• HubertManne@piefed.social
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    1 day ago

    Even the billionaires would be better off without billinaires. It their relative ranking was the same they would still have more money than they could spend but it would now come with clean air, water, land, better infrastructure, a healthier world, happier people to interact with.

    • plyth@feddit.org
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      1 day ago

      What do the billionaires buy that pollutes nature that much?

      The pollution comes from millions of cars, chemicals for products like clothing and intense agriculture so that everybody can eat some form of meat.

      Billionaires allow us to feel helpless while we could agree with our neighbors to reduce the ecological footprint of society to a minimum.

      • brendansimms@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        The pollution comes from millions of cars, an industry forced on the people through decades of lobbying and bribery to eliminate the possibility of free public transportation, so that they could become richer. The pollution comes from products for clothing that are made cheaply as possible - at the cost of the environment - and extreme amounts of ad campaigns that purposefully change contemporary fashion ideals in order to keep fast turnaround on product and maximize profit so that they can become richer. Agriculture is corrupted by the rich so that it gets government subsidies in addition to maximizing profits by basing crop choice on profitability instead of sustainability, disregarding native species and planting unfathomably large fields of monocultures, squeezing the farmers themselves and funneling all the money to agri-business execs, i.e. they can become richer. Then they run ad campaigns saying ‘everyone needs to do their part to save the environment!’ which is clearly bullshit when the system itself is made to maximize profit, and not to maximize caring for the earth. Polluting the earth is profitable, and the profits flow ever upward.

      • HubertManne@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        Im not saying that. Its the wealth inequality that stunts society. People don’t have the resources to make decisions based on whats best and have to deal with what they can afford. Lack of infrastructure and regulators results in more pollution.

        • plyth@feddit.org
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          18 hours ago

          People don’t have the resources to make decisions based on whats best

          People have still more than many others on the world. Illegal immigrants have less, and they have to pay off their traffickers.

          This mindset is a prison. The people have the power, they are just sure that they don’t have it. A beautiful display of mind control.

          • HubertManne@piefed.social
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            9 hours ago

            I would argue the trap is in the other way. Your reply reminds me a lot of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6vjaimSK4E . You may think you know how good the average american has it but you may not understand stand the unique challenges of various americans in many different situations. Wealth disparity is the trap and the only way toward freedom is a society were it is not so extreme.

            • plyth@feddit.org
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              3 hours ago

              and the only way toward freedom is a society were it is not so extreme.

              That is not a way. Who should create the society?

              OP argued that there are no resources left. Well, then that’s the way till the robots make humans unnecessary.

              If people want to get out, they have to do something. Don’t work harder, consume smarter. Not the poorest have to start but those who make two vacations per year. Spend that money wisely and grow from there.

              Thanks for the song.

              • HubertManne@piefed.social
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                19 minutes ago

                we should create such a society with taxation and regularion. resources are finite but we have them left and I agree we have to use them wisely. I often point out that we would get in excess of a barrels worth of oil for every one spent in the heyday of the oil age but now we just get a few but wind/solar/etc lets us recoup way more energy per barrel again.