That’s all I see, nothing but bad people on a map.
Now we just have to figure out a way to make them vanish off this map. Taxation, maybe? Sounds good to me.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
Next graphic: How many billionaires in every state. For instance, Warshington State has 14, Bezos being the “richest” billionaire (makes me gag to write that).
Oh jeebus. I see that California has 177 billionaires. This website ranks those who are the upper 20 wealthiest billionaires.
Sick.
Taxation is what used to happen.
Then the wealthy used their surplus wealth to buy both lawmakers and the public discourse, with the result that they were ultimately allowed to become obscenely wealthy.
Taxation might be necessary but is a short term patch.
We need a society, a culture, that see any accumulation of power as a problem.
Billionaires and what they do. Although it is the injection of waste water into unstable formations that has resulted in a 100-fold increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma (it plots nicely on a map), not the hydraulic fracturing itself – still the industry is “harmed” by the public perception of “fracking = earthquake.” You would think that research and a better public explanation would be what the industry wanted, but nooooooooooo. Shut ’em down, boys!
A news report from 2017:
“A former University of Oklahoma researcher claims that OU administrators and an oil magnate pressured him to suppress scientific researching regarding the harmful effects of wastewater injection. The researcher’s testimony describes a callous disregard for academic freedom at OU.”
“According to the Oklahoma Daily, OU’s student newspaper, the trouble began for Austin Holland after he published his research on how wastewater injection, a process commonly associated with hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking), has led to an increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma. He then met with OU President David Boren and Harold Hamm, the CEO of a large oil company, who told Holland that he should be aware of the needs of the oil and gas industry in conducting his researching. Boren advised him “to listen to, you know, the people within the oil and gas industry,” and Hamm told Holland “to be careful of the way in which . . . [you] say things, that hydraulic fracturing is critical to the state’s economy in Oklahoma, and that . . . [you] publicly stating that earthquakes can be caused by hydraulic fracturing was, you know, could be misleading.”
The USA doesn’t do taxation any more, at least not beyond a tiny amount applied to the peons.
Drone-strikes. Yeah, USA does lots of them. Watch yer ass, Bezos.
I’m trying to figure out if the Bill Carlson that Glen Taylor purchased the printing business from is related to the Carlson Companies, who are also much wealthier than Glen.
Other famous people associated with this family include Gretchen Carlson the news anchor, and her nanny, Michele Bachman, the crazy homophobe who was in Congress as a result of gerrymandering the districts to exclude any non wealthy neighborhoods.
At least he made his fortune, rather than inheriting it, but he is not even close to being the richest billionaire in MN. That would be the Cargill heir.
https://moneyinc.com/richest-people-minnesota/
I think that list shows that inheritance of obscene wealth needs to be abolished completely. Nope, all your ill gotten gains revert back to the public purse after you die. Bub-bye! We could use it to make new, affordable, carbon free housing and public transportation for our new green utopia.
That image has the solution: Severed heads.
As my organization as written: Crapitallism is the disease that has consumed the united states and destroyed more lives than anything else. Most people aren’t even aware or won’t admit that that disease has impoverished them permanently. Billionaires are carriers of the disease, spreading it, but not suffering from it’s debilitating effects. Oven-Mitt Romney is their cheerleader, “Corporations are people my friends” NO we are not your friends.
Correction, should read: ‘As my organization HAS written’. And Crapitallism is part of our trademarked and copyrighted works registered.
One solution, that requires a little research and discipline by ‘the masses’ is: buy local. Each person doing that on their own makes little difference. But, if millions adopt this ethics based ‘consumerism’ it will help stem the tide of corporate abuse. Too many people ‘buy cheap’ from the mega-Crapitallist corp’s on line furthering their rape of what’s left of this country.
What really disgusts me is that billionaires are not content to stay out of politics. “After all, I have all this leverage, what could be more anti-democratic?”
That’s because the alternative is “have less money”. Since we have a world where you have to pay to live, that’s a hard ask.
If it should be asked of anyone, it should be asked of those people mentioned at the top: Dear billionaires, please have less money.
One thing I learned about studying ancient Greece, which I think could usefully be resurrected, was the “liturgy”. The richest men of Athens were assigned to pay the costs of expensive state undertakings, ranging from festivals to warships. The man paying for a given festival or warship was publicly and prominently associated with it, so that he could gain fame and glory for his support of the state, but the true demonstration of Athenian genius is the way that participation was enforced. There was exactly one way for a rich man to get out of paying: if he could find another rich man who was secretly weaseling out of his duties, than he could file a lawsuit to compel the weasel to have to pay not only for the weasel’s assigned project, but also to fund the project assigned to the informer.
Skynet needs to be properly programmed for the right kind of target acquisition.
Felixmagister @ 13
Every billionarire should have to buy one of those F- something stealth/air superiority fighters for the air force & Navy.
Why the fuck would we want even more fighter jets?
We should use the $5 trillion or so that they stole for something much more useful to this country, such as 2.5 billion Incredible Edibles™ Chocolate Spectaculars from Edible Arrangements or one hundred billion $50 gift cards to Applebee’s.
177 in California, huh?
I guess that’s why Larry Ellison and Elon Musk skipped town. Those Billionaire Club “Show Me What’s In You Wallet” nights down at The Olive Garden were getting too intense.
I’m kinda struck by one bit of information that, in a round-about way, one can glean: Trump, with a worth (inflated) in his own mind of 2 to 3 billion dollars, is a comparative lightweight compared to many of these billionaires. Yeah, Trump may claim to be superrich, and he is. But he’s in the lower tier of the superrich. And I think that, among many other things (Hillary’s emails, messy offices, the number of people at any event), drives him nuts. Or nuttier than usual.
I bring this up for no other reason that you need tax-funded megaprojects to get stuff done.
JWST has taken its first picture of an exoplanet. It was a previously known object, but it proves JWST can spot Jupiter-like planets in the Infrared.
Biden’s attempt to introduce taxation of unrealised capitol gains would have been a good start.
I find it amusing that all the states that don’t have billionaire, are places that I would not want to live in. Do Billionaires make a state they live in better, or do they gravitate toward more prosperous state? You all know the latter to be the truth. Billionaires contribute very little to the economy. They are parasites.
@20- DanDare
I think Capitol Gains are a major part of the problem from the perspective of how immense wealth has been abused. Could capital gains and wealth taxes tamp such a thing down a bit?
Capital Gains should be taxed at a higher rate than income from wages.
Part of that is ‘fairness’, part is for economic stability: bubbles and their ensuing crashes are caused by assets of the type where one gets ‘capital gains’.
My plan (which is mine): capital gains are taxed at the same rate as wages for gains that are less than ~3x t-bill rates. Gains beyond that? 90% taxation.
Fun fact: Sweden and other Scandinavian countries have so many billionaires they punch above their weight billionaire-wise. But they have to pay taxes!
Yet they thrive. It is as if free education free healthcare and good infrastructure is good for everyone including business !
You will never ever read this in Wall Street Times!
There are plenty of sympathic tech billionaires here. And their workers naturally have labor unions.