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Top-level
 #FollowTheMoney š§µ 16/n Back to who the money flows towards: Nobody had a better year than Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth has increased by more than any other billionaire, up by nearly $113 billion over the past 12 months, to an estimated $177 billion #AI #Meta 21 comments
#FollowTheMoney š§µ 18/n Spotify too. Everywhere money is being sucked out (or who has the agency here really? More in next post) from artists to billionaires #FollowTheMoney š§µ 19/n This is what I am thinking about now. Not at all the first to say this or even think it myself, but just to emphasise: better not to think of billionaires as evil scheming money grabbers - i mean, they are - but as vessels for money, capitalism itself. Like, sci-fi wise, human bodies that look like humans from the outside but have been taken over by an AI - money itself. And itās ruling everything! #FollowTheMoney š§µ 20/n Now really is the time of monsters. #Gramsci #FollowTheMoney š§µ 21/n Suddenly remembered that at the end of 2022 I posted this here. So embarrassing - cringe, as my children would say! That I actually wrote āthe new world is almost bornā. No itās not. The time of monsters is in full, full swing, the new world really is not born yet. All we can do is to keep on trying to organise to make it happen one day. #Gramsci #FollowTheMoney š§µ 22/n Last point and then I will stop for today: saw #Hamilton a few weeks ago and was really struck by how then it was possible to start a revolution, raise an army and WIN! Like, that would just be totally impossible now. The imbalance in military power, just as in wealth (and control over media etc etc) is just so VAST now. Itās impossible to beat. Thatās why noone really even tries anymore. #FollowTheMoney š§µ 24/n. Like, watching the blue tits busy building their nest in the box outside our kitchen window, feeding their young, flying back and forth: most of us humans are so much closer to them than to scheming billionaires. And: this forever (i hope forever- in peril due to other!) reality - of birds, trees, parents hugging children, just enjoying being together - this is perhaps the real reality. Or at least always also there. Mustnāt forget! #FollowTheMoney š§µ 25/n back to a reality most of us in the UK inhabit on a daily basis: the crumbling public sector. Found this report on NHS dentistryās struggle for survival really very moving just now. #NHS #dentistry #UKpolitics https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001y0kf?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile #FollowTheMoney š§µ27/n The piece btw contains a necessary critique of my sci-fi āmoney rulesā take a few posts above. Although i still like the idea of all this being a kind of superorganism. But yes, it is about power - political economy, not just economy. #FollowTheMoney š§µ 30/n Wow. As Bregman says: Stunning graph: the plummeting tax rates of the richest Americans. For the first time in history, billionaires have a lower effective tax rate than working-class Americans. Look at 1980 - I do continue to think that *everything* could have been different if Carter hadnāt lost to Reagan. #FollowTheMoney š§µ 31/n I think the graph came from this New York Times piece but donāt have a subscription so canāt check. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/05/03/opinion/global-billionaires-tax.html #FollowTheMoney š§µ 32/n Watched āThe Founderā on Netflix yesterday, about McDonalds. Really interesting- would recommend it. Particularly how the real breakthrough came when Kroc, advised by Sonneborn, went for real estate. Checked it on Wikipedia: āMcDonald's present-day real-estate holdings represent $37.7 billion on its balance sheet, about 99% of the company's assets and 35% of its annual gross revenue.ā #FollowTheMoney š§µ34/n #ClimateDiary We had a veg box for 12 years from Hankham Organics; 3 weeks ago we suddenly had a note with our box that they were closing, as it wasnāt working financially any more. š¢š¢š¢ And a fish merchant who we got smoked salmon for Christmas from closed this year too, for the same reasons. Plus Goldsmithsā woes of course (#AcademicVenting). So many good, small organisations struggling and ending. #FollowTheMoney š§µ 36/n Here a positive, progressive use of money flows: 1400+ Columbia University alumni from its 20 schools have pledged to withhold all āfinancial, programmatic, and academic supportā until school meets demands related to divestment, student discipline, and community safety. #FollowTheMoney š§µ37/n Even though all of us living in the UK know that homelessness is terrible (and has grown exponentially since 2010), it is still shocking to see this graph. (There are notes on methods: all countries included both rough sleeping and invisible homelessness). |
Gregory's Server
#FollowTheMoney š§µ 17/n and here the whole Forbes Rich List for 2024. The planet has a record 2,781 billionaires now who are worth a record $14.2 trillion.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2024/04/02/forbes-38th-annual-worlds-billionaires-list-facts-and-figures-2024/