Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve hated Thiel since he destroyed Gawker. I do think the tide is turning on these types. Does anyone still like Musk? Or Bezos? Or Zuckerberg? They are all so unappealing, they are perfect villains.

Some really bad sh!t on Zuckerberg was just filed in federal court.

Wow anything for a buck!

I got of FB and Insta a couple of years ago because Zuck sucks. I wish every American would delete their accounts. It's destroying our society.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the country needs to take a page from the Gilded Age when we had similar income inequality and a small group of obscenely wealthy billionaires.

That's when antitrust and other legislation was passed, and it culminated with the US passing an income tax for the first time in 1913.

It seems obvious to implement a wealth tax on all wealth over...take your pick...$1BN, $10BN...something.

I mean, even mere hundred millionaires will support it (as long as they don't think it will go to down to that level). Literally, 99.8% of the population will support it.

At the very list, implement a minimum tax obligation for anyone with a net worth over whatever may be the limit. That you can't claim almost zero income because you own $100BN of stock, receive a $1 salary and you borrow against your stock to fund your daily life (which costs only in the hundred million range annually...at most).

Need an estate tax for anything over $10M. Generational wealth is turning the latest batches of trust fund nepo babies into worthless humans. If kids from an extremely wealthy upbringing with the best nutrition and education can't earn a high paying job in 40 adult years then too bad.

That's funny. Bill Gates generational wealth? Bill Gates started Microsoft like anyone else as middle class. He didn't inherit. Elon Musk came to the U.S. with $2,000 to his name.

Jobs and Wozniak started Apple in their garage. They weren't rich.

What the hell are you going on about?

10% of US high schools students attend private school. Bill Gates attended the Lakeside School, a private college-preparatory school in Seattle, Washington.

He was wealthy. Not master of the universe, but have capital from bank of dad and can take a lot more risks than most people.

Bill Gates WAS NOT wealthy.

Bill Gates Sr. (1925–2020) was the father of Bill Gates. He was an attorney, philanthropist, and civic leader. He founded the law firm Shidler McBroom & Gates (a predecessor of K&L Gates), and also served as president of both the Seattle King County and Washington State Bar associations

I think your perception of wealthy is skewed by adoration of tech oligarchs. A prominent attorney who focused on corporate and tech issues and sends his kids to elite private schools (with one of the countries first computer access terminals), is definitely wealthy.

Yes. And it's not just the personal money. It's the ability to leverage that wealth with networks from financial institutions to VC. It's easier to risk a bunch of money that's not yours. And startup bankruptcy is seen as a lesson learned until the next opportunity.

Bill Gates owes much of his wealth to his mother's connections:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/how-bill-gates-mother-influenced-the-success-of-microsoft.html

Gates' mom was on the board of United Way of King County as was John Opel, the chairman of IBM. IBM was looking for someone to create an operating system and Gates' mom told Opel about her son. Opel suggested Bill Gates to IBM executives who made a deal with Gates. Gates didn't even have an OS at the time and quickly went out and bought one from another company.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve hated Thiel since he destroyed Gawker. I do think the tide is turning on these types. Does anyone still like Musk? Or Bezos? Or Zuckerberg? They are all so unappealing, they are perfect villains.

Some really bad sh!t on Zuckerberg was just filed in federal court.

Wow anything for a buck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the country needs to take a page from the Gilded Age when we had similar income inequality and a small group of obscenely wealthy billionaires.

That's when antitrust and other legislation was passed, and it culminated with the US passing an income tax for the first time in 1913.

It seems obvious to implement a wealth tax on all wealth over...take your pick...$1BN, $10BN...something.

I mean, even mere hundred millionaires will support it (as long as they don't think it will go to down to that level). Literally, 99.8% of the population will support it.

At the very list, implement a minimum tax obligation for anyone with a net worth over whatever may be the limit. That you can't claim almost zero income because you own $100BN of stock, receive a $1 salary and you borrow against your stock to fund your daily life (which costs only in the hundred million range annually...at most).

Need an estate tax for anything over $10M. Generational wealth is turning the latest batches of trust fund nepo babies into worthless humans. If kids from an extremely wealthy upbringing with the best nutrition and education can't earn a high paying job in 40 adult years then too bad.

That's funny. Bill Gates generational wealth? Bill Gates started Microsoft like anyone else as middle class. He didn't inherit. Elon Musk came to the U.S. with $2,000 to his name.

Jobs and Wozniak started Apple in their garage. They weren't rich.

What the hell are you going on about?

Propaganda. The rags to riches stories they tell us are not real. Yeah Bezos started in a garage. In his parents garage with their million dollar seed money.

Elon Musk came here illegally, backed by his parents ill-gotten wealth from their mines/slave labor.

And Bill Gates came from a solidly upper middle class/rich background giving him access to education and opportunities most Americans do not have. It only seems normal to the DCUM crowd. Most of you are similarly out of touch to how most Americans live.

Bezos' parents provided like $250k and it was part of an Angel round of $1MM.

Gates was a very different story as his dad was a wealthy attorney who was very connected in the Seattle area (he actually plays a leading role in the Starbucks story in case anyone wants to read some interesting history)...and Elon's background is very murky...but Bezos' mother had him as a teenager and then married his stepdad (with the Bezos name) who was a network engineer.





I'm not saying it's

Are you CRAY? How many Americans do you think get $250k from their parents, EVER? My grandparents (all immigrants) gave their kids a handshake and a pat on the back as they left home at 18 to pay for their own tuition and room and board at junior college. I (age 52) was fortunate that I was able to get loans for tuition and my parents paid for my living expenses. The idea that they would have $250 to give me is laughable let alone $250k. You are living in an alternate reality if you think Bezos wasn't RICH

Anonymous wrote:I’ve hated Thiel since he destroyed Gawker. I do think the tide is turning on these types. Does anyone still like Musk? Or Bezos? Or Zuckerberg? They are all so unappealing, they are perfect villains.

Some really bad sh!t on Zuckerberg was just filed in federal court.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Back in the day what the people wanted mattered more than what corporations wanted. That changed in 2010 with Citizens United. That decision is bearing more and more fruit with each passing year.

Yes. Citizens United allowed the rich to gain too much power and ushered in the current Republican flirtation with fascism and Christian Nationalism. Money really is the root of evil.

Yup, and we knew it at the time. Read the dissenting opinion of Justices Stevens, Bryer, Ginsberg, and Sotomayor in Citizens United. Everything they warned of has come to pass.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve hated Thiel since he destroyed Gawker. I do think the tide is turning on these types. Does anyone still like Musk? Or Bezos? Or Zuckerberg? They are all so unappealing, they are perfect villains.

Well in his defense, gawker was invading his privacy. Hmm, I wonder if an average American can sue Thiel over his company’s invasion of privacy?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the country needs to take a page from the Gilded Age when we had similar income inequality and a small group of obscenely wealthy billionaires.

That's when antitrust and other legislation was passed, and it culminated with the US passing an income tax for the first time in 1913.

It seems obvious to implement a wealth tax on all wealth over...take your pick...$1BN, $10BN...something.

I mean, even mere hundred millionaires will support it (as long as they don't think it will go to down to that level). Literally, 99.8% of the population will support it.

At the very list, implement a minimum tax obligation for anyone with a net worth over whatever may be the limit. That you can't claim almost zero income because you own $100BN of stock, receive a $1 salary and you borrow against your stock to fund your daily life (which costs only in the hundred million range annually...at most).

Need an estate tax for anything over $10M. Generational wealth is turning the latest batches of trust fund nepo babies into worthless humans. If kids from an extremely wealthy upbringing with the best nutrition and education can't earn a high paying job in 40 adult years then too bad.

That's funny. Bill Gates generational wealth? Bill Gates started Microsoft like anyone else as middle class. He didn't inherit. Elon Musk came to the U.S. with $2,000 to his name.

Jobs and Wozniak started Apple in their garage. They weren't rich.

What the hell are you going on about?

10% of US high schools students attend private school. Bill Gates attended the Lakeside School, a private college-preparatory school in Seattle, Washington.

He was wealthy. Not master of the universe, but have capital from bank of dad and can take a lot more risks than most people.

Bill Gates WAS NOT wealthy.

Bill Gates Sr. (1925–2020) was the father of Bill Gates. He was an attorney, philanthropist, and civic leader. He founded the law firm Shidler McBroom & Gates (a predecessor of K&L Gates), and also served as president of both the Seattle King County and Washington State Bar associations

I think your perception of wealthy is skewed by adoration of tech oligarchs. A prominent attorney who focused on corporate and tech issues and sends his kids to elite private schools (with one of the countries first computer access terminals), is definitely wealthy.

Yes. And it's not just the personal money. It's the ability to leverage that wealth with networks from financial institutions to VC. It's easier to risk a bunch of money that's not yours. And startup bankruptcy is seen as a lesson learned until the next opportunity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the country needs to take a page from the Gilded Age when we had similar income inequality and a small group of obscenely wealthy billionaires.

That's when antitrust and other legislation was passed, and it culminated with the US passing an income tax for the first time in 1913.

It seems obvious to implement a wealth tax on all wealth over...take your pick...$1BN, $10BN...something.

I mean, even mere hundred millionaires will support it (as long as they don't think it will go to down to that level). Literally, 99.8% of the population will support it.

At the very list, implement a minimum tax obligation for anyone with a net worth over whatever may be the limit. That you can't claim almost zero income because you own $100BN of stock, receive a $1 salary and you borrow against your stock to fund your daily life (which costs only in the hundred million range annually...at most).

Need an estate tax for anything over $10M. Generational wealth is turning the latest batches of trust fund nepo babies into worthless humans. If kids from an extremely wealthy upbringing with the best nutrition and education can't earn a high paying job in 40 adult years then too bad.

That's funny. Bill Gates generational wealth? Bill Gates started Microsoft like anyone else as middle class. He didn't inherit. Elon Musk came to the U.S. with $2,000 to his name.

Jobs and Wozniak started Apple in their garage. They weren't rich.

What the hell are you going on about?

Propaganda. The rags to riches stories they tell us are not real. Yeah Bezos started in a garage. In his parents garage with their million dollar seed money.

Elon Musk came here illegally, backed by his parents ill-gotten wealth from their mines/slave labor.

And Bill Gates came from a solidly upper middle class/rich background giving him access to education and opportunities most Americans do not have. It only seems normal to the DCUM crowd. Most of you are similarly out of touch to how most Americans live.

Bezos' parents provided like $250k and it was part of an Angel round of $1MM.

Gates was a very different story as his dad was a wealthy attorney who was very connected in the Seattle area (he actually plays a leading role in the Starbucks story in case anyone wants to read some interesting history)...and Elon's background is very murky...but Bezos' mother had him as a teenager and then married his stepdad (with the Bezos name) who was a network engineer.





I'm not saying it's

Every single one of these tech guys grew up privileged - i.e. ant least upper middle class. That alone makes a huge difference in outcomes. My family has been UMC - college degrees going back to greats (women) and further (men) - doctors, lawyers, and businessmen for generations. It all but guarantees a decent level of success for the next generation (barring extremes like mental illness or addiction).

Interestingly many of the current policies being pursued by Heritage type MAGA-Republicans are designed to destroy the UMC/professional class because those are the folks best equipped to oppose, question, and challenge their behavior through the government and courts.

These musings are something else today. Anyone who isn’t themselves ethically dicey has never supported the tech brolicarchy.

The PP who enumerated the shortcomings of the Democrats and the PP that made claims that some tech billionaires indeed built something out of significantly less wealth failed to address the central point of the OP, which is their influence on politics and government and overall direction of the US and global economic structure.

Taylor Swift is a billionaire. She had wealthy parents. You may or may not like her music. But we are not complaining about Taylor Swift’s wealth because she is not buying politicians, interfering with the electoral system, buying entire media platforms, and orchestrating major mergers, outsourcing/offshoring labor, circular investing into AI, and implementing mass layoffs and setting economic trends that solidify further concentration of wealth. The OP isn’t even about the existence of billionaires, but addressing the issue of half a dozen billionaires essentially manipulating the entire economy and political system.

Anonymous wrote:Back in the day what the people wanted mattered more than what corporations wanted. That changed in 2010 with Citizens United. That decision is bearing more and more fruit with each passing year.

Yes. Citizens United allowed the rich to gain too much power and ushered in the current Republican flirtation with fascism and Christian Nationalism. Money really is the root of evil.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the country needs to take a page from the Gilded Age when we had similar income inequality and a small group of obscenely wealthy billionaires.

That's when antitrust and other legislation was passed, and it culminated with the US passing an income tax for the first time in 1913.

It seems obvious to implement a wealth tax on all wealth over...take your pick...$1BN, $10BN...something.

I mean, even mere hundred millionaires will support it (as long as they don't think it will go to down to that level). Literally, 99.8% of the population will support it.

At the very list, implement a minimum tax obligation for anyone with a net worth over whatever may be the limit. That you can't claim almost zero income because you own $100BN of stock, receive a $1 salary and you borrow against your stock to fund your daily life (which costs only in the hundred million range annually...at most).

Need an estate tax for anything over $10M. Generational wealth is turning the latest batches of trust fund nepo babies into worthless humans. If kids from an extremely wealthy upbringing with the best nutrition and education can't earn a high paying job in 40 adult years then too bad.

That's funny. Bill Gates generational wealth? Bill Gates started Microsoft like anyone else as middle class. He didn't inherit. Elon Musk came to the U.S. with $2,000 to his name.

Jobs and Wozniak started Apple in their garage. They weren't rich.

What the hell are you going on about?

10% of US high schools students attend private school. Bill Gates attended the Lakeside School, a private college-preparatory school in Seattle, Washington.

He was wealthy. Not master of the universe, but have capital from bank of dad and can take a lot more risks than most people.

Bill Gates WAS NOT wealthy.

Bill Gates Sr. (1925–2020) was the father of Bill Gates. He was an attorney, philanthropist, and civic leader. He founded the law firm Shidler McBroom & Gates (a predecessor of K&L Gates), and also served as president of both the Seattle King County and Washington State Bar associations

I think your perception of wealthy is skewed by adoration of tech oligarchs. A prominent attorney who focused on corporate and tech issues and sends his kids to elite private schools (with one of the countries first computer access terminals), is definitely wealthy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like the country needs to take a page from the Gilded Age when we had similar income inequality and a small group of obscenely wealthy billionaires.

That's when antitrust and other legislation was passed, and it culminated with the US passing an income tax for the first time in 1913.

It seems obvious to implement a wealth tax on all wealth over...take your pick...$1BN, $10BN...something.

I mean, even mere hundred millionaires will support it (as long as they don't think it will go to down to that level). Literally, 99.8% of the population will support it.

At the very list, implement a minimum tax obligation for anyone with a net worth over whatever may be the limit. That you can't claim almost zero income because you own $100BN of stock, receive a $1 salary and you borrow against your stock to fund your daily life (which costs only in the hundred million range annually...at most).

Need an estate tax for anything over $10M. Generational wealth is turning the latest batches of trust fund nepo babies into worthless humans. If kids from an extremely wealthy upbringing with the best nutrition and education can't earn a high paying job in 40 adult years then too bad.

That's funny. Bill Gates generational wealth? Bill Gates started Microsoft like anyone else as middle class. He didn't inherit. Elon Musk came to the U.S. with $2,000 to his name.

Jobs and Wozniak started Apple in their garage. They weren't rich.

What the hell are you going on about?

Propaganda. The rags to riches stories they tell us are not real. Yeah Bezos started in a garage. In his parents garage with their million dollar seed money.

Elon Musk came here illegally, backed by his parents ill-gotten wealth from their mines/slave labor.

And Bill Gates came from a solidly upper middle class/rich background giving him access to education and opportunities most Americans do not have. It only seems normal to the DCUM crowd. Most of you are similarly out of touch to how most Americans live.