• gregorum@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    proof again that the government could severely curtail homelessness if they wanted to-- they just don’t.

      • chitak166@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The disparity in wealth should grow instead of shrink.

        As long as most people believe this, then that’s what’s going to happen.

        • SCB@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Wealth disparity is not relevant to this discussion. It doesn’t say anything about where the bottom tier is.

          If we had full UBI, free homes, free food, free healthcare, etc and some small portion of the country were quadrillionaires, we’d have massive wealth disparity and no loss of quality of life.

          Wealth is not zero-sum, and the high and low do not necessarily have anything to do with one another.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              It’s not a take. This is just correct information that you don’t like. There is 0 opinion in the above.

              • chitak166@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                You would be delusional enough to believe that.

                It’s okay, I’m going to put you on my ignore list now. You’re not worth arguing with because every post you make is asinine.

                Goodbye.

          • zbyte64
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            1 year ago

            The rich people who go on TV and say “people don’t want to work for me anymore, that’s why we need to cut benefits” certainly see wealth as zero-sum. They know if we had all those things you listed their business would stop working.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Or they’re lying for their own gain

              Also this is a question of incentives, not wealth. They believe people who get benefits are incentivized not to work. This has been proven soundly false in recent tests of UBI.

              • zbyte64
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                1 year ago

                What are they seeking to gain if not wealth?

                  • zbyte64
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                    1 year ago

                    They get elected to office to do what exactly? I hear they have the wildest orgies.

                    But seriously, politicians serve money to make money. So I don’t see how this dodges the point.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We can invent billions of dollars to give away during the pandemic, and billions more to give Israel to continue its genocide against Palestinians, but solving student debt or homelessness or universal health care? We don’t have enough money for that!

      • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Because interest payments make profit, and reducing people’s ability to not live paycheck to paycheck increases the workers dependency on the system.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        universal health care? We don’t have enough money for that!

        Universal healthcare would, ironically, save the government, businesses, and consumers money all at the same time.

      • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Is Hamas/IDF genocide against each other some kind of meme that must be mentioned in every comment section now or is this just propaganda?

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hamas isn’t in the West Bank. And yet Israel is demolishing houses right now so that settlers can move in. Only one side is perpetrating a genocide.

            • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Nothing. It has everything to do with your comment. This isn’t a “both sides” moment. It may have been in the past but Israel is commiting war crimes at a breathtaking pace now.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What did you do the last four years that should make us vote for you again Biden?

        “I’m not Trump”

        Democrat voters cream their pants and run to the voting booth so Genocide Joe can have another 4 years

    • mhague@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      What’s the point of thinking of our government as “the government”? Or changing “We could solve this.” to “They could solve this.”?

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Considering the military budget is now up to 1.2 trillion a year and we pay for other country’s wars, the government clearly exists to make warmongers wealthier.

      • AlwaysNowNeverNotMe@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Because the government has on multiple occasions during my lifetime refused to consider measures with over 90% popular support.

        Because they do not serve us as it is written in the Constitution. They serve the wealthy, they bend and scrape and lick their boots, never hold them accountable to the law, and never. Ever. Act against their best interest in any scenario. And the wealthy benefit from the social safety net having a big hole above a pit trap their workers are afraid to fall into.

        • mhague@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Our leaders serve the people making noise at the bargaining table. We the people have the most power. We just leave after the first victory. We don’t become educated voters and choose to instead focus on exciting narratives. Elite interests try to affect change and so focus on reality. We the people seem to be after catharsis and so focus on symbolic victories.

          But what can you expect from people who constantly tell themselves they have no power? No agency? They don’t conceptualize themselves as being able to affect change and it colors everything they do.

          • pearable@lemmy.today
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            1 year ago

            You’re judging the majority of the population without questioning why we feel powerless. The vast majority of news, media, and education we encounter support our oppression.

            Just because you’ve been lucky enough to hear the truth and been in the right place emotionally to hear it doesn’t mean you should write everyone who is ignorant as morally inferior.

            • mhague@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I’m not judging, I’m curious about why people say this stuff. The way we talk is intimately tied with results. Changing rhetoric is a big step in getting girls to conceptualize themselves as capable of “boy” things. “Chess is for boys.” isn’t just a phrase, it’s like a spell that alters reality. If people can understand how words have power when it comes to women’s opportunites, or minorities taking interest in voting, then they’ll eventually understand that it affects our agency too.

      • gregorum@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Oy. Arguing with nihilists is about as useful as pissing into a black hole. You’ll just get your dick turned into spaghetti for the effort, so why bother?

        • mhague@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          All I care about is that people can see what kind of mentality pairs with rhetoric like, “They control us!” It’s not a productive, insightful perspective that speaks helplessness into themselves and others.

    • chitak166@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      proof again that the government people could severely curtail homelessness if they wanted to-- they just don’t.

      • gregorum@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That’s why we formed a government, to handle shit like this. A government of the people by the people for the people. it’s their fucking job.

        • chitak166@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The government is just doing what its people want.

          If the people want something different, then they should do something different.

          Haven’t you heard how good the economy is doing?

                • SCB@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Homeowners pulling the ladder up after them is the single largest driver of our housing crisis. You literally cannot build more housing in the areas we most need it, due to regulations pushed for, and at times written by, local homeowners.