Posted 4 Feb 2022 Jeff Bezos is worth 176.5 billion USD. Nobody should be allowed to accumulate that much wealth. I don't even care whether his charitable donations are genuine or just a PR exercise. We, the people, should get to decide where these billions and billions should be spent. Be it cancer research, space exploration, feeding starving kids in Africa...whatever. Tax him to the hilt and let society decide how the money should best be spent. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 4 Feb 2022 In our society people earning lots of money is not a problem, parasites that leach of others are the problem for me, that means bankers, venture capitalists, business consultants, auditors that take a % of a business's value rather than a fixed fee based on amount of work req'd etc. Bezos is being rewarded for setting up a highly succesfull business but like so many he has lost sight of what actually is important in the World. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 4 Feb 2022 1 hour ago, theGman said: Jeff Bezos is worth 176.5 billion USD. Nobody should be allowed to accumulate that much wealth. I don't even care whether his charitable donations are genuine or just a PR exercise. We, the people, should get to decide where these billions and billions should be spent. Be it cancer research, space exploration, feeding starving kids in Africa...whatever. Tax him to the hilt and let society decide how the money should best be spent. Problem is, he is not worth $176.5B. He has stock worth that value, but if he were to sell it, he would get much much less than that. I don't like these arguments, as it opens doors for stupidity, like the inital plan from the democrats to tax ultra wealthy. It also opens the door for tax rules that could later be extended to the middle class. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 4 Feb 2022 1 hour ago, MikeMelga said: Problem is, he is not worth $176.5B. He has stock worth that value, but if he were to sell it, he would get much much less than that. I don't like these arguments, as it opens doors for stupidity, like the inital plan from the democrats to tax ultra wealthy. It also opens the door for tax rules that could later be extended to the middle class. Ok, but if he sold everything he would still ( I dunno ) $100B, which is kinda more than enough In England in the 1700 and part of the 1800's, some people gained a huge amount of wealth through the slave trade. Future governments decided to to impose high death taxes, so the wealth does come the government but over a long period of time, in effect the original owners of the wealth kept it while they were alive, and the children goes less of the wealth, and the children of the children got even less. So over a period of time if the children of children did nothing to increase the value of the wealth, it value would just keep on going down, the further it passesed down the line.. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 4 Feb 2022 Well, you can't take it with you. I like what Bill Gates has planned for his kids, I think he's going to leave them with a max of $100k so they have to make their own way in the world. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 4 Feb 2022 52 minutes ago, French bean said: Well, you can't take it with you. I like what Bill Gates has planned for his kids, I think he's going to leave them with a max of $100k so they have to make their own way in the world. 😂 Jennifer, his eldest who recently married the wealthy Egyptian equestrian, was gifted a $16M horse farm in Westchester, NY by her parents upon graduation from Stanford, at age 22. One of many gifts, I’m sure, including brand name college and medical school. It’s Bill & Melinda’s money, to do with as they like, but those kids don’t have to make there way in the world any more than Bill did. His parents were also quite well off. https://hudsonvalleypost.com/bill-gates-daughter-to-get-married-on-16-million-new-york-farm/ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 4 Feb 2022 1 hour ago, yesterday said: Ok, but if he sold everything he would still ( I dunno ) $100B, which is kinda more than enough No, more likely $20-30B. Still plenty, but not enough for proper space exploration. For example the idea from Musk to build a Mars permanent colony requires at least $40-$60B and a large one requires probalby $200B or more. Of course I'm sure he can make a profit during it, for example asteroid mining will be the "next big thing" in 15-20 years. And by developing robots and AI for the Mars colony, he is developing the "next big thing" in 5-10 years. And that's why Musk has a desperate need for more money, despite having a shitty workaholic life. He needs north of $200B within 10 years to achieve his goal before he dies. He could easily buy a big yacht and spend the rest of his life snorting coke with top models. But he's not doing that. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 7 Feb 2022 Someone dumped some old 1990s porno mags into a road ditch in Franconia. The police are now investigating the case as distribution of pornography, because minors might have found them. You can't make this shit up. The story (in German). 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 10 Feb 2022 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-60327304 Man reunited with his lost false teeth after 11 years!😀 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 Feb 2022 Turkey wants to change its name- the country.. NOT the bird!🤭 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60337147 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 Feb 2022 Wouldn’t Erdostan sound better 👻? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 Feb 2022 3 hours ago, john g. said: Turkey wants to change its name- the country.. NOT the bird!🤭 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60337147 Ahhh... reminds me of a real news story in Portugal a few years ago, where a small village was named "Rio Cabrão" which translates to something like "River Motherfucker". The people were tired of being called "Motherfuckers" (Cabrões). They went for a vote to change the name, but as the vote was not finished before the 8 o'clock news live coverage ended, the reporter just said "We have news, the people have decided, it's no longer called River Motherfucker, it's now called Creek Motherfucker!" 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 14 Feb 2022 Can you remember this Pokemon mania where grown ups were running around like crazy in town to catch some Pokemon? In the Netherlands 3 men go in prison for 2,5 years for a robbery of Pokemon cards: https://nltimes.nl/2022/02/14/three-men-receive-25-years-prison-theft-valuable-pokemon-cards 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 20 Feb 2022 £50,000 for micro-flat in London. Micro means 7 sq.m. Will probably go for >£100,000. Ouch. Love the microwave directly under the bed though. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/feb/17/londons-smallest-microflat-up-for-sale-at-50000-for-7-square-metres 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Feb 2022 More living space onboard a warship. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Feb 2022 The path to a good night's sleep is paved with good intentions... All he wanted to do was to block his own teenagers internet access, but he blocked the town's ( for some weeks, every night)! full story 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Feb 2022 Cross-country skiing with -17 degrees isn‘t for whimps: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/winterolympics/article-10534415/Winter-Olympics-Finnish-cross-country-skier-Remi-Lindholm-suffers-FROZEN-PENIS-50km-race.html 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Feb 2022 Below freezing. Finland’s Remi Lindholm had to apply a heat pack to his penis after finishing 28th in the men’s cross country skiing at the Winter Olympics. Not only the race was shortened (from 30 miles to 18 miles) due to extreme cold. (Source: The Guardian) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 21 Feb 2022 Yes I clicked on that too, in the Guardian of course. Surely someone from Finland knows about cold and dresses up warm, or did he think saving weight on clothes could make him faster? I should have used a hot water bottle, but how long would it stay hot? Seems to me, many of the Olympic disciplines are not really sport, they just need a crazy willingness to go downhill at crazy speeds, not much physical activity needed as in other sports. 😕 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
