why I am not surprised in the slightest?
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Liliane Bettencourt died nearly two years ago, but it’s still true.
As to the “democratically elected government”, it wasn’t exactly a landslide. Counting abstention and blank votes, it was 43,63% to the investment banker against a known racist.
Meanwhile, our (much changed) government:
Prime Minister : ex Areva lobbyist
Minister for Work : ex head of Danone HR
New minister for Ecology: also the minister for transports, did a lot of work to help break the rail system even more. Is seconded by the ex head-lobbyst for Danone (pro-palm oil) and an ex-Véolia person who broke water distribution in India.
Good. The Catholic Church has a reported net worth between $10 and $15 billion. I can think of a lot better place for millionaires and billionaires to send their money.
As a billionaire, when I pledge that kind of money, I expect it to be Ma Dame, not Notre Dame. The French can find some other sap to fall for their socialist schemes.
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There seems to be a misconception that the catholic church is just sitting on billions of dollars. But I don’t think that’s the case. I would suspect that the vast majority of that wealth is in land ownership from tens of thousands of parishes world wide (not to mention monasteries) , some of which are likely as historically significant as Notre Dame. These have to support the people who work there (the priests, bishops, monks, nuns, as well as various lay people, all of whom aren’t volunteers), but also the various works that they do, which generally includes needed programs like feeding the poor and homeless. A monastery that I live near (a trappist) does support itself somewhat, but some of their funding comes from the Vatican. This is a great place, which in part helps care for public lands, as well as host a green cemetery (which is open to all, not just catholics). They also allow any men to come and stay at the monastery for up to 6 months, again, open to all.
I also suspect that the church will indeed help with the rebuilding effort, but the situation in France is weird, in that the church and state are very well separated. The church itself is STATE PROPERTY. So maybe instead of depending on billionaires to rebuild, the state should be a major part of that effort. I would suspect that it’s one of the biggest tourist attractions.
If the church is going to sink some of it’s wealth into a public project, I’d much rather see that going to get rid of the predatory priests, and to give the victims recompense and help them pay for therapy for what they went through.
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We should all be embarrassed that the Roman Catholic Empire has one church only worth 6 billion when he owns 37 million of them nobody should help them, their evil
Why should anybody help hover Jean that has a church that took 200 years to build that free no mortgages on it you know how much money it makes. Should anybody help shame on them.
Typically, he’d fork over other people’s money (as his own) to himself for his own benefit.
Eg, To satisfy a legal settlement that required him to make a charitable donation, he used Trump Foundation money to pay that settlement. Or he uses Trump Foundation money to buy a portrait of himself, that he then had it hung in his own golf resort.
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“Giving is really taking” is exactly the kind of hard-headed analysis I’ve come to expect from The Guardian.
My goodness, everybody got burned for that one (sorry, kids), except maybe the artist.
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Wasn’t there any insurance money? What is the contribution of Catholic Church?
There’s a weirdly large number of folk in this thread defending the Arnault and Pinault families, the L’Oréal family foundation, and Total for reneging on their very public promises.
I’m looking at you Jorpho, lulybean, Jason_Sewell, and zhasu.
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True.
Unless it’s botched because the money that was promised never forthcame, leading to delays in recovery, and even longer delays in restoration, all while there’s a thumping great hole in the roof which leaves the cathedral effectively open to the elements.
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This is f-cking sick. I’m a retired Brit: I chipped in 25 Euros, as I’m sure did thousands of others from all over the world. I’m in favour of anything that will make these f-ckers pay up what they pledged.
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Frankly, neither am I surprised, nor do I care if it ever gets rebuilt. There are better things to spend money on. Not that it will go to those things, because it never does.
I wish I had taken a picture of a display I saw at the Denver Museum of Science and Technology this weekend, because now I’m relying on my memory which isn’t always the most accurate.
The gist of it was, if you started at one and counted upward it would take you 30-something years (I want to say 34) to reach 1 billion.
NOBODY should have a billion dollars. It’s disgusting and shouldn’t be tolerated.
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Just shined that up a little for ya.
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That too, but I’m a bit more focused on the “not tolerating” it aspect at the moment.
I wish it were possible to stage a country-wide walk out from our jobs until the monied class steps down from their gilded palaces and reinvests in humanity rather than hoarding more than they will ever need.
That, or the whole concept of “money” collapses because the faith has been shattered.
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It literally is possible to do that and more, the bottleneck is organizing. We just need people to help supply the frontlines of general strikes and coordinate them to hurt the upper class. These same people would be integral to supplying and coordinating other frontlines too, once we’re there.
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