this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2025
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Elaborate and explain

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[–] surph_ninja@lemmy.world 3 points 1 hour ago

The billionaires, by convincing people the rich have a monopoly on violence.

But if anything sparks collective violence, the rich are overthrown within a month.

[–] MTK@lemmy.world 6 points 1 hour ago

I mean... Look around? Maybe billionaire is a new thing, but it is just modern royalty. We still have kings, they just got better PR.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 2 hours ago

Nature seems to be helping out recently as well.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 9 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Seems like the billionaires are winning 🤷🏼‍♀️ ?!

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Nobody is winning, except that demon capital. The billionaires are just losing less.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Stop being so rational!!

[–] MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

The game is rigged.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

Assuming the 8b were all of the same mind, they would win. But we all know there are quite a few that the billionaires could buy to fight for them

[–] Emil_Zatopek1982@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Just stop believing that those 3000 are billionaires. If 8 billion people say "No, you are not rich" those fuckers become poor. Money is a religion.

[–] Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Except that doesn't stop the exchange of goods and services.

[–] angrystego@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Tje billionaires are winning now and the reasons are obvious.

The 8 billion are unable to think clearly, identify problems and organize. The billionaires are focused on their goals and super influential. They're able to buy loyality of the key less fortunate people and enforce loyality of others. They can also buy media to influence thinking of the masses.

If it was just about numbers, the billionaires would lose. But it's not.

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 18 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I belive the billionaires is currently winning

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

But only because the other 8 billion let them

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 6 points 9 hours ago
[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

Depends on the situation.

If we were all put into an arena with zero weaponry, the 8 billion. Under no circumstances would the 3000 win because the 8 billion would most likely end up murdering them, even if by accident.

Under the current world conditions, not looking good.

[–] DeathToUS@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Don't put us on the same list with the rest of the world and 8 billion pretty much win.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 3 points 8 hours ago

I'd want to say "8 billion people", but right now 3000 billionaires lead on.

After all, they maintain their position by masterfully playing people off each other and setting things up to be on top. They have all the resources to extend their influence.

If 8 billion people could turn billionaires voices off for anything larger than a day, then yeah, 8 billion all the way, and 3000 will run out FAST.

But the latter know this, and will never let this happen. We should.

[–] xzot746@sh.itjust.works 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Over 1 million Russians killed and how many tens of thousands in Gaza. 3000 would be quite easy compared to the innocent.

Yes markets would be in shit but so what, take their wealth and distribute it. The entire financial system is made out of thin air now, everyone will be all worried to justify why not to do it but we need to do it for our civilization to grow beyond having the Poor's do all the work for the greedy pigs.

The entire system needs to change and they won't go easy, it will be tough and bloody.

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 hours ago

The hard part isnt the toppeling of the system, it is creating a stable new one, economicly and politicly. Think about the millions of indoctrinated people in all corners of the world that are fuled by hate towards a none existing enemy. Getting those in, will be hard. Especially if they are deep into conspiricy

[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world -1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

The likelihood we would have to have commanders with armies we could do an entire war with artillery, tank, infantry and air bombardment with jets they would be dead in days.

[–] DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

With modern drones and AI tech?

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

I was just yesterday talking to someone about how AI drones, specifically exactly AI drones, will be a pivotal piece of technology in a way I think even beyond nukes in some sense. With a decent AI drone swarm, it's not hard to imagine a SINGLE person dominating an entire population. The dictator's purest dream - none of those pesky military generals getting uppity.

[–] DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

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[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

The most successful method the wealthy have used to subvert social movements is infiltration. When a drone swarm can do that, then drone swarms will be what I worry about.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 9 hours ago

homer patting Bart on the shoulder meme

The most successful method so far!

[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 22 hours ago

8 billion temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

[–] vane@lemmy.world 10 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

3000 billionaires because you can't convince everybody to ditch school. You can't change people. Pharaoh, Hammurabi. Those are thousands of years of genetic obedience.

[–] mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 10 hours ago

I don't know if I like assuming that obedience is a genetically heritable trait. I've heard racists use this assumption to argue that racially Chinese people are more likely to be sneaky servile backstabbers because that's what their genetics are selected for due to their political past.

Controversial statement incoming: I also don't want to preemptively rule out the possibility of obedience, or anything else, being genetically heritable - even if it could lead to these uncomfortable conclusions. I think scientific studies should be done about such things to answer the questions of whether these personality traits are heritable, come what may of that knowledge. But to my relief, from the studies I've seen, personality traits heritability is on very shaky ground in most cases.

[–] killabeezio@lemmy.zip 2 points 16 hours ago

Cash me outside

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago

Don't worry, the entire system is collapsing from mismanagement.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Billionaires, because we are too dumb to not fall for their tricks

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[–] breecher@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 day ago

Unfortunately that is not how the figures really are. Way too many of those 8 billions will willingly simp and fight the rest of us in the name of those billionaires.

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 201 points 1 day ago (13 children)

The billionaires are already winning, with no signs of that changing.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (8 children)

Ok, let’s look at this…

IF billionaires were removed from the picture, what would be the result?

There would be investment assets in various holding entities that would then be what, up for grabs? Sold off? Put in probate? Trillions in stock alone would suddenly be ownerless. How would that affect the market and the regular person’s investments?

Multiple BoD positions and CEO positions opening up. How would those be compensated? Just make more people rich?

Material possessions originally worth absurd sums now up for grabs to nobody who could realistically afford to use or maintain them (yachts, palatial homes, etc). Manufacturers of luxury goods would vanish (stupidly expensive watches, clothes, cars).

How would you prevent some other greedy, power-hungry f_cks from taking up the reins and putting us right back where we started? There is no point in civilization’s history where greedy f_cks haven’t existed, so how do you prevent their grubby fingers from tipping the scales right back in favor of piling all the money and power in their corner?

What are the unintended consequences?

(This is NOT an argument implying we should keep billionaires, just asking realistically and pragmatically what the result would be should they no longer exist)

[–] thatcrow@ttrpg.network 2 points 12 hours ago

The correct answer is to redistribute their wealth.

[–] shovingleopardnsfw@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

The implication that they would all be killed or completely stripped of assets is the problem you’re trying to solve, however, that doesn’t have to be the action taken. Perhaps instead, the 8 billion people of the world decide to enact a society that insists that such accumulation of wealth is obscene and should be curtailed. Perhaps systems could be introduced to make the wealthy more accurately contribute to the society they profit off.

Billionaires become billionaires through exploitation. Exploitation of workers, financial systems, and political power for personal gain. Make them pay for all these things.

Pay for education of the people they use to build their companies. Pay for the healthcare of the entire population, which they degrade with their business practices. Pay for the infrastructure that enables them to do business. The roads, the safety nets, the national parks, the air quality, the water supply, the land they use. Make them pay to replace and repair, fully, any damage their business causes. Polute the stream, pay to fix it. Dig the ground for ore, repair the ground so it can be used again. Make them replace what they take from society for little or no cost because their goods are only affordable because they do not reflect the true cost of production. Make their businesses pay for all these things, and the cost of production will rise to include the true cost of production. At the moment, the shortfall is paid for by we, the people, which enables them to become billionaires. Exploitation.

We don’t have to kill anyone, or strip anyone of all their assets in some revolutionary action. We just have to make them pay the true cost of their exploitation.

Tax the rich. Use those taxes to repay their exploitation. Increase the cost of doing business to include the cost of repairing the impact.

People can still become very wealthy. But society will also become much stronger through the use of the extra revenue to benefit all.

To make this happen will take a revolution, but it doesn’t need to include guillotines, it just needs people to become aware. Sadly, the politicians and media are also owned by the billionaires, making the final step of collective uprising extremely difficult. But humans have done it many times before in the face of adversity, perhaps it can happen again.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 9 points 23 hours ago

Trillions in stock alone would suddenly be ownerless

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_ownership

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