Thread by @SteB777

You know all these massive price rises we face.

"Ten richest men double their fortunes in pandemic while incomes of 99 percent of humanity fall"

"The world’s ten richest men more than doubled their fortunes from $700 billion to $1.5 trillion ..."
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oxfam.org/en/press-relea…

What we see is a malignant system, I mean that quite literally, like a cancer. The richer these billionaires get, plus the ones just below them, the greedier they get, the richer they get, and the more control they have over our societies.
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What does an individual need $1 billion for, let alone $269 billion? A billion is a thousand million. It's difficult to get your head around these figures. If your total net worth increased by 1 million a year, you'd need to live to a thousand years to accumulate a billion.
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Yet Elon Musk is worth $269 billion. So to catch up with his current net worth, increasing your net worth at $1 million p.a., it would take 269,000 years to catch up with his current worth. It's mind boggling. This didn't suddenly start happened, but over decades.
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I was just trying illustrate what these figures mean. If someone was increasing their net worth by $1 million p.a., even by the standards of normal high earners, this person would be considered pretty wealthy.
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Yet the fact is that this hypothetical person would need over 1/4 million years to catch with the current wealth, of the richest person in the world.

However, the interesting fact is that the incomes of 99% of humanity are falling.
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In other words, the current system is not benefiting 99% of humanity in terms of personal income. Yet the common justification of the current system and the existence of billionaires, is that they're benefiting everyone, trickle down and all that. Self-evidently a lie.
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Of course the common retort to what I'm saying, ironically pumped out by the billionaire owned media, would be that I'm motivated by envy. No actually. I will be honest in my next tweet about my dreams of wealth.
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For most of my life I've had a very simple dream of what I'd do if I came into wealth, meaning I buy the odd lottery tick etc. I'd buy up as much prime natural habitat as possible, to preserve it in it's natural state, to keep it free of commercial exploitation.
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Anyway, that's my own personal fantasy. You see, I was a rewilder long before the concept or term was invented. I've always hated how we try to control the natural world. I will come to why I mention that.
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Very rich people try to convince us that they care so much about everything. Not that long back, Bill Gates wrote a book, telling us how he was going to save us all from the climate crisis.
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However, the biodiversity crisis is just as serious as the climate crisis. Whilst the climate crisis will eventually become the biggest cause of biodiversity decline, current it is primarily driven by habitat loss.
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theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The surest way of protecting natural habitat is to free it from the possibility of commercial exploitation and development. Under the current system, the only way to do that is ownership, which would never contemplate that happening.
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Here we get to see the true nature of these billionaires. They certainly like to extravagantly spend - super yachts, massive palatial territories, private jets etc. And of course lots like to spout on about their concern for the natural, the climate and ecological crisis.
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So we should expect to see large tracts of natural habitat, they have protected for perpetuity. Remember, they have massive ability to do just that. Buy that land and hand it over to conservation experts.
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But this is where I scratch my head. There are shockingly few examples of this. A very large proportion of so called protected land, has commercially exploitative activities on it, to make it pay it's way, or exists in a precarious state.
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If they own land, they either want to commercially exploit it, or use it for their private entertainment. I want to make it clear, I am not just focused on the natural world. I care very much about social justice, the plight of all the vulnerable people.
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I've only highlights the lack of truly protected land, because conservation is my think. I don't just talk about "my interests" because of my selfishness. Simply because it's was I know about most.
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You see, I have an outlook, that if everyone stuck to the area of expertise they know best, from a moral outlook for the common good, we'd have a much better world. It's not that I don't care about everything else (think my posting makes that clear).
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I just went on that ramble, to illustrate, that contrary to the expressed sentiment of billionaires caring about everyone and everything, that there is precious little evidence for them acting for the common good.
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Take saintly Bill Gates, the self-styled most philanthropic billionaire. He's the biggest owner of farmland in the US. Ah, this must be to manage the land sustainably. No this is purely commercial, for profit, maximum exploitation (he needs the cash?).
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theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Before I finish, look at this Oxfam graphic, of personal carbon emissions plotted against personal wealth/income.
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So why do we tolerate being ruthlessly exploited by this tiny minority of greedy parasites?

Could it be that they own the media, own the politicians and everything else?
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In system terms, the problem is as they get wealthier, they get ever more power, and get even greedier. It's not envy or ideology that drives me to point this out. My concern is about sustainability, and the survival of our civilization.
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The cost of living crisis could be solved overnight, by these very rich parasites, just paying a bit more tax. Stop scapegoating immigrants, foreigners, the left, those on benefits, because self-evidently they are not the problem. Focus on those exploiting you.
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For the vast majority of my life, I never commented on the very rich. I am not merely ideologically neutral, but I don't like ideology. I don't like moralising about lifestyles. However, this has got completely out of hand.
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Firstly there is a rapidly growing gap between rich and poor. Where the wealth of the richest people in the world is growing faster and faster. Whist the standard of the living of the rest if falling.
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Secondly, ordinary people and the least well off are facing a cost of living crisis. Yet these higher prices are just going straight into the accounts of billionaires. Follow the money trail.
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Thirdly, not are we facing a climate and ecological crisis driven by the pursuit of greater and greater wealth by the richest in the world, but they are actively blocking the necessary action to avert this crisis, out of self-interest. They are very few, we are many.
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Fourthly and finally, all these crises, which ordinary people are having to pay for, could be solved easily, by the very rich simply paying more tax.
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Yet, instead of focusing on the real issue, the public beats on scapegoats and red herrings, pumped out by the billionaire owned media. They froth at the mouth about "green levies", when they should be paid by billionaires, not ordinary people.
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FOCUS ON THE REAL PROBLEM, NOT THE SCAPEGOATS, DISTRACTIONS AND RED HERRINGS THE BILLIONAIRES FEED YOU THROUGH THEIR MEDIA.

TAX THE VERY RICH!!!!!
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@GeorgeMonbiot @ECOWARRIORSS @ClimateHuman @GretaThunberg @JKSteinberger

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