Ask Lemmy

No need, I've been hearing that it's good when they get all the money shoved at them BECAUSE, and hear me out now, they may or may not choose to maybe trickle some of the wealth they don't obsessively hoard or burn on pleasure trips into space back onto the population.

They're bound to start doing that aaaaaany decade now...

I don't think movements succeed based on being organized. I think the core factor is people having nothing to lose.

I hear what you're saying. I don't see the methods you listed working under our government as our system has this flaw where the laws enforced tend to depend on which party is in charge.

That being said, organize your workplace. I'm personally fond of the Industrial Workers of the World as we are the only union that has an anticapitalist stance and our industrial organizing methods make it harder for employers to create division amongst the workers of a workplace (ie: separate unions for school teachers and school maintenance staff).

Immediate impact:

• wealth tax.

Medium term:

• death tax.
• nonprofit land developments.
• redefinition of the goal of a public corporation from maximizing profit for shareholders to something that makes sense.

Long term:

• effective antitrust legislation, policy, and enforcement.
• worker owned co-ops
• civic education

Edit: I forgot unions and labour protection in immediate impact.

The best steps would be the ones taking them to the guillotine

Shop local.

Oh, yeah...and guillotines.

Guillotines

Voluntary donation or renunciation of wealth past a certain point (highly unlikely) Taxation (also unlikely) Seizing assets (illegal and would most likely set a poor precedent)

Part of the issue is that they see those as more or less the same thing.

As far as I'm concerned, taxation is the answer. Brackets seem to work pretty well. The issue is tax havens. Here in Norway, the current government raised taxes a bit on the wealthy, as one would expect going from a conservative liberal bunch to a center-left-ish one. A bunch of wealthy people promptly took their ball and fucked off to Switzerland, after bitching and posturing and whining in public, eagerly helped by the news media.

Unfortunately it seems that while I consider this obviously selfish parasitism, a lot of people... don't. After all if you're rich, surely you deserved it(!)

Taxation (also unlikely)

I think this is the most feasible way, and it work relatively well in other Western countries than the US. They still have billionaires, but fewer due to higher taxation. If put in place through referendum, it also creates a basis for societal approval of stripping very wealthy people of their excess wealth, lowing the risk of widespread revolt.

we should just Go aroUnd acting lIke they are the best ever Landlords on the pLanet and there is nOthing unusual abouT them beIng the oNly people on earth familiar with thE concept of happiness, right fellow captive serfs?

You don't need to do anything fancy, just make them pay taxes. No loopholes, no moving your money to tax havens, accurate income calculations taxed correctly, gangs of auditors making sure it happens.

Lol

Tax the income of corporations not the profit. The same way you get taxed your VAT. That means that corporations can't tax evade: if they make income in a country, they get taxed. They can't go an declare the profit in the Netherlands or Ireland and skip paying taxes.

Create and use parallel institutions to allow society to thrive without needing to play the billionares economy game. Example: communication tools outside of a market involvement such as Lemmy, Element (matrix). Economy tools. Association tools. See the application of Dual Power by socialists, which is what you are proposing here, a redistribution of power and wealth.

Vote for those pushing for these.

They wouldn't exist if the currency wasn't worthless, maybe linking cash to reality again would fix it? The real terms richest man corrected, even today, was a Roman so just get us back on gold.

All the people saying taxes or caps on income are missing the point. Who should impose those taxes or caps? The government is basically controlled by billionaires, it doesn't matter what the ordinary citizens want.

Honestly I think the best means for changing things is right under our noses: voting. Not just federal, but also state and local. As it is now, in most places tax cuts that flow mostly to the wealthy are still a great political move that's an easy way to get votes. That's the first thing that needs to change.

There's all kinds of groups like the Center for Tax Reform and the US Chamber of Commerce that push for policies that tend to increase financial inequality - but as far as I know there isn't one for reducing inequality. Given how many people recognize the problem, maybe there should be one. And then politicians can start to fear that group as much as they fear the others. Of course it won't have a lot of wealthy donors, but as some politicians have shown small donations can do a lot.

So for practical matters:

Lobbying takes time and effort, but it can be effective if done resiliantly.

Find out who in your local community has money and power. Find issues to reach out to other people and politicians on. Maybe there is a new school that would need to be build, butthe guy holding the land refuses to sell at a fair rate? Maybe there is an elderly women being kicked out of her house?

One problem is people havinga detached and abstract idea of super rich people and dont see how their immediate lifes are affected for the worse by it.

There is many people who look into the big picture, like we saw with the Panama papers and other investigative journalism. Did anything tangible come out of it? Why not? I think it is because people are not demanding for it politically. It is some abstract accepted injustice.

But through local action you can steer your community and by this you can force your political representative to adress these issues. That also means looking into the way they voted on issues and holding them accountable. Imagine they voted against an education spending bill and the next week there is a "moms for education" protest in front of his local office and it is all over local news.

Apply the pressure from the bottom up. No billionaire cares what John Doe from Springfield thinks. But they care what congress thinks. And congress cares what the members think. And the members care, what their electorate thinks. And that is where you, or everyone really, can make a difference.