A one day old account defending imperial capitalism. Sure you aren’t fascist.

Found a fascist.

Precisely. And to belabour the point, if they really want to “do good”, just shut up and do it. No need to announce on the megaphone that they are good for wanting to donate most of their wealth, but are still billionaires and getting richer. If they are serious about helping, their net worth would have decreased by now and would not be billionaires anymore.

From cold hard rationale, Hayek and Friedman makes sense, but they do ignore reality that circumstances always change. Deregulation made sense at the time of 1970s oil crisis as the economy and welfare state stagnated, but we’re now in the age of economic prosperity again, but the wealth is hoarded by the few and act as though austerity still matters.

Not entirely sure about why Friedman’s claim that India was costing the British empire more to maintain, but it has also been repeated in many circles. I suspect that the data is not fully contextualised and repeated as if it’s the absolute truth. An Indian historian countered the narrative, mentioning that if we include the period of private control of India by the British East India company, before India was formally taken over by the British state in 1858, the total wealth plundered from India is about $1 trillion. The term “loot” is Indian origin, which became part of the English language after East India’s violent colonisation. When the British public found out of about the brutal occupation by a private company and were enraged by it, the British state took over the formal administration. But this only happened well after committing crimes against humanity, after a state-sanctioned plunder and massacre that made their private owners and their government enablers rich, while the cost of running another country is taken over by tax payers. It’s an early example of “privatise the profit, socialise the cost”.

VICTORIA NULAND!!

I’m not poor, but I hate that I don’t feel financially secure enough to do more whatever I want. Working alone isn’t enough anymore to save a house but at the same time to have fun.

That’s why one should not trust billionaires who make noises about changing the world for the better. It is merely to stoke their egos. I’m not even religious anymore but I still remember being taught that it is better to share the success without bragging about it. There are genuinely good rich folks, but they don’t brag about how nice they are. Chuck Feeney, the billionaire founder of Duty Free, quietly donated the majority of his wealth by the time he died. He was left with $2 million after the donations and was renting an apartment in New York. There is also a millionaire who built houses for the homeless. But I would say that the “good ones” are far and few.

However, the darker side of trying to “be rich and be quiet about it” are some billionaires donating to regressive causes. I think I don’t need to mention the Koch brothers and Murdochs. Being the “power behind the throne” is more effective way to actually wield power. That’s why I don’t think ridding Trump will solve anything unless there is a more robust system to prevent money in politics being put ever again.

English isn’t my first language, so I get grammatical errors. Now, when I type in my own language, I still get grammatical errors because I’ve been away for so long from my home country. That should assuage any accusations that I’m a bot.

However, someone did mention that I sounded like an anime character before. I think it’s because I made an analysis that sounded too academic, like being dispassionate and analytical. I spent too much time in academia for my own good before. Well, that is better than sounding like middle managers, which people pointed out that AI sounds awfully like one.

How do we even know you’re not working in a troll farm?

Crime of passion? That’s still a thing?

do the billionaires not care about their own children?

Ummm…no? I sincerely believe some people are inherently evil. Look at Elon Musk and how he treats his children.

I was watching a documentary on the nature of evil. There is an incarcerated serial killer who acknowledges what he did is evil and wrong, but he doesn’t feel empathy. CT scan of his brain showed that the part of the brain associated with empathy is not really active. Having said that, I heard that the longer someone is in power, the more that their brain physiologically changes.

Of course it is more complicated and nurture still plays a role on the person’s development, but I think sometimes nature is stronger.

I laughed when Milton Friedman thinks free market could prevent climate change through climate dividends and carbon tax. Good luck, boyo, your “greed is good” bullshit is what led us to here.

70 year old: But I am fast.

Maybe you have ADHD.

The only times I did this was 2015, 2018, and 2020 (I’d rather not explain about the first two aforementioned years, but 2020 certainly doesn’t need explaining). But in general, I am the “go with the flow” kind of person, so expecting that next year will be better is something I haven’t thought of.

The rest of the commenters here are correct. Although, socialism means differently under different contexts. Socially yes, it means helping others and each other; but socialism in economic context typically means either the workers run the means of production, or the state. The wealth generated is then distributed as equally as possibly among the members.

I love the old school forums. I think folks were nicer in them. However, I just couldn’t go back for good simply because the UI is not user friendly, and navigating the sub-forums is like going through the labyrinth. Reddit and Lemmy are better due to better UI.

My guess is that you’re not in the US like I am, but I hear so many ridiculous stories and laws over there which are privacy-invasive, because it is not a secret that corporations and governments want data to surveil and manipulate its citizens, and then train AI.

They’re not wrong? It’s an open secret in the business world that information is the new gold.

If something is free, you’re the product.

K comrade.