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Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
aburtch@shakedown.social wrote:

I know this is a bit of a pipe dream, but just a few very simple policy changes could transform our entire society:

1. Tax the rich. A wealth tax that applies not just to income, but investments and capital gains as well.

2. No outside money in politics. Political donation limited to individual contributors and max donations capped.

2. Break up monopolies, enforce anti-trust, no vertical integration.

There's PLENTY of money in our society for everything we need; universal healthcare, free college education, ample public housing and food for everyone. The problem is that it's being sucked up and hoarded by the 1%.

Just look at how much Amazon makes in illegal grift alone! (image pull quote via @pluralistic)

Chart showing that the top 100 richest people in the US own more than the entire bottom 50% of the population combined.
Let me remind you: payola is Amazon's single largest source of profits. When I was researching Enshittification, Amazon's take from payola was in the mid-$30 billion. A year later, when I did tour stops with Tim Wu (who was promoting his excellent book The Age of Extraction), I learned that this number had climbed to more than $50 billion. This year, it's on track to top $80 billion.