Zohran Mamdani says ‘I don’t think we should have billionaires’

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/zohran-mamdani-says-dont-think-billionaires-rcna215821

39 comments

  1. Hoarding billions of dollars is immoral in a world where poverty exists 

  2. One of only about 3 democrats with enough spine to recognize the class war that we have already been in for decades. 

  3. But I’ve cut my Disney+ subscription and make my coffee at home! What about when I become a billionaire – I don’t want to be taxed!!

  5. Mamdani represents actual change. The Democrats are corporatists (corporate stability) and the Republicans support oligarchs (deconstruction to create billionaires). Addressing the real challenges in our economic system have both scared.

  6. Many economists agree. It’s a symptom of economic stagnation and a very unbalanced incentive system.

  7. we shouldn’t

    if you have a billion feel free to redisbritue that welath to some of the rest of us

  8. Hell yea! Zorhan is quickly gaining GOAT status with me!

  9. You can be a billionaire if the people who you employ live at a comfortable level. I’m not talking driving a 100k car but don’t have to worry about what bill to pay!

  10. There are 756 billionaires in the US, and there are 38 million people living at or below the poverty line.

  12. There is definitely a point where wealth simply becomes obscene. I’m not saying people can’t be wealthy, but hoarding amounts of wealth that could never be spent in generations is immoral and simply pure greed.

    Put it into a time perspective. 1 million seconds = ~11 days. 1 billion seconds = ~**31 years**.

    There are the “elite” who hoard hundreds of billions of personal wealth while acting as a leech on society, straining its resources, and doing everything they can to skirt their tax liabilities in order to add just a little more to their hoarded wealth.

    Meanwhile, the majority of people are barely scraping by, unable to afford basic necessities, and wake up each day with life more expensive than the day prior.

    But at least the welfare queen billionaires consistently get their tax cuts, I guess.

  13. Please stop, I can only absorb so many good takes at once.

  14. I agree one hundred percent. We call folks with newspapers stacked floor to ceiling hoarders and mentally unwell. For folks who hoard money and wealth we call them smart business people🙄. Fuck billionaires.

  15. People really don’t fathom how massive a billion is compared to a million. No human or idea is worth that much more than anyone else. So yeah, seems correct.

  18. “I love this guy. I am with Zohran.”

    -Montreal citizen

  20. As if being a 100 millionaire is not rich enough, lol. Tax any wealth over 1 billion at 99%.

  21. I once saw someone break down how much a billion dollars actually is. Short version: you could own a beachfront mansion in say Miami or LA, and luxury penthouse condos in NYC, Paris and London, get a Rolls Royce and a full-time driver at each locale, along with a full-time cooking and cleaning staff, and a private jet with a full-time crew to shuttle you back and forth. Congrats, now you still have 850-900 million left, which you can easily earn $80 million a year on various investments, if not much more, because you’ll be privy to the kind of investments only the wealthy can access. What you won’t have enough for: a 50-foot super yacht, a Hawaiian island, or the ability to alter presidential elections.

    Tax rate over $1 billion should be at least 90%, for capital gains too, and close the loophole allowing billionaires to borrow tax-free against their assets.

    Edit: 500-foot, not 50. You could easily afford a 50-foot yacht.

  23. I don’t know what’s more disgusting, Jeff Bezos and his disgusting yacht, or his disgusting plastic Frankenstein of a wife. You’d think a dude with that much money could have at least bought a beautiful woman. Meanwhile his OG wife was actually beautiful inside and out, donated more of the divorce money than anyone in history

  24. Just a side effect (or main purpose) of capitalism. Good luck reigning that genie back in the bottle

  25. He’s right. I think people just don’t grasp how big a Billion is. To give you an idea, if you were to count non stop to a billion with one number per second without sleeping and never stopping , it would take you 31.7years.

  26. I don’t think we should have oligarchs, where the power of concentrated wealth is itself a political entity barely restrainable with democratic mechanisms.

    I don’t think we should have runaway capital accumulation, where Piketty, Marx, and Adam Smith essentially find agreement that rent-seeking far outstrips labor in earning potential, half of the economy is financialized, private equity owns everything, and wealth is pooled into self-reinforcing hoards.

    Deal with those two things, and deal with Citizens United, and **then we can have billionaires**.

    Don’t deal with those things, and you’re going to accelerate conditions such that the next crop of Zohrans or Bernies wont be soft-hearted socdems but full-on tankies, with full-on fascists opposing them. And yes, I’d choose tankies over fascists, but we’re fucked if we’re making that call. Quit the cigs now, or it’s chemo later.

  27. I feel hopeful because of this guy. We must protect him at all costs.

  30. It doesn’t make sense that somebody can buy Venice for a weekend

  31. Without billionaires who would have celebrity studded week-long wedding galas in Venice?

  32. Yeah this kind of thing makes a great deal of sense to me.

    I personally think there should be a “maximum wealth” that is mathematically tied to the minimum wage. A progressive tax on wealth over that amount I think would be an amazing thing for a society to reinvest in itself (but I don’t think America has a good chance of accepting something like this…)

    I also think that the minimum wage should be mathematically tied (as in auto updating) to the price of living in some tangible way.

  33. Billionaires are a policy failure.

    We don’t need them. They need us.

  34. He’s running for mayor, which means he’s supposed to be working to serve his constituents, right? Which is what he’s talking about doing. If he were running for the title of Lapdog to Billionaires, I could see where this would be an issue.

    Also, Bernie was right.

  35. Starvation and homelessness only exist in this world because the wealthy can never be satisfied.

  37. Billionaires are inherently immoral. It’s disgusting. They are capitalist kings. NO KINGS.

  38. Holding the belief that a human being shouldn’t weigh 1,000 lbs. doesn’t mean that you are in favor of eliminating food.

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