Those who hoard power rarely relinquish it to people who worry about asking politely.
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What’s so great about doing it delicately?
It’s not like massive wealth disparity has delicate effects on those that it abuses.
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I’m (actually) surprised that more super-richies aren’t interested in acting like superheroes.
“I saved the impoverished children of India!”
“I made the desert bloom!”
“I built 10 hospitals in Eritrea!”
Of course, yes, a system that depends on the generosity of the super-rich is obscene.
Still, I think if I was a zillionaire I’d want to do something with it. Even if only to make people love me.
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Hell, at some point you’d assume that just watching your money roll in or setting up yet another gazillion dollar startup would get boring and you’d start thinking about turning your attention to a real challenge like, I dunno, eliminating malaria or stopping famines.
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You’d think they’d want to be likened to superheroes.
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Elon Musk offered to roll out solar panels and batteries in Puerto Rico after the hurricane last year, but he was honest about it being primarily a business move. He ended up providing power to a children’s hospital and donating $250k to relief efforts, but in the end the more villainous super-richies (Dolt 45’s cronies at the woefully underequipped Whitefish Energy) won the larger contract (after which they were kicked out).
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Fact check time. Housing prices in Ann Arbor (where the guy you’re replying to still claims to live) continue to rise primarily due to perception of desirability of the town and lack of available housing stock. Our property tax rates are regulated by the state, and the amount your taxable property value can rise in a year is also regulated by the state via a constitutional amendment. The number of millages passed by the community you live in determines the amount of taxes you pay on your property per $1000 of taxable value. The current millage rate is 49.0725 for a homesteaded property, and that’s not the highest in the county - that honor belongs to Ypsilanti with a 65.9786 homestead millage rate.
There’s a deliberate misconception/meme among the vast majority of “conservatives” that people who pay rent aren’t paying property taxes, that the poor don’t pay sales tax, and/or don’t pay income tax (absolutely not true in Michigan, unless their income is literally $0).
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Did I get drunk and type “Breitbart” instead of “BoingBoing” again?
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Breitboing?
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Yes, because boingbart sounds like Simpson’s slash fiction.
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Amen, brother.
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Thanks! You’re right, limited housing stock does change things, as does any
scenario that limits the way home value is assessed for taxation purposes.
I wasn’t thinking about that.
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I’m not familiar with that particular scientific journal.
In other words: no.
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Why would you go and put that into my mind? Why???
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To purge it from mine.
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Won’t all that will take a lot of electricity infrastructure and running diesel engines, which is pretty bad for Mother Gaia 'n the polar bears 'n stuff??
