this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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The global economy must be reordered to ensure it serves ordinary people around the world rather than the “frivolous and destructive demands of the ultra-rich”, according to a leading UN figure.

Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, says politicians must stop prioritising “socially and ecologically destructive growth” that only increases the profits – and serves the consumption demands – of the world’s richest individuals and corporations.

Instead, to tackle the interwoven crises of rising inequality, ecological collapse and resurgent far-right politics, a new economic agenda is needed.

“The scarce resources we have should be used to prioritise the basic needs of people in poverty and to create what is of societal value rather than serve the frivolous desires of the ultra-rich.”

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[–] nonentity@sh.itjust.works 8 points 17 hours ago

The percentage of sociopaths involved with defining a society should never be greater than zero.

Financial obesity is an existential threat to any society that tolerates it, and needs to cease being celebrated, rewarded, and positioned as an aspirational goal.

Corporations are the only ‘persons’ which should be subjected to capital punishment, but billionaires should be euthanised through taxation.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Yeah shit like that is why the ultra rich have committed to destroying international organizations like the UN

[–] ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

Says some egghead, and any normal sane person on the ground-level.

[–] nothingcorporate@lemmy.today 3 points 18 hours ago

But it won't

[–] Gates9@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They will destroy the entire planet before they allow their aristocracy to be toppled

[–] deadymouse@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

It seems to me that one planet will not be enough for them.

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Get money out of politics and hold politicians to a higher standard.

[–] fishy@lemmy.today 3 points 1 day ago

Treat acquiring massive wealth as the mental disorder it is. 5150 all of them.

[–] Jimbel@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This sound like a dream. Too good to be true. :(

[–] doben@lemmy.wtf 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Organize! This does not need to be a dream or a utopia. Systems fall, changes are always possible. Only, the ultra rich with their frivolous desires won‘t give up their privileges and power because we ask nicely.

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 3 points 23 hours ago

Systems are actually falling right now. It's going to be chaotic and difficult, but there is also opportunity. Destruction is an opportunity for creation. We need to work together and focus on how we can create something better.

[–] Jimbel@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

True. We all should join a political party

[–] tristan@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 20 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Maybe if our system didn’t allow mere individuals to collect a net worth equivalent to small countries…? Hate the game, not the players. Billionaires should not even exist in the first place.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 2 points 11 hours ago

Without the players, there's no game. Flip the board.

[–] Zombie@feddit.uk 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I can, and will, hate both the game and the players.

The players at the top know exactly what they're doing.

If me, a fucking nobody who reads while taking a shit, in between working all the time to pay the bills can understand what's going on. There's no way the richest in society, with the most leisure time and access to the world's greatest educators etc, don't.

[–] tristan@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 0 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Don’t get me wrong, billionaires are definitely sociopaths. But our society, instead of giving them the treatment they deserve (institutionalisation and a therapy to develop empathy would be a good start) rewards them instead with power and influence.

I see many people cluelessly asking why it seems like billionaires are all sociopaths. That’s because society rewards it and selects for it, and that’s what we need to change first and foremost.

To borrow an image from the Scorpion and the Frog, if you’re a frog and you’re taking scorpions on your back, it’s nonsensical to hate the scorpions for stinging you, that’s in their nature. Instead, we should focus on not taking scorpions on our back, that is, not putting sociopaths in positions of power and authority.

[–] matlag@sh.itjust.works 2 points 16 hours ago

Scorpions make the rules. You're not allowed to not carry them on your back.

[–] electric_nan@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah, we can't. The ultra rich make all the rules. They aren't going to reform themselves.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 3 points 1 day ago

We can have a revolution, and move to an economy that caters to the frivolous desires of the Party nomenklatura.

[–] sturmblast@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, we can.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 day ago

They're finally starting to get it...

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 4 points 1 day ago

What if we sacrificed all the rich people to appease the god of CO2?

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

OK, you're right, in a purely ethical world.

But why would the economy change its behavior on a broad scale? What practical incentives would you use to adjust it?

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The French used a convincing method back in the day.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Punitive measures might feel emotionally satisfying in the moment, but what they actually incentivize is hiding the corruption and exploitation better (avoiding getting caught, rather than avoiding the bad activity in the first place). Also, while an angry mob might have a taste for violence and actually perform it for a little while, it doesn't last and it's not a basis for a stable government or economy.

If you want long-term stability you have to organize a system so that it incentivizes the behaviors that you want, even more than it disincentivizes the behaviors that you don't want.

I'm not sure what that looks like in this context, in a practical sense. But ultimately the problem is that everything in our society rewards the hoarding of wealth. This is not just a problem with capitalism - every communist or supposedly socialist society ever established also rewarded hoarding of wealth.

For things to be different, actually different, a different value system with a fundamentally different reward structure needs to be established, and it needs to be competitive long-term with the current system in order to exist alongside it and/or eventually replace it.

Like I said I don't really know what that looks like in practice. The only example I can think of is the "gift economy" described in Kim Stanley Robinson's Green Mars, in which the participants in every exchange always seek to give more than they get (essentially the reverse of normal behavior).

[–] Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf 4 points 1 day ago

Sjop, sjop!

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The practical incentives are there already, but far too many people are too greedy and shortsighted to recognize them. There are long term negative consequences to prioritizing short term individual gains over long term, sustainable prosperity for all. And achieving that sustainable prosperity does not require people to replace self interest with altruism, it requires that people to adopt a more enlightened, forward looking self interest. It's getting people to understand that overindulgence and a zero sum mentality today, without thought for the consequences tomorrow is not self interest, it's self destruction.

If that can't work then civilization is fucked.

[–] wuffah@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It is already too late. You could kill every billionaire and their families today, and it would take 100 years to approach normal CO2 concentration. In less than 50 years, the atmosphere will have too much CO2 in it to support respiration at the level necessary to prevent low level asphyxiation.

If you want to save humanity, begin executing anyone with more than a billion dollars net worth in the next few years, or we all die. Period.

I can tell you right now, it’s going to be the other way around.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7229519/

[–] Eheran@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Perhaps I should first ask why you spread such absurd nonsense and where you got it from?

[–] wuffah@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7229519/

Human activities are elevating atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to levels unprecedented in human history. The majority of anticipated impacts of anthropogenic CO2 emissions are mediated by climate warming. Recent experimental studies in the fields of indoor air quality and cognitive psychology and neuroscience, however, have revealed significant direct effects of indoor CO2 levels on cognitive function. Here, we shed light on this connection and estimate the impact of continued fossil fuel emissions on human cognition. We conclude that indoor CO2 levels may indeed reach levels harmful to cognition by the end of this century, and the best way to prevent this hidden consequence of climate change is to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

The full end‐to‐end model thus predicts indoor cognitive performance (for the particular studied cognitive processes) as a function of outdoor CO2 concentration. Under these assumptions, the model predictions are quite arresting (Figure 3). On the unmitigated CO2 emission pathway (RCP8.5), we may be in for a ~25% reduction in our indoor basic decision‐making ability and a ~50% reduction in more complex strategic thinking, by the year 2100 relative to today.

This is just one study of many that are beginning to document the effects of the exponential rise of atmospheric CO2 on human cognition. As this effect increases, it continuously gets worse. Even if we begin to reduce CO2 emissions, cognitive effects remain until atmospheric CO2 falls below acceptable levels over decades at best. All eight billion of us will literally become retarded by carbon dioxide in the next 50 years if we’re lucky.

A disproportionate amount of CO2 emissions come from billionaires. Even eliminating them may not save us. But if you want a good place to start, execute every billionaire and their families first. Sorry, but the ultra-rich need to die tomorrow and they aren’t going to. :(

The predictions about the ubiquity of billionaires are my own however. Take them with a grain of salt I suppose. Without extreme and significant change, I predict this will be the last 100 years of humanity we know it.

Enjoy your life and spend time with your loved ones while you can.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 11 hours ago