It won't be a huge number, though. Capitalism still works to consolidate wealth. While there never has been any private individual with that much wealth before in human history, that kind of wealth is not unprecedented. The main reason is that people with that kind of wealth have historically been emperors. And make no mistake, anyone with that kind of wealth carries with them the threat of becoming an emperor. After someone becomes an emperor or a dictator, they gain absolute control over the GDP of whatever they control. But even now, Musk's wealth is not even 1% of the world's GDP. Someone like Augustus Caesar would have had several times more wealth, and direct control over something like 25% of the world's GDP. Musk having this much wealth is disgusting - nobody should even be a billionaire. But, at the same time, in the grand scheme of things, he will be nothing more than a footnote in history. He has never done anything actually memorable. People only know him now because he's a cunt with a lot of power. But power fades, and the world has had countless cunts. In the end, he's not anyone special. In 100 years, the average person will likely have no clue who he was. Nor will they care.
parricc
Of course, but someone should keep it going anyway by making an actual fork of arch called arch btw.
I do think there's a lot of eyes opening now.
There's definitely a rise of the far right happening all over that's very alarming. One of the things that makes it scary is how low key all of it can be. It's easy for people not to notice until all of the cards are in place, and then everyone is completely caught off guard. Like consider France - despite how frequent, powerful, and progressive all of the protests have always been in France, Le Pen got scary close to getting into actual power. All of the oligarchs have their tentacles spread throughout the planet. Albania is protesting stuff involving Jared Kushner. It's really got me thinking that there's some very specific things that need to happen in countries all over the world while there's still time, otherwise they'll inevitably turn into authoritarian hellholes. But right now, the cards aren't in place for a lot of countries. What just happened in Hungary inspires hope.
But billionaires need to get taxed out of existence, large companies need to be broken up or nationalized, money needs to be kept out of politics in every way possible, and the world needs to move completely off of US based technology as well as fossil fuels. I know a lot of people are trying in Europe, and I hope that even if my country turns into a hellish nightmare, that it opens enough people's eyes that they can at least save their own. Climate change is coming, and it's going to cause civil unrest like we cannot even comprehend. Nobody anywhere is going to escape it unscarred. Hopefully some of us can at least make it. But that will require societies working as societies and leaving nobody behind, and everywhere is very far from that point.
And what country do you live in? What are you doing to help? You never answered.
It's easy for you to talk on the Internet from your armchair of job protections and privilege, where you've probably never had to resist anything in your life. Most people are 1-2 months from homelessness without an income. This isn't a hypothetical situation. It's a cold fact. And if you are homeless, your kids get taken away. Do you think people are able to protest more effectively in that kind of situation? Which single protest is going to make the immediate difference to bring about change.
And our labor protections were already eroded several generations before I was born. Almost nobody has union representation. It is illegal for a union to require members to pay membership fees. It is illegal for a union to require a company to hire only union members. It is illegal for a union to require its members to participate in collective bargaining. And it is illegal for unions to take action on anything not directly involving the company its members specifically work for, including general, solidarity, and political strikes. Furthermore, the executive branch can obtain injunctions to declare any strike illegal if it is ruled to be a threat to national health or safety. While there have been attempts as recent as this year, there hasn't been a single successful general strike in the United States since the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947 passed.
And WE ARE protesting. There are people are protesting EVERY SINGLE DAY all over the country. But you will never see that on the news. Many other people and I have attended numerous protests when we are able to. Have you ever stood in 40+°C heat all day weakly holding a sign while trying not to black out from heat exhaustion at a protest? I have. What have you done? You might not live here, but you are affected by some US actions too. You have politicians too, which could be doing more for your people. Your rights could be slowly getting eroded away right now. And if there are any billionaires that exist in your country at all, I guarantee they are. It's easy to talk shit, but the impactful thing is to stand in solidarity and do what you can from your side of the pond. There are a lot of things you need to be pushing for. Like what the people in Albania are doing right now. You are in a good place to be making a difference. You don't have to live in fear of the stuff we're dealing with. You don't have to continually worry every single day about whether any of your friends are going to get murdered by ICE or a cop.
And please, almost nobody has used Twitter since it went to shit (I've never even had an account), only boomers have used Facebook for the past decade, and everyone is pissed about the AI stuff. You love to make generalizations. I get that you're frustrated. What do you think the frustration is like here?
You realize we've been having large protests, right? For example, the city I live in is not even one of the top 10 largest cities in the US, but it has had multiple anti-Trump protests within the last year with a turnout of over 50k people. There were also other cities within 130 km of mine that had crowds with over 10k people.
The turnout in Tirana is similar in scale, but when you account for how small of a country Albania is and the fact that the entire country can easily travel to the capital to protest, the Albanian turnout is actually far less. The farthest anyone has to travel in Albania to reach the capital is 300 km. You don't even need a car. You can take an 8 hour bus ride.
In comparison, if I wanted to go to the US capital to protest, it is over 2500km away. That's like traveling from Tirana to Estonia, but without the option of easy public transportation. Not only that, but US politicians live in highly secure areas far away from where the public can reach. They never have to face us if they don't want to. No politicians even go to the building of my state capital except for a single 5 month period every two years. So the last several protests in my state capital have been people protesting at an empty building. Look dude, just because the media doesn't report stuff doesn't mean people aren't protesting. But a protest is going to be a lot more effective when you live in a tiny country with an easy way to travel.
Can the average person in your country afford to potentially lose their job while simultaneously being disqualified from unemployment benefits? My current job has 0 days PTO, and yes, I would be fired and disqualified from unemployment benefits. Can the average person in your country spend over $620 per person to fly to Washington DC? Yes, it costs that much for me. And going by bus would be even more expensive and take me over a week in travel time round trip. Can the average person in your country afford to spend over $500 in hotel costs even when splitting a room? If not, please kindly shut the fuck up. Me and many other people have been protesting regularly. But it's not possible for most of us, me included, to protest where the politicians are. Not to mention, the politicians don't care in the least. They mock us regularly. It's difficult to coordinate anything across a country that is as massive as the US, but we're at least trying.
While I fully agree that everyone should vote, the "voting is easy" bit you're saying is complete BS. Every single early voting day in both the 2016 and 2020 election still involved 2-4 hour lines. Not just for the November election, but even the primaries. In one of the elections, I had to stand in line outside in 90° F heat for 4 hours. A huge number of people in front of me gave up after standing in line for hours, either because they had to pick up their kids or go to work. There was no way around the long lines, otherwise I would have taken the steps to avoid it.
Not only that, but it's hard for a lot of people to register to vote. If you don't have a driver's license, getting an appointment for a photo ID takes MONTHS. To put things into perspective, I have a friend that lives in San Antonio that needed one. We looked, and there was a single location for the entire metropolitan area of over 2.6 million people. The earliest opening for an appointment was 3 months out. Then, after getting an ID, it's still necessary to register to vote at least a month before an election. Don't think for a minute that voter suppression isn't a thing. Just because you live in an area where it's easy to vote and there are no lines doesn't mean it's that way for everyone.
I personally will stand in line for over 6 hours if that's what it takes. But a lot of people simply can't. It frustrates me, but I don't really blame them. A lot of people have multiple jobs and can't afford to miss work or get fired. These methods of suppression are used because they are very effective.
It's way less than that. In 2013, you could still get a $2 meal deal from Taco Bell that came with a burrito, bag of Doritos, and a drink. That's $2.80 in today's money. Then, I remember some dinner prices from places my parents took me when I was a kid. They're boomers so they love going to all you can eat buffets. Using that calculator, the adult price for an all you can eat pizza buffet at a CiCi's in 2000 would be $5.69 in today's money. In 2005, the adult dinner price for an all you can eat buffet at Furr's Cafeteria would be $8.39 in today's money. Even in 2013, there was an AYCE Chinese buffet that would be $7 in today's money. Those are dinner prices. And if you didn't want to eat like a boomer, there were plenty of cheaper options. But just to put things into perspective a lot of those same things don't cost $6-9 today. They cost $20+.
It's not half of the country, it's half of the people that voted, and there is heavy voter suppression to keep people from voting. But the problem is deeper than the people. The same number of idiots and the same number of selfish people are in every country. That is something people seriously need to understand. It doesn't matter what country you're in, these same kinds of assholes are next to you whether you're aware of them or not.
So you might wonder why not every country has an administration as vile as Trump. The reason is systemic. Elections need to work in a way that doesn't give an advantage to certain candidates. No corporate or shady political donations. No bribes. No gerrymandering. No conflicts of interest. Stuff like ranked choice voting would help as well. Also automatic voter registration with universal mail in voting. Nobody should have to make a registration appointment 5 months before an election just to get the right to vote in it. And yes, I've had friends that had to book their appointments that far in advance. And no waiting in line for 4 hours to vote. And yes, I've had to stand in line for that long outside in 35+C heat to vote. There must be enforced laws to protect the integrity of elections and to keep rich and powerful assholes from controlling their outcome. When politicians do corrupt things, there needs to be consequences. Trump should have been in prison long before the election. And as the US currently exists, only rich and powerful people that accept money from billionaires can get elected. A government should be made up of the people, not of the billionaires. When politicians are billionaires, they don't represent us. At the same time, the media needs to be independent and free from the influence of billionaires as well. No single company should own most of the television and radio stations, TV channels, and streaming networks in a country. And nothing should be able to broadcast straight up propaganda with political motives and present it as news. And there needs to be a wealth tax to keep people from even becoming billionaires because wealth buys power and influence. If the goal is to keep the wealthy from having more influence than the working class, then there needs to be a cap on how wealthy someone can be. When these safeguards are removed, there is no country on the planet that won't eventually end up in the exact same situation as the US is in right now.
I actually got to ride one of the steam locomotives in a heritage railway in Connecticut. The Essex Steam Train uses a China Railways SY class 2-8-2. There's another one in New Jersey as well. The stuff made by Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works is interesting because it produced the last steam trains in the world that were built for non-tourist purposes. Hopefully China sees the historic value in preserving them and keeps some in a functional state for the long term. They apparently have one heritage railway, the Tiefa Coal Mine System, with a couple of the steam trains still running for tourists.
Sure they do. They've got a mixture of kosher salt, iodized salt, table salt, canning salt, brining salt, fine grained sea salt, coarse grained sea salt, flake salt, finishing salt, and then a little bit of black pepper, and MSG.
Honestly, you're getting a bad bias from the kinds of Americans that currently are immigrating there. The important thing to understand is you don't want the Americans with money, you want the Americans without any money that are willing to work and help other people out. Lol. See, what you've got right now are all of the rich assholes that don't care about the culture or people of where they're moving to - they just want to live like kings in a cheap city that they can turn into an asshole bubble that prices all of the normal people out. Rich people are leeches. Ultimately, the world would be a better place with open borders everywhere, but no rich assholes. Think about why borders even exist. In what world does it matter? The only reason is ultimately just rich assholes not wanting to dilute their wealth. The best thing we can do at this point is to convince them to go to Mars and leave them there.