alvvayson

@alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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‘Will I ever retire?’: millennials wonder what’s on the other side of middle age ( www.theguardian.com )

Claire*, 42, was always told: “Follow your dreams and the money will follow.” So that’s what she did. At 24, she opened a retail store with a friend in downtown Ottawa, Canada. She’d managed to save enough from a part-time government job during university to start the business without taking out a loan....

alvvayson ,

Good post, but we really need to get out of the generational thinking.

I know rich and poor boomers. I know rich and poor millenials, and gen X/Z.

It's a class struggle. Always has been.

Stop making it a generational battle. That only serves to divide the working class.

Yes, there is racism, ageism, sexism. We should debate those things and improve, but we can't let those things divide us politically.

And since I'm ranting, let me end with a solution. We need to find themes that help all of us.

So perhaps we should say: for example, everyone with less than $1M in wealth gets a $20K tax deduction.

Who could oppose that? It doesn't benefit home owners vs. renters. It doesn't benefit students vs. retirees. It doesn't benefit city dwellers vs. rural. Or white vs. black.

But it does benefit the class who owns nothing and gives them a better chance to own something.

alvvayson ,

TIL Taylor Swift and Elon Musk are boomers.

alvvayson ,

That's better.

But most rich people are old, that's not new.

That's just how wealth accumulation and inheritance works.

alvvayson ,

And yet, we managed to mostly abolish slavery and child labour in most countries.

It's not going to be easy, but it can be done.

alvvayson ,

If you really think that wage slavery is comparable to being owned by a human, then you're delusional.

Yes, slavery and child labour still exists. But if you think living in the US or China or India in 2024 is just as bad as 1850, then you are also delusional.

Some countries like Afghanistan or North Korea might be objectively worse, but those are a minority.

alvvayson ,

There will always be winners and losers with any change.

Plantation owners definitely lost a lot of wealth due to the abolition of slavery, while the industrial tycoons gained a lot of wealth.

Switching away from fossil fuels will similarly benefit those who invest in the energy sources and technologies of the future, while shrinking the fortune of those dependent on fossil fuels.

Already, some forms of fossil energy are losing new investment.

For example, the high profile Keystone XL pipeline was never built, even though Trump approved it, because investors doubted its profit potential. Biden revoking the permit was mostly symbolic.

Now, I do otherwise agree with this more nuanced take of yours. Morality needs to be aligned with financial incentives in order to achieve change. That's just how our current world works and I don't see that basic mechanism changing.

So it makes more sense to focus on making fossil fuels less profitable, e.g. through taxation.

alvvayson ,

Once the alternatives become more profitable, they will move to legislate in their favour.

Here in Europe, we already have billions in subsidies for wind and solar energy.

Will it go smoothly, or fast enough?

No, I think 3 degrees warming is basically inevitable at this point.

But it will happen, about five decades later than it should have happened.

Guess we will see in the next two decades.

UN Security Council backs plan for Israel-Hamas ceasefire ( www.reuters.com )

UNITED NATIONS, June 10 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Monday backed a proposal outlined by President Joe Biden for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and urged the Palestinian militants to accept the deal aimed at ending the eight-month-long war....

alvvayson ,

I remain pessimistic on the course this genocide is taking, but a UN resolution for peace that both the US and China voted for...

I didn't expect to see this happen any time soon.

alvvayson ,

It's really insane that the police get called on US citizens peacefully protesting against a genocide in a foreign country.

alvvayson ,

Would such a strategy legally work in the USA?

Here in the Netherlands, a plan to regulate maximum rents seems to be much more promising.

We will know if it worked in about 2-3 years.

alvvayson ,

You might be interested to learn about the concept called "hostile witness".

Google is your friend. Hope that helps.

alvvayson ,

It's not just Reagan. The same is happening all over the world, including Europe. And his policies were 40 years ago. At some point, we need to own our own problems.

The real issue is that the rich people worldwide have figured out how to mostly avoid paying taxes, while the middle class bears the brunt of taxation - which prevents them from becoming wealthy - and the lower class gets nothing.

That wasn't Reagan, it would have happened even if FDR had become an immortal vampire and had the New Deal lasted a century.

What we really need is to start taxing the rich and to greatly reduce taxation on the middle class. And we need to really get serious about it.

The US government can spend millions to track down and kill a Shepard in Syria, but they can't find the capital gains on Jeff Bezos portfolio.

alvvayson ,

Well said, I regret that I have but one upvote to give you, PP boy.

alvvayson ,

Dude, I'm really sorry, but the 19th century sent a letter by pony express and they want their economic theory back.

There are struggling "capitalists" that own their own little manufacturing company, restaurant, hair salon or other small business.

And then there are rich as hell "workers" like Taylor Swift who have become billionaires through their own labour. She can fill football stadiums full of people willing to pay top dollar to see her perform, I simply can't.

And I think most people don't have a problem with Taylor being a billionaire.

But the problem arises when middle class people pay half of what they have in tax, while rich people have effective tax rates of <10%. Jeff Bezos had a five figure tax bill as he became the richest man in the world.

A million middle class Americans making $100K are still out earning Jeff by a huge margin, but they are collectively also paying way more tax than Jeff, so Jeff can keep investing his money, while those million Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

alvvayson ,

The people blaming Reagan are fighting a 3 decade old culture war.

Fact is, things really weren't all that bad in the 80s and 90s.

They only really started getting bad after the financial crisis in 2008.

And which party got both the presidency and a majority in Congress that year? Hint: doesn't start with R.

alvvayson ,

Not changing history. Just saying that democrats had all the power they could want and failed to implement change to make things better. Literally after running on a campaign of Change.

alvvayson ,

You are stuck at step 1, I invite you to move on to step 2 and actually start looking at how we are gonna solve problems.

You can go back all the way to colonial times and feudal times and even earlier to discuss how societies have become less egalitarian since the invention of agriculture.

But we are here, right now and it's best to identify the actions we can take today, for a brighter tomorrow.

alvvayson ,

Exactly.

If the USA tried to again be a White/European ethnostate and allow anyone with Caucasian heritage to immigrate and barred everyone else from immigrating, then no one today would accept that.

And if they went full on apartheid and started putting natives and minorities in locked down ever-shrinking reservations, people would really lose their shit.

When white nationalists try to advocate for such policies, they are rightfully criticized for being racist.

I can never understand why Israel gets special treatment in that regard.

alvvayson ,

I feel obliged to point out that, Brexit didn't happen, then his rights as an EU citizen would have been violated. As far as I know, you can't use the Schengen system against EU citizens.

But because he was British and Brexit happened, Germany could do this.

But I do wonder.. if the French government would formally invite him, they should be able to overrule the German decision. It seems that they decided not to do that?

alvvayson ,

I am not a Jew, but I have to recognize that many of the people most fiercely standing up against Israeli human rights violations are Jews.

In the USA, Bernie Sanders, Robbert Reich and Chuck Schumer are three Jewish politicians that have been very consistent in their messaging.

alvvayson ,

If you can't tell the difference between a limited number of well known examples and a statistical percentage, then perhaps you shouldn't lecture others on thinking.

alvvayson ,

The last natural, human, popular subreddit to arise on reddit was r/antiwork

After that, the site got swarmed by bots and censorship.

If you try and post something even remotely progressive in a popular subreddit, it will get deleted and you will probably get banned.

alvvayson ,

Usually with these types of things, it tends to be worse for the smaller economy, but both suffer. (See Brexit, Sanctions on Russia, Iran and Venezuela, and also historically those on apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia).

Turkey has a GDP 2-3x that of Israel, so I don't know why you'd think it would be worse for them.

alvvayson ,

Because base 12 is superior to base 10.

  • Signed, the Sumerian master race
alvvayson ,

Hey, don't interrupt coffeejoe when he's having a good conversation with himself 😂

alvvayson ,

Yes, but they actually combine base 12 with base 5 to get base 60.

And how they do it, is also quite interesting:

With one hand you can count to twelve. Use each finger segment of the four fingers to denote a number and count by placing the thumb.

Base of index finger is 1, middle is 2 and top is 3.
Middle finger has 4,5,6, ring finger has 7,8,9.
Pinky has 10,11,12.

Now use the other hand to count how often you reached 12.

In terms of the names of the numbers, it goes 1-12 like we also have in English (that's why eleven and twelve have unique names).

And then you have 1-5 dozens, to get up to 60.

alvvayson ,

No, I'm not sure. I learned it from a TikTok video.

Google only shows me Babylonian cuneiform.

Google does show some sources that claim eleven and twelve are evidence of a base-12 influence, but most sources disagree with that theory.

So yeah, perhaps I mixed it up.

alvvayson ,

Honestly, she deserves credit for even showing the yellow line.

And to also show the whole right side of the graph.

She really could have cropped the picture differently to give it a spin, but she's being honest.

alvvayson ,

Indeed. A lot of people aren't in a situation where they want to buy and maintain a house, so having a healthy rental market is very important for every country.

But rental markets should be regulated to ensure everyone can find affordable housing without being taken advantage of.

alvvayson ,

I don't think it has to be that complex. Here in the Netherlands, we have a system that non-luxury houses get points and the number of points determines the maximum rent.

It's not perfect, but for many decades it worked quite well.

A reform is now being proposed to extend the system to middle class housing.

Complex and subjective systems are risky, precisely because they provide opportunities to cheat.

Simple is best.

Netanyahu's outraged response after report of pending US sanctions on IDF ( www.newsweek.com )

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement condemning sanctions on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after a report surfaced claiming that the Biden administration is set to blacklist a unit for alleged human rights violations in Gaza....

alvvayson ,

Honestly, tokenism is a good place to start.

Realistically, there is no political majority in the USA to go further. The progressive caucus is only about 10% of the House.

That's enough to have influence, but not enough to drive policy.

But over time, the movement grows.

alvvayson ,

So, what's the alternative?

The House just passed an aid package for Israel worth billions by an 86% majority.

Meaningful sanctions just aren't in the cards.

alvvayson ,

Flying through Turkey, Dubai or Qatar would make any flight restrictions largely symbolic.

alvvayson ,

Looks like they at least made it sturdy enough to withstand a car wash.

Progress!

alvvayson ,

Does anyone know why Bangladesh had zero added sugar?

Could it be that Bangladesh has stricter regulations?

alvvayson ,

Bad take.

A regional conflict in our backyard will greatly impact Europe.

Just look at what the Syrian civil war and Iraq/Afghan wars did and how the resulting refugee problem impacted Europe.

Now imagine that times five if Iran and Israel get sucked in a war with Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq in the crossfire.

alvvayson ,

The idea that the EU is powerless is naive.

'My school abandoned me': California university cancels pro-Palestinian student's commencement speech ( www.middleeasteye.net )

The University of Southern California has cancelled a scheduled commencement speech by Asna Tabassum, citing unnamed security concerns after her selection as valedictorian was met with a wave of online attacks directed at her pro-Palestinian views....

alvvayson ,

Dude, I fully agree.

My eyes have really been opened.

Anti-muslim sentiment has been going on for a really long time. I thought it was just a few racist uncles who overreacted to 9/11.

But now that the propaganda and suppression is in full swing, it's become abundantly clear. It's not just normal people, it's a coordinated disinformation campaign.

Lemmy is still a relatively safe and reasonable space.

alvvayson ,

Exactly.

Imagine if Coca-Cola tried to shame or guilt people into buying Coca-Cola.

How would that work out.

The guilt tripping and shaming is going to backfire.

To win, you have to inspire people to actually want to vote for you.

Otherwise, they just might not even bother showing up.

alvvayson ,

That also seemed odd to me.

I think they are confusing a wealth tax with fair taxation.

The shown numbers seem to roughly correspond with what would be owed if they had paid fair capital gains tax over the past years. In other words, if all the tax loopholes were closed.

Bill Gates just didn't have nearly the same amount of capital gains over the past few years compared to Elon and Jeff.

A wealth tax would tax then proportionally similar, so Jeff wouldn't be paying 10x the tax that Bill G would pay.

alvvayson ,

Indeed, property taxes should just be extended to also cover stocks and bonds.

That should be the basic premise.

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    alvvayson ,

    A few days ago, a mildly critical comment of mine against Netanyahu was removed by the lemmy.world mods.

    I said something like, both Netanyahu and Hamas want this war. Not too controversial, I would think.

    It was in a thread on lemmy.ml

    Anyway, I ditched my lemmy.world account and made this alt my main.

    But yeah, the bots and propagandists have found lemmy, too. They seem to be focussing on the bigger instances.

    alvvayson ,

    The US allegedly spent a billion dollars intercepting these missiles.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine is all out of air defense and only Germany seems to be sending an extra patriot on the short-term.

    As a European, I think the wakeup call is to start taking European security more seriously, since the USA seems to have other priorities.

    alvvayson ,

    The difference is that even young people say life was better when boomers were young.

    Higher wages, cheaper housing, lower cost of living.

    alvvayson ,

    We are talking about the 90s though, not the 60s.

    alvvayson ,

    I presume you're an American then.

    It wasn't that bad in Europe.

    alvvayson ,

    I like your way of thinking.

    Actually, Unions tend to do something similar with overtime and weekend pay.

    If the factory needs you at night or in the weekend, they gotta pay up.

    alvvayson ,

    True. It also shows how most humans tend to think in social hierarchy where money and status are interlinked.

    That's actually one thing capitalists (as you call them, I'd call them managers) are good at. Their focus on money allows them to ignore status.

    This is also why workers need unions. Workers need experts that understand the inner workings of corporations to lobby on their behalf.

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