• Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Bernie Sanders is out there talking about eating the rich…he always convienently leaves out that HE HIMSELF is rich.

    I’m never sure if that’s meant to say like “Yeah, I’LL pay my fair share if we get all the other rich people to do it too”.

    Or if it’s meant to be something that sounds good on a soundbyte that makes you angry at the rich…while you’re not supposed to know HE’S rich.

    I never know what to take that context as.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        If someone has even 1 million dollars they’re rich. That’s the thing about numbers. They’re infinate.

        You say you couldn’t even buy a house with a few million dollars? I could buy a house for $70,000.

        For another $10,000 I could fit the house with solar, and use the other 900,000 to live off interest.

        How is that not rich?

        • Mister_Feeny@fedia.io
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          9 days ago

          The difference between 1 billion and 1 million dollars is just about 1 billion dollars.

          And maybe you could find a house for 70k in your area, but that is not common at all. The AVERAGE home price in my area is 525-550,000.

          Having a single million dollars just does not mean you’re rich these days.

        • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          9 days ago

          A million isn’t even enough to retire on anymore. That shit’ll be gone in a couple years in a nursing home. A few million might let you leave a house to your family.

          The cheap houses in my part of Ohio (a fairly cheap state to buy a house in) start at about 200K

            • TheCelticPirate@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              Did you really use a $50k house that needs at least $100k in repairs in a terrible neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio as an example? Are you trolling? This might be the worst house for sale in America.

              • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                Seriously? You think that’s the worst house in America? There’s not even pictures of the inside because long term tenants live there.

                Thats not a bad area. Thats W.46 between Storer and Clark. I could open zillow again, and try to find some of those $2,000 dollar houses if you want to see some houses that need repairs. And they’d be in the actual ghetto.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  9 days ago

                  This is what you said before:

                  You say you couldn’t even buy a house with a few million dollars? I could buy a house for $70,000.

                  For another $10,000 I could fit the house with solar, and use the other 900,000 to live off interest.

                  Where are you planning to live on that interest? Because it won’t be in that house.

                • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  There’s not even pictures of the inside because long term tenants live there.

                  Lol there aren’t pictures of the inside because the tenants have destroyed the place and are refusing to pay rent, and the landlord - having learned that investing in rental properties is not always the money-printing panacea it’s cracked up to be - is desperate to escape from the situation.

              • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                He doesn’t have to work. The comment was that he could buy a house, buy solar, and never have to do anything again.

                  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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                    9 days ago

                    Thats the whole point of the original comment. I can’t figure out WHAT his motivation is, when his entire career is him basically saying “DESTROY ME! I SHOULDN’T HAVE THIS MUCH MONEY! NOBODY SHOULD!”

                    …but whys HE saying that. Like I could understand if he made like 30k a year, and had a few thousand in savings. But he’s the image of who’s he’s trying to turn the torches on. Is it intentional? Does he not realize?

                    Meanwhile, people read the innitial comment I made, and are defending him by saying he’s not the problem.

                    Which completely misses the point.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          You do know what net worth is right? It’s combined wealth. A lot of people are worth 1mil or more… especially since the housing boom. This is some of the dumbest logic to bitch about someone who is worth a few million. Get your head out of your ass, bitching about millionaires is hilarious, while the billionaires are running the country.

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            I never bitched about him. I’ve said the same thing over and over and over. The comment was about context of why he’s saying to eat the rich, when that’s him.

        • adarza@lemmy.ca
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          9 days ago

          if you want $900k to provide a steady return every year indefinitely, and while accounting for inflation, taxes on proceeds, fluctuations in the market, etc. you won’t be taking out nearly as much as you think each year.

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            $900,000 x .02 = $18,000 ÷ 12 = 1,500.

            $1,500 every month, no rent, no mortgage, no electric bill. Basically means you’re paying taxes, insurance, water, gas, phone/internet. I’ll just round that off at $600. Means $900 a month after bills. All without working.

            You telling me that ain’t rich?

            • stickly@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              $18,000 is only $3k above the federal poverty level, and well below for a family of 2. This sounds like one of those out of touch McDonald’s PR budgets.

              Better hope your home never needs a new roof, that’ll be at LEAST 6 months of your passive income gone. Car breaks down? Well you need to fix that because you live in BFE, that’s another month gone.

              Not to mention I don’t know what scooter you’re parking in your one room shack to keep taxes and insurance and utilities under $600. Are you fitting health insurance in that too or just offing yourself when you get medical debt? Hope you never have any dependants either, that’s when things get really pricey.

              • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                I wouldn’t call 44th and Clark BFE.

                If anything, I’d have to check the map, and make sure Daves is as close as I think, but you could just walk everywhere. Although at his age, maybe he’d need a car. But the neighborhood is very drivable. It’s not like you’re out in the sticks.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      He’s a pedigreed professional at the top of his field at the end of his career. Literally a world class statesmen regardless of if you favor his positions. Why wouldn’t such a person be worth 5-10 mil? He earned his position which can be with a strong salary… For decades. Even tame investments in the whole market would steer him handily towards that worth

      That doesn’t even touch on the mountain of social good and enrichment and support of the poor that he has directly contributed to over his career

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        You’re missing the point entirely.

        He could be adolph hitler, he could the most pure kind person who’s ever lived. Either way, your monetary value has no context on how or why you have the money. Nobody is argueing if he’s good at heart.

        My comment was that I never know how to react to HIM saying eat the rich, when he’s rich.

        You’re trying to bring politics and emotions into this. That was never the conversation.

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            I’m saying that gap doesn’t matter. At that point, it’s just numbers. It’s like a high score as opposed to meaningful currency that dictates your life. I never said he’s the richest. I said he’s rich, and his whole thing is “destroy the rich”.

            But thats him.

            • stickly@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              When is rich to you? Is it $100k? $500k? Or just when you have to start adding “-illion” to the number? Is a 25 year old who worked for 5 years with 100k as rich as someone who worked for 50 years to get 10x that?

              The gap does matter, it’s not our fault you can’t comprehend the magnitude of these gaps

              • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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                9 days ago

                I never said I don’t comprehend the gaps. I’m saying they don’t matter.

                Tom is a rich guy, who doesn’t need to work for a living. He lives off the interest in his bank account.

                Jeff is a rich guy who doesn’t need to work for a living. He lives off the interest in his bank account.

                Bob is a guy who has some savings, but if he stops working he becomes full of debt.

                The difference between Tom and Jeff are the number of decimal points in their bank accounts. The difference between them and Bob is that Bob doesn’t work to maintain an image, or run a company. Bob works because he HAS TO.

                The second you have the ability to quit your job, and not impact your ability to live, is when you’re rich.

                Sure, there’s a big gap between having a few billion, and having a few million if you look at numbers. There is no difference however with you being required to work. Thats why the gap doesn’t matter.

                • stickly@lemmy.world
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                  9 days ago

                  So is it the interest that’s the problem? Or the not working?

                  You could be unable to work on disability with an inherited house and get pretty much to that poverty line. Why isn’t that the same?

                  What if there wasn’t interest but I got $5m in the lottery and just decided to spend $1m buying a house in a good neighborhood and paying off debts. Then I just take out 50k out from my mattress per year until I die.

                  If you’re a certain age and don’t care about your estate you could do the same thing with a line of credit. Now I have negative net worth but I’m choosing not to work while maintaining a decent life.

                  There is a real, tangible difference between any of these scenarios (yours or mine) and having enough money to shape legislation or buy yourself into the fucking Whitehouse. That just happens to be roughly the difference between ~1 million (living comfortably) and 1+ billion (buying lobbyists)

                  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                    9 days ago

                    You could be unable to work on disability with an inherited house and get pretty much to that poverty line. Why isn’t that the same?

                    Why do I get the feeling that the person you are talking to would call those people either lucky or lazy?

            • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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              9 days ago

              how does it not matter? you can still be a millionaire without exploiting the system and other people (you definitely need to be lucky or have good starting conditions to your adulthood though). But even with good starting conditions, you cannot earn billions without exploiting a whole country’s worth of population and evading tax. This is the class of rich, people like Bernie are talking about. If you think “its just numbers” and dont see a difference between the two, you are not thinking in detail you are blurting out sentences sorry.

        • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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          9 days ago

          He ain’t rich. He’s experienced, the top of his industry and at the end of his career. He’s accrued decent wealth given those life details but frankly it’s TINY for how he clearly could have spent his life.

          He’s not rich, he’s successful and at the finish line.

          • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            He’s ABSOLUTELY rich! The rest of what you said isn’t really on topic, and I don’t disagree with it, but he IS rich.

            • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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              9 days ago

              He is not rich. He is well off at best (as I said, at the very end of a prestigious career). Other people are just very very poor. But the gap between him and the poor is tiny compared to the gap between him and musk and co

    • crapwittyname@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      Bernie doesn’t say “eat the rich”, you’re saying that. Bernie makes specific statements about who to tax, and when and how.
      He does pay his fair share. If the richest in the US paid tax like he does, there wouldn’t be a problem.

      • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Oh I never said he wasn’t humble. I’m just confused by his motivations behind saying to eat the rich…ya know…because that’s him.

    • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      What a brain dead thing to say. Is your whole argument that only the non rich are allowed to mention that the system is broken? Does he have to divest of all his assets before making any observations about our economic system? What a weird thing to get hung up on. This cant be real.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      9 days ago

      Class analysis is the only thing that matters. Read theory and stop being a wrecker.

    • melisdrawing@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      You needn’t be broke to want to end billionaires. Plenty of people clinging to their status as ‘middle-class’ want to end billionaires. They can be insulated AND correct.