r/antiwork • u/Xel562 • 23h ago
Billionaires đ§ This has to stop.... Will it ever stop?? Billionaires now hold more wealth than every country in the world except the U.S. and China
https://fortune.com/2025/04/02/world-record-number-of-billionaires-wealth-higher-than-most-gdp-despite-stock-market-bloodbath/This is making me sick. I can't believe we've reached this level of hoarding. My only hope here is that sometime ago we thought the reign of Kings would never end. Now a new kind has risen. What will it take to make this one fall?
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u/Eddiebaby7 23h ago
This is not sustainable
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u/Professional_Wait295 22h ago
Itâs not sustainable. Americans have no more money left, weâve been squeezed by the billionaire class. No money to buy property, no money to buy cars except for beaters off auto trader, no money for vacations, canât afford to eat out, can barely make necessary survival payments. Weâve been fleeced for all we were worth.
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u/Temporary_Ad_6922 20h ago
And yet, socialism is the enemy. But everybody seems to be miserable
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 9h ago
Socialism is the answer. All socialism actually is is the profits from your work go to you, not some company owner or shareholders. It's not a free lunch like a lot of people think, it's just keeping the full profits of the company going to the workers who make it.
The seed money to create those companies would then come from the government, making it considerably easier to get business loans and start businesses that can have a positive benefit for the world instead of only being about owners getting profits. That's not to say there won't be competition in the market, that's still there, it's just a lot easier on people because all of the money isn't getting sucked up by rich assholes who own everything.
The only problem there is then making sure you have a decent government, which you'd need in order to get to socialism in the first place. But honestly that's not the hardest thing if people actually started acting like logical adults with their voting choices...
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u/Temporary_Ad_6922 3h ago
I dont really need to put that /s in there do I
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u/AlarmDozer 3h ago
I was wondering how could economics work without money, and it seems bad people have villainized a plausible better solution.
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 3h ago
Well socialism still has money. Society with limited resources has to have some way of distributing them.
Socialism is surprisingly easy to get to as well. Back in 2008 when we bailed out all of the major banks, if we had simply bought them instead then it would enable a seamless switch to socialism. We paid the money to buy them, but instead we bought the banks then gave them back to the same idiots who destroyed the entire damn economy. If we had simply taken ownership of the things we paid for then we would be in a much better position. But nope, instead we gave all that money to the rich, all of that wealth going from regular tax payers to the bank owners pockets.
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u/JosephPaulWall 17h ago edited 17h ago
The Americans we know have no money left and all of the above, but make no mistake, there are plenty of nice neighborhoods full of people doing just fine and making bankroll off just being middle management or contractors for these billionaire assholes. Never forget that the petite bourgeoisie is one of the highest barriers to collective social change because as individuals, even though they're not "wealthy", they're all doing fine and don't see any reason for things to change.
Billionaires are a problem obviously, but your average local landlord or contractor or small business owner who lives in a mcmansion and buys their kids way into college and nice new luxury cars every time they wreck them plays just as big a role in this mess as the billionaire class does and is just as much our enemy.
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 9h ago
Sure but they're just the willing followers of the rich, not the decision makers. Nor are they that significant in number that their votes matter too much
It's the working class followers of the rich, economic conservatives, who are the real problem.
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u/TheShadowCat 14h ago
Been saying that for years.
The real problem with the wealthy not being properly taxed (among other issues), isn't that they aren't paying their fair share (which they aren't), the real problem is that within a few decades a small handful of ultra wealthy elites can end up owning the entire planet.
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u/FirmEcho5895 12h ago edited 12h ago
But it is. This extreme division of very rich and very poor, with no middle class, is exactly what they have in third world countries that have no democracy. Sadly it's the commonest type of wealth distribution around the world.
Dictators just need to keep a few billionaires happy to stay in power, whereas in a democracy you have to keep the whole electorate on side.
The final step is the billionaires getting their money from natural resources (thank you Greenland) to minimise their dependency on minimum wage workers.
So yeah, hello third world dictatorship.
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u/Procrastanaseum 9h ago
Nope, soon billionaires will be flying around in space yachts, demanding more and more labor to bare the weight of their wants. Meanwhile, public services are a distant memory...
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u/LogicalHost3934 6h ago
They know that. It never was. Mental illness and the fact of the non sustainable nature of this, is why theyâre racing to try and somehow have a different outcome then all the other times in history wealth inequality was like this. âIt will be different this time broâ âjust gotta demoralize all the federal workersâ âpeople will yearn for the mines and fascism this timeâ âtrust me broâ
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 22h ago
Either through legislation or violence. There will be no other way is what history tells us.
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u/Beardycub86 20h ago
They are in control of legislation so that only leavesâŚ
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u/Vinnortis 11h ago
This is nothing new... Most of history the people were little better than slaves. It's only been recently that the average person had rights. It's crazy to me how few people realize that we are not even 100 years past Jim Crow, only 105 years after women's suffrage in the USA.
We know of like 5000 years of history... For most of it there was a shit load of slaves and generally that was all women in addition to prisoners from whatever place.
Heck India only gained independence from the monarchy in 1947...
The apartheid in South Africa ended in the 1990's...
There are still ongoing genocides in a number of places. Not to mention slavery and child brides.
The path to rights will never be easy, fast, or without great cost.
I can't stress enough how much people should learn history and realize how recent actually human rights are. (And still not in a lot of the world, but that's a whole other thing)
Edit: I am no content expert, just a dude that enjoys learning (and sometimes is made sad by the knowledge I gain) please don't take my word for it!
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16h ago edited 8h ago
[deleted]
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 15h ago
sure... just have to organize and fight against active disinformation and the media directly against any show of support or knowledge of it happening while the wealthy elite work billions to ensure it never spreads... I believe the first two options are more likely than that.
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14h ago edited 8h ago
[deleted]
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 14h ago
I'm not saying they don't but 1980's USSR is not 2025 America and the Dichotomy and distribution of information is not the same.
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14h ago edited 8h ago
[deleted]
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 9h ago
One thing I've always wondered, can you use your PTO for a general strike. That way most people could at least do it without getting automatically fired, which is the real reason they don't do it.
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u/TheEPGFiles 12h ago
Legislation is the easy way. The rich have chosen for us. Oh well, we only had all of human history to learn from.
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u/MerciaForever 11h ago
violent uprisings against the rich are disastrous for ordinary people. Millions of ordinary people would die and millions more would end up in a situation far more desperate than before.
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 4h ago
you're right. It is much more preferable that many die a slow painful death for untold generations instead of a short pain that hurts people. Change hurts and there is nothing that can prevent that.
Lets take North Korea. How many have died under that regime? Now.... how many would have died if they dealt with it 30 years earlier? You cannot avoid hurt but you can mitigate the numbers.
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u/MerciaForever 3h ago
After the French revolution they had Napoleon. After the Russian revolution they got Stalin. It takes a very long time, you would be putting multiple generations through a situation far worse than your own before hopefully getting to the bit where something gets better.
Right now, N Korea are under a dictatorship that kills people. If you live int the west, you do not. The hurt is not comparable. The hurt people are feeling now in the west would be worse during a revolution and worse still with what came after it. And if you ever look at the situations people were in that sparked a revolution you'll see that we in the west are no where near that level of depravity.
Its all well and good saying dealing with it 'earlier' is the better option but im sure in your head youre not one of the millions that dies or suffers inmeasurably during and after the revolution.
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 3h ago
In my head I'm already dead. I have no future. My present isn't great and I have zero prospects to improve. When you accept that you find that change good or bad is acceptable.Â
I don't care how many die. I would take the risk. Humanity will continue but it requires sacrifice to get a chance at something better. It's russian rullet but with 5 bullets in the gun.
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u/MerciaForever 2h ago
Did this sound cooler in your head?
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u/Ak_Lonewolf 2h ago
It's not cool. If other things work then why aren't they done?Â
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u/MerciaForever 2h ago
What do you want done exactly? In the last 30 years more people globally have been dragged out of extreme poverty than ever before in human history. You talk about humanity, well humanity is doing better than ever. America, like most western countries, have an issue where their populations are poorer and that is because now we have a globalised economy and so a global middle class. If you want to go back to having isolated economy's then vote Trump, that's exactly what his tariffs are there to do. Otherwise, the reality is, things will balance out so that western countries have a similar proportion of poorer people to the rest of the world as global classes continue to emerge. Which if youre only interested in humanity as whole, would be a good thing. If you're only interested in the people from your country, then it won't be a good thing.
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u/LavisAlex 22h ago edited 22h ago
This is why the finance people go on about how hard it is to tax assets - because assets are the power of these billionaires and its the only way to hold them to account.
The whole "well they will just move their business out of the country" is total BS - they have too many assets and they don't want you to place additional taxes on excess assets.
If you continue to go down the path of not heavily taxing excess assets this will end like a monopoly game and one person will own all.
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u/Expensive-Fun4664 8h ago
Normal people get taxed on their biggest asset every year - their home. Zero reason why billionaires shouldn't have the same thing.
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u/Ljosii 22h ago
Itâs almost like a global economic system that functions on interest rates and debt disproportionately benefits those with bigger numbers and greater ownership of assets.
Itâs irritating how simple it is when you strip away all the dressings.
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u/Mysterious_Ad_3408 22h ago
They have pulled psychological warfare on us with fking LANGUAGE.
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u/Ljosii 22h ago
Hahaha! I donât know how much you know, but that rabbit hole goes deep my brother/sister/other.
Very few people I meet recognise that language is in the roots of an unthinkable number of problems. And no one talks about it.
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u/Mysterious_Ad_3408 21h ago
I bet It does. As I've watched things coleus that keeps jumping out at me. Language.
Hell I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't manchurian candidate us at birth when they stamped our feet.I would call what Ive seen an Activation of these people. Turns them teeth baring and spitting venom upon mention.
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u/Happy_Ad_4357 20h ago
Work is serfdom for the vast majority of us, and yet we continue to prop it up because so many of us bought into the lie that it will make us wealthy too one day. I did, for far too long.
But thatâs a bit like a chicken thinking that if it lays enough eggs, itâll become a farmer
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u/Peregrino_Ominoso 23h ago
The only chance the US has to deal with this issue properly is Bernie Sanders. However, he will never be elected by the majority of Americansâwe all know that. We also know that, regardless of their financial situation, most Americans have a cultural tendency to deify the wealthy (as we can see with the election results). So, to answer your question with the most disheartening truthâthat will never happen.
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u/raerae1991 22h ago edited 22h ago
No, we need a whole Congress whoâs on board, and that is not in the cards for a long long time
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u/Peregrino_Ominoso 22h ago
That sounds even more unrealistic than Sanders becoming president of the US.
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u/raerae1991 22h ago
The DNC needs to back progressive more, the nation wants it. Progressives do well when they are backed
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u/jackiel1975 22h ago
I still believe it in my bones: Bernie wouldâve beaten Trump.
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u/I_Am_Become_Dream 21h ago
Yeah but I donât think thatâs a high bar. Anyone who doesnât represent the core of the establishment in 2016 would have won.
In 2024 itâs a different story.
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u/FrenchMilkdud 21h ago
Weâre seeing what radical right looks like in real time, maybe the fuckery will push the left further left to compensate at scale?
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u/raerae1991 17h ago
No, there a phenomenon called the Overton Window. It basically says when extremist take home is, the political âwindowâ of normal shifts closer to the extreme than the opposite. We will, and have seen the Dems not go center, but right of center. Itâs sad but thatâs how it will play out
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u/baconraygun 3h ago
We're already seeing it, with Gavin Newsome normalizing being on a right wing podcast and agreeing that trans athletes shouldn't be a thing.
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u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 9h ago
The DNC has been explicitly opposing progressives, especially in the solidly blue districts.
We have to take back the DNC first before we can ever get a better democratic party. The primaries are the most important election at the moment.
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u/Sarennie_Nova 15h ago
They absolutely, positively, will not so long as the current leadership and campaign finance structure is in place...and the left continues to slavishly vote for them on negative partisanship alone, expecting nothing in return.
The left needs to sack up and start primarying Democrats, and refusing to turn out for corporate and conservative democrats in general elections.
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u/Insciuspetra 23h ago
affluenza noun af¡âflu¡âen¡âza | \ Ëa-flĂź-Ëen-zÉ \
Definition: A social condition characterized by the obsession with wealth and material gain, often leading to a sense of dissatisfaction, entitlement, and lack of purpose despite having ample resources.
Example: Many of Trumpâs cabinet members seemed to exhibit signs of affluenza, as their focus on amassing more wealth and maintaining power overshadowed their responsibility to serve the public, leaving them disconnected from the needs of everyday citizens.
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u/exipolar 22h ago
Likely, it won't, not until climate change rocks everything, and even then, we're likely to fall back in with these weirdos as feudal kings. Looking back at history, this is exactly how the end of the Roman Empire led to feudalism in Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merovingian_dynasty
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u/B-Boy_Shep 22h ago
Just wait till they hold more wealth than all countries. Including the US and China đ
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u/Outside_Taste_1701 18h ago
Stop buying the Republican Tricle down nonsense , stop calling progressive policies Socialism.
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u/an_alf_is_sure 16h ago
It ain't gonna happen with some words and peaceful protests, that's for sure.
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u/PartySpend0317 22h ago
When we create our own economies based on community. When we say no to working for anyone other than ourselves/community. When we are willing to end our addiction to money, drugs (yes Iâm also unfortunately talking about big pharma), and convenience. When we are willing to help instead of criticize each other. And when we are willing to do NO harm even the tiniest amount.
I know these all sound big and lofty and idealistic, but if we all took one small step each day it wouldnât take long â¤ď¸ Hang in there and donât turn on each other no matter what.
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u/Vanilla_PuddinFudge 23h ago
Nope, probably not. Just hope you're on the right side of the firing line when the time comes.
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u/Mysterious_Ad_3408 22h ago
It's about 127 v 630 million. How folks are still deluding themselves into thinking they too are apart of that group.
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u/BakedBrie26 20h ago
Yup. I thought I was rich and then I married into being adjacent to RICH people. They are playing an entirely different game.
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u/ThanosSnapsSlimJims 15h ago
This is what people want. People will downvote me for saying thisl, but people want the rich to get richer and remain rich. If they didn't, they wouldn't literally be begging Youtubers, Twitch streamers, and other types of millionaires to take their money.
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u/Ravanos77 8h ago
but guys i can't vote for taxes on the rich because im sure im gonna get rich real soon and i don't want the goberment to come for my riches!
reeee
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u/NumbSurprise 16h ago
It will end one of two ways: either enough of the people will demand that it change (with violence if necessary) or civilization will collapse and billions will die.
It really is that dire and that stark. If we keep doing what weâre doing, the oil will eventually run out. Either the environmentâs collapse or the insane wealth disparity will lead to people starving. Neither one is good or easy. Pick your shitty and hard.
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u/keep_er_movin 5h ago
Weâve reached the part of the Monopoly game where only one person is having any fun and everything is pointless torture for everyone else.
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u/BitchfulThinking 4h ago
Mother Earth seems pretty sick of this shit too. All the money in the world won't buy climate change away, so there's that.
Nature always finds a way đ
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u/Sirmcblaze 17h ago
frankly the reality is that it will only stop once working people organize together. an armed revolt is the only valid and viable answer to solve these problems. anything less, is liberalism and will only serve to weaken and hurt the working classes. (as evidenced by our collective current order)
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u/OLPopsAdelphia 18h ago
Well, thereâs 8,000,000,000 of us and about, what, 15 or 20 of them?
I wouldnât be able to sleep at night knowing that eight billion people hated my guts. Iâd be incredible charitable and personable and encourage other wealth hoarders to do the same.
Also, Iâm calling them wealth hoarders from now on!
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u/PHARTN0CKER 15h ago
Every other king died from old age or fighting....... the people rise up and put them in their place when a king no longer does the job of a king. Our country fought against a kings rule to be free and now willingly chooses to be too dumb or lazy to fight what is coming.
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u/orang-utan-klaus 14h ago
Well, luckily they canât eat money and you canât be forced to take their money nor to give them food. Just a matter of organization and solidarity. Maybe just a matter of time before they get eaten.
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u/Torvac 11h ago
we are all basically slave away to make them richer instead of progressing as a civilization right now. most of the productivity we increased just flows away out of the system. PARASITES is the word you are looking for. without the influx of their wealth nothing can run anymore, but anything they input will just make it worse.
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u/Apprehensive_Air_940 9h ago
Pollution or war. A little of both im guessing is the way it goes. People like to harp on these big fish, but MLK said something along the lines of people who just go along to get along being the worst because those are really the foundation that these deplorables stand on. Im hoping for an aliean invasion.
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u/CatOfTechnology 9h ago
Checking back in after 14 hours of Stock Divebombs:
Are they now richer than America or will that be tomorrow?
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u/Glittering_Lunch_347 5h ago
It will take us to stop buying and using their products. We can do this, all of us, starting right now!
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u/CyberSmith31337 4h ago
Not only is this sustainable, this is by design.
We're in the pre-war death throes of multiple world super powers. China is suffering massive unemployment, quoted to be around 17%~, give or take. Russia is allegedly bankrupt. The United States is collapsing in real time.
What we're seeing is the violent shaking of the tree branches, rustling up whatever change people have left. The goal is destitution and poverty; the purpose is to have ample bodies ready to serve in the military for the coming conflicts. Anyone who can't afford to live without the military will inevitably become part of the military. The reason the rich are hoarding is because this isn't going to be some sort of short-term conflict; this is the precipice of world war 3.
I don't even know what "winning" would look like here; I would imagine it would just be a denomination of multi-national oligarchs possessing more influence and power than ever before. But that "victory" will be established through the blood of millions.
Always remember, it doesn't have to be sustainable for you; it just needs to be able to sustain the oligarchs. There's only a few thousand of them, and they absolutely don't care if billions have to die for their lives to remain extravagant.
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u/Gobshite666 2h ago
I think it only takes another 5 of 6 to either be dissapeared or worse to make the rest realise they arent gods, we also need to stop calling them " The Elite" makes them feel that way they are greedy, gluttonous, profit addicted and power hungry, cowardly nasty humans nothing more.
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u/beatles910 22h ago edited 22h ago
The article is behind a paywall.
I find the title startling. Can someone tell me how they are measuring a countries "wealth"?
I'm guessing that it's not an equal comparison unless they are truly using the same metric for billionaires wealth as they are for a countries wealth. Still, I'd like to know, because it is very shocking.
*edit: I found one that wasn't behind a paywall. Title is misleading. They are measuring a countries wealth by GDP, but measuring the wealth of billionaires by total assets. For example if you were to measure the wealth of France by the same standards, France's wealth would be in the neighborhood of $20 Trillion USD.
This isn't meant to say that there isn't a problem. There certainly is, but the comparison being used makes it look much worse.
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u/Synthesized_Keys_004 22h ago
I hate to play devilâs advocate but most people still consume from these companies. Yes, they hook you on but people need to wake up and stop consuming, youâve got to be stronger than your desire to go on Facebook or purchase cheap items from Amazon â blaming only them is not going to make them less richer, in fact it will distract us from the power we actually hold to take them down
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u/HopiLaguna 18h ago
That's what hard work, long hours and dedication will do. They deserve it all. God wants you to be wealthy. And at the same time Jesus wants you to give to the poor.
Hummmmm, excuse me while I look into this. I DO know that Satan is a group, not a.person. this is something I need to look into also. I'll get back to you.
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u/NoInitiative4821 15h ago
Launch Musk, Zuck and Bezo into space. They should be exiled from earth.
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u/perkypancakes 14h ago
The problem is much bigger than these three and getting rid of them would just open up the space for others to take their places. We have to implement social and cultural shifts away from our current systems. Itâs a multigenerational process and idk if itâs possible as more people continue to be indoctrinated by media owned by billionaires.
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u/PrimalJay 11h ago
Take everything from them. Let them feel how they treat their workers. Make them fear you.
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u/namastayhom33 23h ago
they are going to be even richer in time when they buy the lows.