F*ck Your Billionaire Fantasies
I’ve never understood the fascination some people have with billionaires. It’s bizarre. Forming cults around billionaires who don’t give a fuck whether you live or die just as long as they don’t have to pay taxes is kind of a cross between masochism and Stockholm syndrome.
It doesn’t matter how much they exploit us, pollute our world, and how much money they stack someplace else to avoid paying what they’re owed to society. We praise them for their greed, selfishness, lack of empathy, and lack of humanity. We keep praising them even when they’re laughing at us.
The truth is, most of us have more in common with every person living below the poverty line than with any billionaire.
But billionaires only exist because we allow them to exist.
And we allow them to exist because we still think that one day we’ll get filthy rich, too. We don’t want to listen to those who tell us that extreme wealth isn’t created by simply working hard. Because we keep wanting to believe this fantasy that if only we hack our lives the right way, if only we keep sacrificing our health and well-being and hustling hard, then one day we’ll be rewarded for it by the Gods of Wealth and Prosperity.
It doesn’t work like this. Not for the overwhelming majority of people. Most of us die within the same socio-economic class we were born into.
But we refuse to let go of this fantasy because the alternative to that — the capitalist reality — is depressingly fucked up. And we made it this way because we got carried away by fantasies instead of trying to fix what’s in front of us.
The existence of billionaires is like a carrot on a stick. Just look at these filthy rich people with their islands, NFL franchises, huge mansions, and rockets — do you want to be just like them? Good, now get your ass back to your 9–5 job that’s actually 9–7 and never pays you for overtime while you’re drowning in college debt and unpaid medical bills — and trying to keep up with the increasing cost of living and starting all those passive income side hustles that will consume all of your remaining time and energy.
Congratulations, you’ve played yourself.
Billionaires will screw us over and over again, and many people will keep worshiping them. And they will do so proudly.
But eradicating extreme wealth is a step that will ultimately benefit all of us. Yes, even those people who probably keep a life-sized cardboard cutout of Elon Musk in their bedroom. Sorry to burst your bubble, but he isn’t going to fuck any of you. Or take you to Mars. Or do anything else that isn’t motivated by his ego alone.
It’s time we stopped praising the ultra-rich who don’t give a shit about ordinary people. And made them pay their fair share in taxes, just like everyone else is doing.
Because, sadly, most of our today’s dysfunctions are caused by pandering to the rich. We allowed democracy to be eroded by lobbyists serving the corporate interests. We deregulated practically all industries allowing corporations to squeeze their workers and tenants and dump their costs on society. We let giant corporations and the people who control them destroy the environment.
All of this to profit just a few men at the top. This isn’t right. Or fair.
We need to unite with progressives worldwide and push for a global wealth tax that billionaires everywhere won’t be able to avoid. We need to start investing in auditing rich people more. And we need to break down the information barriers that governments face when it comes to offshore tax-havens.
The survival of our planet and people depends on it.
All the billionaires on this planet could eradicate world hunger, house every person on this planet and stop climate change. But they’ll never do that. Because they’re motivated by greed above all else.
We don’t need to put up with this anymore.
.jpeg)
💯
ReplyDelete