#this is why you shouldnt feel safer amongst those richer than you or because you make more than others | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

uncontrollablequeerentity · 3 days ago

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For a visual, I'd advise everyone to take a look at this website that demonstrates wealth inequality quite well. Brian Thompson was merely a symptom of a much, much larger problem. Even he didn't have a meaningfully impactful salary. We literally have TRILLIONAIRES, the definition of obscene wealth, which we *know* comes from the pain and suffering of *countless* people.

As we the conversation around class consciousness is taking hold these days, we have to be clear here about what the point of our arguments are, what the point of our actions are, and what are the actual changes that would lead to the most *meaningful* change that we would fight for. We are all working with much, much less than we labor for, so we have to be smart about where we apply our resources (or not!). We have had successful movements in the past and we can do it again, we are doing it now. Learn from our own and others' revolutionary histories, work on your propoganda literacy and biases, join organizations, participate in strikes/boycotts in unison, we have plenty of methods at our disposal and plenty of successes behind us - industries, kingdoms, and empires are toppled all the time! We can destroy wealth inequality! The best time to start is always TODAY!

Okay, so, friends. Occasionally I see an American post on here about “guillotine the rich,” and it turns out that “rich” means “anyone making over $50k.”

We need to clear this shit up REAL fast, because otherwise it’s gonna wind up like the French Revolution, where more middle class and poor people were killed for being “class traitors” than actual nobles. (Did you know that France has more nobles today than during the French Revolution? While there were a few showy executions, many nobles did just fine or experienced minor setbacks.)

If someone makes $60,000 a year, they are making about twice as much as a full time worker making minimum wage in California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, or Washington State.

Brian Thompson, the CEO of United HealthCare who was just assassinated in New York City, earned $10 million a year, which means he earned 333 times minimum wage in those states. Basically, he cleared an annual minimum wage salary in just over a day. And that “rich” person making $60k/year that you want to guillotine? He made their salary in a bit over two days of a year.

So he was rich, right?

Well. Tesla is trying to give Elon Musk a pay package of $101 billion. That is 10,100 times what Brian Thompson earned and 3,366,667 times more than a minimum wage worker. (Tesla hasn’t been successful yet because of a complicated lawsuit from a shareholder, but they’ll get there.) If you are a minimum wage worker, Elon Musk makes more every SECOND than you do in a year. And that “rich” person who you want to guillotine? He makes their salary in about 1.6 seconds. Even when he’s sleeping.

Now, remember. The Muskrat also is the head of SpaceX, the Boring Company, X.ai, and X.com, so this is just ONE pay package for him.

What I’m saying is — you have much more in common when it comes to economic grievances with someone earning $60,000 (or even $200,000) than the ultra wealthy that have real power. They are not the people you should expend your energy on.

#the wealthy with be the scapegoats for the ultrawealthy #this is why you shouldnt feel safer amongst those richer than you or because you make more than others #there's always a bigger fish and they WILL NOT HESITATE #to eat you. the poor wont eat the rich #the ultrarich will serve up the rich to save themselves #all that said there is risk in delaying momentum so we need to pearn quickly how to maximize opportunities for change like these #we first and foremost need to unequivocally define the root of our problems and that is the ultra-rich specifically #the rich are a symptom because the ultra rich need a patsy #to throw in front of us to tear apart when we've had enough a la french revolution #politicians are part of the rich class as well they are not often also ultra rich or they wouldnt be so public facing which is a risk #not to say we must go out of our way to protect the rich but to make sure we are always oriented towards *meaningful* progress #and as long as the ultra rich exist as a class theres nothing we could do to the rich class that wont result in a full recovery for empire #this is a marathon not a sprint but we need to take advantage of events like these to spark engagement with newcomers #dont shame anyone for taking this long to get to this point dont shame anyone for not being perfectly aligned this is harmful long term #but also be wary of bad actors and have a protocol personally and communally for how to identify bad actors and minimize their influence #the ultra rich are always organized so we should be too.

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