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[–] 31 points 4 months ago (3 children)

And this from the guy that "challenged" the UN to offer a plan on ending world hunger, which they already had prepared but somehow he didn't follow through with it

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Which to me just doesn't make sense.

    The man is hungry for attention and respect. His money would have bought him that and then some.

    It was right there. Don't buy a super yacht and you'd effectively buy good will and get to one up all the rich elite club members, even if it doesn't work. And all that free marketing to help the numbers go up.

    I dunno. Maybe money at that level just rewires the brain.

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  • [–] 30 points 4 months ago

    Fuck the system that made someone like Musk a trillionaire.

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  • [–] 28 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    And yet the bastard is still miserable, has no real friends, no proper family, not even a functional dick.

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  • [–] 22 points 4 months ago

    In 2024 USAID spent about $21 billion dollars. That's about 2% of Elon Musk's current "wealth." The fact that he doesn't even have to pay that much in taxes is an absolute failure.

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  • 47 comments in c/politics@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 27 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Occasionally I do still hope there's a hell

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    I don't believe in heaven but I hope there's a hell.

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    I assure you both can be found here on earth

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  • [–] 17 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Elon Musk is a war criminal. And he's an ugly spoiled brat. And I could beat him up.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    His actions were some kind of crimes against humanity

    But we need a better term for being a war criminal without a war

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Good points. I would argue that the capitalists have been in an undisclosed war on the poor since it's inception. His actions on USAID alone constitute a war crime (if the war was recognized and since we get to say and do whatever we want now, its a war, I said so).

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    I mean, if the war is against the poor, then the victims in this case would be the enemy, so I'm not sure it'd be considered a war crime

    That being said, he is definitely guilty of some pretty grievous crimes against humanity, and the dismantling of USAID is a big one

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago

    Those starving babies need to learn about capitalism and fast. Being from Africa is no excuse. Look at Elon Musk! He started in Africa and became the richest Nazi in the world. I think learning about Elon would do those babies more good than food.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago* (1 child)

    “Many of you may die for me to become the world’s first trillionaire. But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make” - Musk

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    When people say Billionaires should not exist, this is a very God example of why they shouldn't

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    “Saving humanity” per usual.

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  • [+] -25 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (9 children)

    A straight-up zeroing of the aid is a horrible idea, but also keeping an entire country completely dependent on food aid for several decades is also a bad idea.

    In Sudan, the famine is created by humans locally, by the brutal civil war between SAF and RSF. Both are attacking the other side's food security.

    Also, the article contains a typical idiocy:

    Oxfam has estimated that a 10% tax on Musk’s $1 trillion fortune would generate enough revenue to end extreme poverty worldwide for a year.

    Wealth simply doesn't work like that. Do better, Oxfam.

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  • [–] 27 points 4 months ago* (8 children)

    I'm pretty aware of all the caveats about assets and the market dynamics and net worth and yada yada but uh, yeah, wealth kinda does work like that, actually...

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Depends on what you mean by "wealth like that". A 10% tax on everything he owns would be like 50% of his personal wealth.

    But yeah, we can definitely do better than 0%...

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago* (2 children)

    10% tax on everything he owns would be like 50% of his personal wealth.

    That doesn't make any sense? 10% tax on all he owns is 10% of his personal wealth.
    Obviously all he owns = His personal wealth.

    But yeah, we can definitely do better than 0%

    Definitely, 1% should be a no-brainer, 2% would be better. 😀

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  • [+] -6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 child)

    25 upvotes, no downvotes.

    Do better, lemmyverse.

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  • [+] 11 points 4 months ago* (1 child)
  • [–] -4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

    Except for elitism, I am and post none of those things. Elitism is great when applied properly and with humility. Surely the actually most capable people should be leading things.

    I'm all for seeing opinions that differ from mine, but outright ignorance that everybody is cheering is disgusting and indeed very anti-elitist in the worst way.

    I can and will fix this myself though. Some lemmy clients allow hiding the scores, just unfortunately not the default client of my instance.

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  • [+] -17 points 4 months ago (19 children)
  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (12 children)

    The US can afford food for its own people, it chooses not to because it’s a horrible place with far too many horrible people in it. Exercising soft power and foreign aid is also surprisingly beneficial and helps everyone. Not to mention that the US regularly does shit to fuck over other countries and people don’t seem to have a major issue with that spending. Their failure to actually help rebuild in the middle east is, as I understand it, a huge reason why they ended up getting attacked on 9/11.

    The US owes everyone else quite a lot for being a massive fucking pest. If they can ship their garbage to developing nations they can also ship some food to them, too.

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  • [+] -11 points 4 months ago (11 children)
  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

    Because we also know that feeding the poor and providing healthcare and transit and all these things are actually cheaper than stealing from the working class, attacking homeless people, and giving everyone severe medical debt.

    Keep up, this is all really old news.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (8 children)
  • [+] -10 points 4 months ago (7 children)
  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    That's just Trump. He has spent slightly more than half of the national debt in 6 years. Helping people worldwide didn't cost shit for what we were getting out of it. Helping our own people returns an average of $2.50 to the economy for every single dollar spent.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago* (4 children)

    It’s important to distinguish debt from deficit

    As of 2026, the U.S. federal deficit is projected to be approximately 6.4% of GDP.

    This year we spend 6.4% of GDP more than the federal government takes in. That’s excessive and out of control but we’re not spending more than GDP.

    Our accumulated debt on the other hand is that and rising. Countries get a lot of leeway on debt and us being reserve currency means we get even more leeway. But already interest on the debt is becoming our largest expense, making us be able to afford less and less.

    And at some point we’ll hit a wall. Not knowing where the wall is doesn’t mean it’s not there, it just means we can’t predict it until we smash our heads against it. And some idiot thinks it’s ok to monkey with the US dollar being the world’s reserve currency? If that idiot succeeds, that invisible wall of insolvency suddenly jumps closer

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  • [+] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    The tighter we try to hold that petrodollar, the faster it’s squeezing out of our grasp. I have no doubt that’s what Trump was attempting but he’s just speeding up the end. Maybe that’s also good from his perspective because he only cares about himself and the next administration is likely to feel the pain

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  • [–] 14 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    We CAN afford food for our own people. People like MAGAts just don’t WANT to.

    And for the record we can afford to do BOTH.

    Tax the rich!!!

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  • [+] -10 points 4 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Our military is unbelievably massive, I think we can afford a cut or two, don't you?

    Just cutting military bases alone would save quite a bit...

    Also, our Navy doesn't need to police the planet, seven carrier groups? One carrier alone is ridiculously expensive.

    We can increase taxes on the super wealthy AND make military cuts AND other measures besides, none of which are important for the USAs defense, none of which benefit citizens.

    Worst case scenario? There's a financial collapse for a few years, maybe a decade; and it will happen sooner rather than later. If things are as you suggest (debt so high that increased taxes can't help) the collapse is inevitable anyway, yeah?

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Well now we’re doing less of both. Less feeding our own and less helping starving people elsewhere…… and going into more debt doing so since it can’t offset the massive tax cuts for the wealthy

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