rich guy: I inject my son's blood into my skin to look 18 forever

??????????????????????????????????????????????

What is wrong with the rich LOL

Why is no one noticing this stuff

This is all stuff that actually happened btw, I didn't make this up

[dispatchesfromtheclasswar]

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

"The only dangerous minority is the rich" Pasteups in NYC

— in NYC.

* * * *

"Courage, which we still believe to be indispensable for political action, and which Churchill once called “the first of human qualities, because it is the quality which guarantees all others,” does not gratify our individual sense of vitality but is demanded of us by the very nature of the public realm. For this world of ours, because it existed before us and is meant to outlast our lives in it, simply cannot afford to give primary concern to individual lives and the interests connected with them; as such the public realm stands in the sharpest possible contrast to our private domain, where, in the protection of family and home, everything serves and must serve the security of the life process. It requires courage even to leave the protective security of our four walls and enter the public realm, not because of particular dangers which may lie in wait for us, but because we have arrived in a realm where the concern for life has lost its validity. Courage liberates men from their worry about life for the freedom of the world. Courage is indispensable because in politics not life but the world is at stake."

Hannah Arendt, What is Freedom? 

(via ontologicalterrorist)

[xlntwtch2]

[stone-cold-groove]

Give the check to the boy, my good man - he’s a YouTuber.

[nightandflesh]

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.

—Balzac