That’s a hard pass for me. I’d rather opt out of social security. It’s a ponzi scam. If the government had put that into a private account, I’d have millions of dollars in there.

  • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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    10 months ago

    I am not suggesting a wealth transfer. Keeping my own money is not a transfer. Trickle down didn’t hurt the middle class. That’s some weird liberal re-write of history. If that was the issue then why didn’t the democrats fix it? NAFTA and other trades agreements are what destroyed the middle class. When companies could move jobs to China or Mexico , that removed the factory jobs many middle class people depended on.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You are suggesting a wealth transfer. Do you think private banks give you 100% of the interest your money makes? Where do you think the extra money goes?

      Democrats didn’t fix it because Democrats can’t fix shit

      And nafta is not the only reason for wealth consolidation. The fact remains that wealthy people largely do not choose to “trickle down” anything. It’s been a massive failure and you’d have to do mental gymnastics to see it as working. Or just be extremely selfish

      • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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        10 months ago

        Wealthy people provide capital to build and expand companies. That’s how Tesla was formed. Space x. Amazon. Etc,

        • glimse@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Did you seriously just use Tesla and Amazon as examples of good things that wealthy people have done for the country? Jeez, man

          • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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            10 months ago

            Yes. Don’t you support electric cars to help with climate change? Without Elon we wouldn’t have a viable electric car industry. It’s crashed over 100k good paying jobs. That’s trickle down in action.

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              10 months ago

              We had electric cars in the 70s but the oil industry killed them.

              And Elon didn’t start Tesla. He bought it and took credit for it.

              I guess this is further proof that being rich doesn’t make you smart

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                10 months ago

                What car was tesla selling when Elon bought it? What factory did they own? You’re just proving my point.

                • glimse@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  I am not proving your point. Tesla hasn’t started production yet but would have regardless of musk’s involvement. And since then, he made the company worse because he’s an idiot who happened to have the money to take over a promising company.

                  Nothing to say about Amazon, though?

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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                    10 months ago

                    They would have went bankrupt. Do you think they let Elon in out of the kindness of their heart? They were out of money. It was let Elon invest or go BK. You think Tesla would have been better off BK? lol.

                    Amazon is no worse than Walmart.

            • glomag@kbin.social
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              10 months ago

              “Tesla Motors was incorporated on July 1, 2003, by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Eberhard and Tarpenning served as CEO and CFO, respectively.” “Tesla’s first car, the Roadster, was officially revealed to the public on July 19, 2006.”

              "The Prius was developed by Toyota to be the “car for the 21st century; it was the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, first going on sale in Japan in 1997 at all four Toyota Japan dealership chains, and subsequently introduced worldwide in 2000.”

              I will concede that Musk may have made some marketing decisions that contributed to the popularity of Tesla cars vs other brands but I do not believe that “Without Elon we wouldn’t have a viable electric car industry.” If there is money to be made in a business then someone will inevitably step in to fill the market niche. That’s a core tenant of how capitalism is supposed to promote the efficient use of resources.

              Also, I’m not sure who the “we” in your comment is referring to. I personally do not have any type of car industry, viable or not. Are you suggesting that US car manufactures should be nationalized and owned collectively by all citizens?

              Furthermore, I do not support electric cars as a major contribution to the solution to climate change.

              • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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                10 months ago

                The roadster was just a lotus chassis with some electric parts. Elon pushed the vision.

                For some reason people like to like about Musk. Tesla is a success story because of him.

                They had nothing till he showed up. They were great engineers but they didn’t know how to run a company.

                Elon is the flavor flav of Tesla.

                • glomag@kbin.social
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                  10 months ago

                  I like your characterization of Musk as “the flavor flav of Tesla”. He is or tries to be a hype man, a personality, capable of creating a cult of personality. He hired engineers and workers and told them to build things he wanted. The solutions those people created to his (and the other members of the board of directors) demands are what Tesla became. I’m not convinced he knows anything about running a company (Twitter).

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.eeOPM
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                    10 months ago

                    He’s shown he can run Tesla. That doesn’t mean he can run any company.

                    I also think he’s more of a liability as Tesla now.

                    Elon was a great hype man and knew other rich people who could invest. That’s why Tesla was successful. He had giants pockets books to fund it. It wasn’t just his money. Thiel was another large investor m