this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism

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[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 80 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Trickle down economics ... give more money to the ultra rich and eventually some money goes down to the people at the bottom of the economic system

The problem they've discovered after 50 years of this system is that there just isn't enough money in the universe to send to the top and allow enough of it to flow down to the bottom.

A billion dollars only allows a dollar to get to a person living on the street ... so we have to send billions, trillions, gajillions of dollars to the super-ultra-giga rich to get enough money to average people.

This is the problem of trickle down economics .... we just haven't given enough money to the top yet

We have to give the rich more! ... in order to save the poor ... do it for the poor!

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This is just patently false. I mean,

The problem they've discovered after 50 years of this system is that there just isn't enough money in the universe to send to the top and allow enough of it to flow down to the bottom.

That couldn't be less true. No one "discovered" anything. Economists knew this was true 50 years ago. They knew when trickle-down was being developed. It's actually really obvious, especially if you have any relevant data whatsoever. The ones with scruples pointed it out many times, the ones without hopped on the gravy train.

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 weeks ago

They have to pour a steady stream of gold coins to the top of a billionaires penthouse to try to fill it enough so that a few coins can fall out and land on the street below

/s /sarcasm /imbeingsarcastic

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[–] Hotzilla@sopuli.xyz 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

I verified the number because it doesn't sound quite right. Walmart makes profit of roughly $20B yearly, per day that is $55M, the family owns around half.

So they make like $25M per day.

That is still insane amount of money, and probably also they do some tricks to lower the profit and hide the money through some loopholes, like all the millionaires/billionaires.

Nobody needs that kind of money, so they should be taxed like hell, but not in this world

[–] LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Wait do people actually claim that?

Like I guess it does, for the rich assholes. But it sure seems to make a lot more for the other people

[–] Transform2942@lemmy.ml 21 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Libertarians and neoliberals unironically believe that "a rising tide lifts all boats"

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 38 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

A rising tide does lift all boats. Giving all your money to a couple uber rich people is not a rising tide, though.

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[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Libertarians don't, and it's one of the few things Neoliberals are actually right about.

"A rising tide lifts all boats" refers to the fact that giving money to the people on the bottom of the financial pyramid who needs it the most will benefit everybody. Unlike just shoveling it at the already rich, which is what capitalism is designed for.

Infuriatingly, almost none of the Dem leadership actually follow through on this mantra with actual policy, beholden to the rich capitalists as they are.

[–] Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The problem is that more and more people can't afford a boat anymore.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

And even if they could, Neoliberals and fascists have given the rich all of the places where they can use or even place a boat.

[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Neo liberals believe in trickle down economics though.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, that's why I pointed out that they SAY "a rising tide" but very rarely actually act on it when it comes to legislation.

"Centrist" (read: right wing to far right by the standards of democracies in general) politicians are nothing if not hypocrites and lying demagogues 🤷

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[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

My coworkers do. Somehow the reason things suck is because of immigrants. Despite being immigrants. It's the lazy people who don't work as hard as them. Mathematically removed if you look at how things work. Not to mention that all these systems are artificial ... why shouldn't we build a system that benefits everyone instead of the few?

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I know lemmy.ml censors, lemmy.ca as well?

Mathematically “ignorant” I’m guessing

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

Honestly I drank too many beers tonight ... I probably used one of those bad words. I shouldn't have. Didn't know they censored as well.

[–] moriquende@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Probably mathematically regarded

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago

No, energy sources end poverty. There was plenty of capitalism before even coal, but lots of poverty.

[–] Valthorn@feddit.nu 9 points 2 weeks ago

So for one minute of profit they could pay 350 people $25/h for a full day. 21000 people with a full hours profit!

[–] ThatsTheSpirit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Capitalism can end poverty for sure and was definitely a step up from feudalism.. it just happens to also birth a whole slew of contradictions within the social fabric.

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Capitalism can end poverty for sure

much in the same way that hand-grenades cure cancer, yes

[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 weeks ago

Hey, curing cancer and surviving cancer are two different things.

[–] Hothorchata@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

They unironically live in NWA and refuse to acknowledge the humor. They’re not human.

[–] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 weeks ago

This reminds me of a government scheme some ten years ago or so. Workfair it was called, or something.

In short, someone claiming job seekers allowance would be required to work something like 10 hours a week for a company such as Tesco, or Poundland in order to be eligible for their welfare payments. On the face of it, fair enough. The person gets some work experience and the possibility of being hired.

Except all it really did was provide free labour to companies whose profits were in the billions. And that labour was paid by the tax payer.

And no one in the government at the time either saw how bad that might look, or more likely, cared.

I still think about that.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

It could

If it were done right. Just as Communism really really would end poverty and save the world and bring equality for all if juuuust done right.

I gettit, capitalism as done now (especially in the US) is a joke where the rich leech the poor and destroy the world

Tax the shit out of them. Leave capitalism be, but put up taxes in brackets that hits 100% after 10M net worth. This way, you still have the raw resource making power of captialism, but the richest anyone can get is 10 million networth.

Similarly for companies, once they get bigger, taxes go up untill it hits, say, a billion in net worth.

No company shall be too big to fail, too big to not steal, lie, and cheat, too big to be a net positive for humanity

This way governments end up with huge tax incomes. Use that tax for free healthcare for all, same with education, housing, public transportation, all free, even universal income

I think that'll work a whole lot better than "let's try communism" which simply won't happen and it would destroy us all.

[–] vivalapivo@lemmy.today 5 points 2 weeks ago

Communism really really would end poverty

Name communism that didn't significantly reduced poverty

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 weeks ago

You're confusing capitalism and commerce.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Won't they just pay politicians to make sure this never happens?

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago

Aren't they already doing that?
Aren't they the politicians?

[–] K1nsey6@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

What I hear out of all that is I don't mind the exploitive nature of capitalism as long as it doesn't exploit me.

All those words and you could have just said I don't understand socialism or communism

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

It could

If it were done right. Just as Communism really really would end poverty and save the world and bring equality for all if juuuust done right.

Yeah! All it takes is a fundamental change in human nature where we eradicate greed. Funnily enough, that one little trick fixes both Capitalism AND Communism and allows us to finally reach utopia.

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