this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2025
285 points (98.6% liked)

politics

25537 readers
2256 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Wytch@lemmy.zip 78 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Is this the first pick-me billionaire, trying to keep his head off the block?

[–] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 48 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Most Billionaires didn't get that way by being stupid and will recognize that this is a cascade failure scenario.

Cant be on top if the whole Jenga tower gets kicked over.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Then why didn't they stop building their dragon hoards back before a decent chunk of society started calling for their heads?

[–] ContriteErudite@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

Game theory, pure and simple. At its core, it is nothing more than the mathematical codification of self-interest. Within capitalism, it becomes one of the most powerful tools for justifying and even glorifying selfishness and greed. By reducing human interaction to competitive strategies designed to maximize personal gain, it frames cooperation, empathy, or long-term collective well-being as irrational or inefficient. The result is a system where decisions that harm the many can be rationalized as “optimal” so long as they benefit the few who hold power and wealth.

Most people recognize the absurdity of this: we are essentially allowing the worst actors to dictate outcomes for everyone else. And all of it is wrapped in the veneer of mathematical inevitability, as though greed were a natural law instead of a human choice.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

it's a collective-action problem. everybody needs to act, but the first one to do so has a relative disadvantage to those who don't, so nobody wants to be the first.

that's why we need state-regulated wealth taxes. if everybody pays them at the same time, nobody loses out relatively speaking, and the system continues to work for everybody.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Dragon hoard doesn’t really describe what it’s like.

It’s more like going in to work every day, like everybody else at the office, sitting in meetings all day, and then watching the stock price shoot up until one day your net worth crosses 1,000,000,000.

It’s like getting a high score in a video game. There’s no mountain of cash in some warehouse. It’s just a number on a screen.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You seem like you're doing your best to downplay all the amoral decisions that exploit millions of people in your description of a passive income generating a billion dollars. No one generates a billion dollars passively and no one does it without ignoring a significant amount of suffering along the way.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

It’s not just a French Revolution style scenario they have to worry about. Look at what has happened to some Russian billionaires. Not so fun enjoying the playboy lifestyle when you’re afraid to drink tea or get anywhere near an open window.

Well said. It is very much like a Jenga tower loses support as people just pick more and more from it to grow a company with no thought given to the destruction it causes. What a fantastic analogy!

[–] ShoeThrower@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Billionaires didn't get that way by being stupid

Cant be on top if the whole Jenga tower gets kicked over

Uhh, yes they can. They are billionaires.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 days ago

Billionaires still bleed and die

[–] 100@fedia.io 3 points 4 days ago

wont be billionaire for long if nobody has money left for goods or services

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I guess it's only a few highly visible billionaires who seem colossally stupid.

The smartest ones seem smart because they know when to shut up and when to disappear from public view. If Trump knew when to shut the fuck up, almost, if not, none of the felonies he has would have stuck.

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

The stupid ones are usually the ones who started with enough wealth, sociopathy and family connections to just fail upwards. Staying rich is rather easy past a certain degree of wealth.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 32 points 4 days ago

Some basic Google sleuthing shows he's a centrist and hasn't made a public political donation since the 90s and that was $5000.

He has the second largest private personal charity, Dalio Philanthropies, which seems to dabble in a bit of everything.

Private charities don't thrill me, because it can be a huge source of dark money and it still maintains the charity owner's personal will and keeps their personal influence level high instead of just donating money to be used however the people receiving donations feels is best.

This link gives a little more specific insight to what he participates in, but it's still fairly vague. He's basically trying to do the Gates/Buffet give it all away by the time you die thing, so it's probably as good as one can expect from a hedge fund guy.

[–] Jolly_Platypus@lemmy.world 46 points 4 days ago (1 children)

We need a French solution to the billionaire problem.

[–] octopus_ink@slrpnk.net 36 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[–] FlyingSpaceCow@lemmy.ca 10 points 4 days ago

And that's from 9 years ago. It's definitely gotten worse

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 days ago

They figure this time they can implement total surveillance, total control. Everyone will either be a prisoner or a guard.

[–] baronvonj@lemmy.world 44 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 33 points 4 days ago

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[–] 20cello@lemmy.world 28 points 4 days ago (8 children)
[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

If only there were anything a helpless hedge fund billionaire could do to reduce inequality.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 3 points 4 days ago

Billionaires control the system, yes, but a billionaire is bound by it as much as you are, just in a different way. So yes, what one billionaire can do to reduce inequality is limited.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] kautau@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I miss when headlines weren’t almost all Onionesque

I seriously cannot distinguish them from each other at this point.

[–] CircaV@lemmy.ca 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Not every billionaire wants to be a technofeudalist or an oligarch. I bet a bunch of Russian billionaires don’t like the situation they’re in but are afraid to leave.

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Awww poor wittle babies. They just wanted to exploit their workers and take their labour in peace awwwww.

Put a sock in it.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] cmhickman358@thelemmy.club 16 points 4 days ago
[–] Philote@lemmy.ml 17 points 4 days ago

The current government can’t understand commoner speak, it’s like a foreign tongue, you must have billionaire in your title to have a pedestal to speak. So let’s not attack this person. We should applaud and encourage…. Still gallow them later but not yet.

[–] oppy1984@lemdro.id 9 points 4 days ago
[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Show us who you donate to politically.

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

well give your money away to non billionaire owned charities until you are not a billionaire?

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

We know. We have eyes.

[–] turdburglar@piefed.social 5 points 4 days ago

bob odenkirk is playing him in the netflix movie

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This should read "billionaires warned"

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Nice of the evil giant troll to inform us that they're eating us via one of their representatives. I wasn't sure where the rest of my body went.

[–] SuiXi3D@fedia.io 2 points 4 days ago

You're a billionaire. Do something about it.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 1 points 4 days ago

Better Call Saul is having a reboot after 45 years since the last episode.

load more comments
view more: next ›