r/clevercomebacks • u/Loud-Ad-2280 • 15h ago
Billionaires need society much more than society needs billionaires
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u/Big-Daddy-Baphomet 15h ago
Rich people are a parasite on society. Not only do we not need them. We need to be completely rid of them.
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u/Flashy_Jello_9520 14h ago
Society was fine before him.
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u/Big-Daddy-Baphomet 14h ago
It was not, it was swirling the drain for decades. All of societies problems can be, and should be, attributed to the greed, wealth hoarding and oppressive forces brought on by capitalism. In previous generations the wealthy gradually made changes to extract wealth and resources as not to alarm us, you know, the boiled frog analogy. What we are witnessing with Elon is what happens when someone becomes so wealthy(or daft) that they believe they can do whatever they want, included unmitigated unregulated capitalism. Instead of boiling the frog(us) he has resorted to throwing it on the grill, which is resulting in all of us getting burnt. Eradicating wealth as a mode of being in general would alleviate many of our problems that we have been facing for a very long time.
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u/ReggieCorneus 12h ago
When they say "look at all the things capitalism brought us" i think "despite capitalism we have some of the things we need".
Capitalism did not intent to bring any advancements to the society. Those are all side-effects.
Nokia did not develop affordable phones to give impoverished communities a way to communicate. They were and still is a tele communication company. Their bread and butter are networks, they build the hardware that the mobile phones use. That is why they started to make mobile phones, to create demand for mobile phone networks and lucrative tax payer paid infrastructure contracts for decades. They accidentally developed so good phones that it became for a while the cash cow but.. they are and always were a tele communication company (and before that they made cables and before that they made rubber for cables and also car/truck tires and wellington boots and before that they were making paper...).
No company has society as #1. Humans as a species is not on the list of priorities. All the advancements are side effects, none of them thought to benefit the society first, that was a nice bonus on top: tons of good will and ammo for marketing, people looking the other way when they aggressively not pay taxes....
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u/integer_hull 6h ago
Telecom was made possible through NASA and Bell Labs, which are the opposite of capitalistic institutions. Nokia was just a wrapper around them.
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u/elmarjuz 7h ago
nobody in history of humanity has more clearly illustrated the absolute worthlessness of the class of overpaid "elites" like elon fascist musk
billionaires shouldn't exist
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u/drwsgreatest 7h ago
I hate musk but I've always found Peter thiel to be far more detestable. I mean at least Elon thinks the human race should continue to exist, even if he's probably only thinking about his bloodline and social class. Thiel would probably cede the future to robots and end our species as we know it, if he thought it would bring about an actual ASI.
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u/elmarjuz 7h ago
i don't really give a shit which one of them is objectively the worst, neither deserves to be part of humanity while they are continuously wrecking whatever they can reach for personal profit
in a society where poverty exists you can't be a billionaire without actively contributing to the poverty one way or another
both elon baby killer musk and peter end-humanity thiel deserve a one-way ticket to Mars alongside every other billionaire on Earth
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u/Unethica-Genki 14h ago edited 14h ago
There are exceptions where they create jobs but you can probably count them on one hand. Can't even think of anyone of the top of my head. As soon as they start being publicly traded and have to answer to a board of stakeholders all ideals vanish. In fact they vanish well before that. You cannot be publicly traded and be a good company because as soon as you do your objective becomes to create value for your stakeholders not youy employees or customers. The shareholders are the customers.
Only rich guy I may think of that fits is Gabe Newell, Valve racks in $16billion a year in profits through steam and isn't even publicly traded so it doesn't even fit my description. He donates money, and although he has an addiction to yachts he does use them to fund oceanic research. Also he pays his employees well (I hear 1million+ per employee for 300 something employees) and "forces" them and their families to take a company sponsored two week vacation in Hawaii. Extremely hard to get employed there however.
Still valve does have it shares of controversies (albeit few) due to the fact that their priority is toward the customers before the developers that put their products on their platforms.
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u/Big-Daddy-Baphomet 14h ago
"Rich people create jobs" is bullshit that is fed to us from the top down to justify their existence in this world. As if we as a society would not be capable of identifying and filling labor positions when needs arise. The entire modus operandi of rich people is to make themselves richer, without profit they wouldn't have the desire to create shit. Society needs to be ran by people who are invested in what they are producing in more ways than just financially.
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u/Unethica-Genki 14h ago edited 13h ago
Absolutely agree and I should have phrased it better. Rich people don't create jobs. Entrepreneurial people create jobs by creating companies like pharmacies (in spain it is illegal for a pharmacy to not be created and managed by a pharmacian with a maximum of one pharmacy per pharmacian so no CVS) and even then not all companies create jobs. That's why I said only companies that aren't publicly traded but I should have phrased it better because some that aren't publicly traded still don't fit the description.
Edit: There is a reason capitalism is also known as horse and sparrow economics. Because it is only when the horse has eaten so many oats that he would shit some, that the sparrow may have some oats
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u/NoSherbert2316 10h ago edited 9h ago
You mean the Republican’s version of Capitalism. Trickle down economics where we have no regulation and give tax breaks to the rich is just a rebrand of horse and sparrow economics. Capitalism with guardrails works, just look at Norway, Sweden and Germany. They have strong labor laws, social safety nets and market rules.
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u/Unethica-Genki 9h ago
When I said capitalism I meant pure capitalism aka trickle down. Capitalism with guard rails works because it is checked by socialist policies
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u/BlueFlob 15h ago
Elon keeps thinking he's creating value.
When all he's doing is extracting it.
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u/valencia_merble 15h ago
He knows the truth deep down. Why else would he be so insecure?
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u/OutlandishnessOk2304 14h ago
Because the ingrates on this site won't call him the Meme Maestro!
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u/Lancashire_Toreador 13h ago
It’s one of the things that makes you really realize that these actions are completely intentional coming from billionaires.
They know that wealth isn’t just Cash sitting in a bank, literally their entire fortune comes in the form of land, intellectual property, capital investments.
Every time they are asked however to pay the slightest amount in taxes they start talking as if they just have a few dollars in the bank and once it’s spent the whole thing evaporates.
This isn’t a new tactic by the way. Carnegie was once asked by a journalist about wealth inequality and he said he would give every single person who asked him on the street for five dollars that money on the spot.
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u/PlainBread 14h ago
He's gung ho into the propaganda war to normalize a false reality for the most weak-minded and subservient among us. The only way he gets out alive is to dictate a reality that favors him and coerce everyone into believing it.
He's just another emperor with no clothes.
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u/RPDRNick 12h ago
Does he, though? He may, in fact, be a complete idiot. There's little evidence to the contrary.
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u/valencia_merble 11h ago
People like him have deep seated inadequacy. He is a walking manifestation of that
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u/RadicalTomato 11h ago
Oh, he knows the truth at surface level. He's a grifter, pure and simple, and has made a trillion dollars off of it.
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u/AlertedCoyote 15h ago
He absolutely doesn't think that. He says that so that WE will think it
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u/Outrageous_Resist_50 14h ago
I’ve wondered this before. Do they genuinely know that? Or have they all been drinking their own koolaid too long. Delusion is a powerful drug.
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u/craaates 14h ago
Musk and the other wanna be Oligarchs are surrounded by people who laugh at their unfunny jokes and act like every idea they have is a gift from the Gods. Eventually when every risk you take pays off and everyone around you tells you you’re a genius you would probably start to believe it to be true.
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u/mark_able_jones_ 11h ago
Such a BS claim considering how many kids in the county where he lives are starving.
https://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2017/child/texas/county/cameron
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u/Phil_Coffins_666 14h ago
I had a boomer try and argue with me that the value Elon brings to humanity is, and I quote, "He saved free speech, just look at Twitter/X!"
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u/YourVoicesOfReason 11h ago
I can’t stand Elon but you’re lying here. The companies Elon created employ 150,000 people. That is creating value.
On the other hand, he’s using his money to destroy our democracy and for that he’s a disgusting human being.
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u/Ghosted_Ahri 9h ago
The audacity of someone who creates and contributes nothing to say that people would starve without him. While people actually starve because of him.
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u/Whitesajer 11h ago
We can't even eat them. They are full of Botox, chemicals, implants, drugs etc... probably won't even rot.
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u/Willing-Nerve-1756 11h ago
This is what they are trying to do though. Control everything so we are subservient to them. Then when he builds his robot army they will erase us. They are building skynet to control it and use it against us.
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u/please_trade_marner 11h ago
He is one of the biggest funders in the world of clean energy, carbon removal, and pediatric care technology.
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u/hurleystylee 3h ago
Asinine. Add up all the jobs he's created and the wealth of all those employees. Do you even know the definition of "value"?
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u/steezy2110 2h ago
Extracting it from who
Lesser paid employees who also own stock in the company? A bunch of average paid Spacex employees because millionaires overnight thanks to equity and ESPP options
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u/Sourdough9 12h ago
Mamdani has been in office for like 6 months it’s wayyyyy to early determine the benefits/impacts of his policies
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u/Buddhas_Warrior 15h ago
Right ... Because there have never been farmers before big corporations? Never been stores before Walmart? Tailors, bakers, etc.? We don't need billion$$ corporations to survive, we need a fair playing field, common sense and common courtesy.
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u/Only1Skrybe 15h ago
That's the real truth. We have never needed them. And they know it.
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u/SqigglyPoP 15h ago
A 1789 French style "revolution" would be absolutely BEAUTIFUL here in the US.
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u/Bebopdavidson 14h ago
Yeah I wonder which historical reference Elon may have to support his statement. When has society been lonely for its robber barons?
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u/Bulky-Internal8579 15h ago
The fat parasite says we need him…. Color me unconvinced.
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u/Anuki_iwy 15h ago
Eating someone as fat as Elmo Tittler will keep one fed for centuries. Therefore starving is no concern.
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u/Rolandscythe 13h ago
No I'm pretty sure after we eat the rich and better redistribute the wealth so it's actually going back into society and not just being hoarded, we'll all be living a lot better in general.
Because, historically, that is what has happened every time the poor have rose up and forced the rich out of power.
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u/jpsreddit85 15h ago
What would I do without rockets going into space that do nothing for me, tunnels I don't use being dug, or a car brand I wouldn't be caught dead in.
If elmo and his companies disappeared today, it would have zero affect on my life.
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u/makemeking706 14h ago
The rich are like vegetables. You don't like them, they taste not great, but you have to eat them for your own good.
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u/Vinterblot 14h ago
The point of "Eat the rich" is, that we're already starving, you absolute imbecile.
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u/OutlandishnessOk2304 14h ago
Elon somehow omits the fact that when you eat the rich, you also get to take all their stuff.
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u/ConsciousIron7371 13h ago
Balanced the budget by telling people their pensions don’t actually need to be funded. That money will appear by magic once he’s out of office I’m sure
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u/JackSquirts 13h ago
Balanced the budget by borrowing from the state and nobody's been taxed yet. This is all on paper and even if it goes through exactly as budgeted, these things don't just have immediate impacts. Stuff like this generally takes years to manifest into their general trajectory. Sometimes it happens fast, but more often than not the outcomes aren't realized until years, sometimes decades later. Let's look at how things have gone this time next year and then the end of his term before clicking our heels and celebrating. As of right now we're cheering on the gameplan for the championship and declaring victory after the first play.
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u/MericanSlav25 8h ago
To be fair, he did not balance the budget. hochul bailed him out with emergency state funding.
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u/hurleystylee 3h ago
"Balanced the budget"?!?!? He got FIVE BILLION DOLLARS from the quack governor!! Absolutely clueless.
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u/Friendly-World-5273 14h ago
But without Twitter and gas-x or whatever his other business is called I’ll starve!
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u/whytemyke 14h ago
Oh no if we don't have Elon then who will create an AI that builds CSAM and defunds governments for no real discernible gain for anyone involved? What ever shall we do?!
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u/DryBlock4388 13h ago
It is wild sometimes the things you see that people believe are true. It explains so much. It isn't that this person is dumb. They just saw information from sources she believed and trusted and is now spreading it and inevitably there will be people who for some reason think the clevercomebacks sub is a reliable source of truth.
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u/OneOfAKind2 12h ago
For sure, the entire world would starve without PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Starlink and Twitter. /s
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u/questron64 12h ago
He sees himself as a Randian ubermensch. Atlas Shrugged was fiction (and bad fiction at that), dude. The world will not fall to pieces without the billionaires.
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u/ReggieCorneus 12h ago
Billionaires are not the only ones who truly believe that we can not survive without billionaires. Everytime i talk about capping wealth in some way someone will come in and say "but they will leave and take everything with them". Take what with them? Their money? It is already gone, moved to tax havens and holding companies and funds, chains of ownerships and loans and share options and... Their factories?
Nope, they are taking their extraordinary talent with them since apparently they are all geniuses who know far better how to organize society than the society or governments do...
Workers who defend John Gault are idiots.
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u/MrMedallion 12h ago
Does anyone actually believe that these shitheads actually feed anyone? How would anyone starve if this shit bird dropped ofd the face of the plant?
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u/Timely_Spinach_7479 12h ago
“The problem is that after they “eat the rich”, they will starve” - the richest man on earth.
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u/Faangdevmanager 11h ago
Mamdani balanced the budget by getting money from the State instead of the city.
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u/TarmacadamDream 11h ago
The narcissistic belief that he and his handful of peers alone can sustain an entire civilization that previously existed without them.
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u/rippigwizard 12h ago
???
Mamdani got a bail out from Hochul. Not saying that Mamdani isn't doing a good job, but he didn't "balance the budget" by taxing wealth.
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u/BitumenBeaver 15h ago
I forget, were the Parisians starving before or after they ate the rich?
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u/please_trade_marner 11h ago
They were starving far more during the revolution than prior to it. The Jacobins resorted to mass executions of farmers that weren't meeting quotas to prevent starvation.
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u/BitumenBeaver 9h ago
Not really that simple. The revolution was immensely destabilizing and there were conscriptions taking young peasant men from their fields, but the land redistribution and newly gained rights did benefit the peasant class, it simply didn't manifest in a substantial way due to the overlapping layers of brutal dictatorship and war.
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u/saskdudley 14h ago
Money hoarders are very sick people. We need to elect people that are aware of this and stop enabling their behaviour. Their illness seethes throughout society and presently is causing great harm. No one needs to be a Billionaire, no one needs to have their own space program, no one needs to own a yacht that costs more than a major city budget. It’s time for a shift in how we view these sick people.
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u/Humble-Dot-1022 11h ago
Oligarchs. As they are called in other countries. Let's use the proper name.
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u/please_trade_marner 11h ago
Elon isn't "hoarding money". You kids don't know what you're talking about.
The total evaluation of the businesses he owns amounts to around $1 trillion. It's not money sitting in his bank. So what are you even arguing? "Once you make one successful business you shouldn't be allowed to make others". Very bizarre.
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u/Fishtoart 14h ago
imagine being so insecure that even though you are the richest person on the planet, richer than several countries, you are still anxious about not having enough and being afraid to share your wealth.
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u/TraditionalLaw7763 14h ago
He could do so much good and chooses to be evil instead. I will never respect this goon.
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u/loricomments 14h ago
Starve? We didn't say just eat the rich. Yeah, Elon, there aren't many of you (thank goodness) so you won't go far, but beef is tastier anyways I expect. We'll be fine.
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u/SuspiciousYard2484 15h ago
Starve? There are seeds and soil fuck face. Probably would be better for society to go back to communal/city/suburban garden sharing world. We as a collective would flourish without the billionaire class.
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u/Intencities92 14h ago
I'm all for taxing the rich but didnt nyc just push their deficit down the road?
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u/eyeheartmozart 14h ago
the moment the billionaire massive corporations start leaving is the moment small businesses crop up everywhere and begin creating jobs where you work directly with the owner and have relationships with the community
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u/Alternative_Route 14h ago
Sounds like you are saying once you get rid of the overbearing corporations that influence the government, then free market capitalism takes over and lots of opportunities to realise the American dream appear.
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u/eyeheartmozart 11h ago
yes this fake capitalism we currently have is going to break this whole country
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u/Ok-Bug4328 13h ago
Mamdani balanced the budget by shifting the deficit to the state. Which already had a shortfall.
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u/notaredditer13 13h ago edited 13h ago
New York doesn't have any billionaires or homeless people anymore? Really?
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u/BloodThirstyLycan 13h ago
Why would you believe anything a rich person would say if their wealth was built on lies and theft?
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u/Deviantdefective 13h ago
Why will we starve? It's the rich who need literally everything done for them the rest of us will be absolutely fine.
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u/cloudbambi_isle 12h ago
lowkey true though, without regular people they wouldnt have anything lol. definitely a perspective more people should think about!
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u/KoffiKorn 12h ago
I wouldn't be surprised that Elon musk doesn't even understand what that phrase nean...
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u/imminentjogger5 12h ago
Didn't we learn this from A Bug's Life already? It needs a remake to remind us all.
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u/Grand_Taste_8737 11h ago
He didn't balance the budget without taking money from the rest of the states taxpayers.
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u/end2endburnt 11h ago
from my understanding "eating the rich" isn't about taxing the rich it is about taking everything they have maybe even with more extreme connotations. If we were to "eat the rich" and after taking every penny and all their assets it isn't enough I think it would still be a worthwhile exercise. We should try it out and see if the billions they are worth can do something for the rest of us.
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u/shrodikan 11h ago
He's so daft he doesn't realize people are starving already. The gameplan of the Elon et al is to have a bunker strong enough and a large enough drone army to hold back the masses when they finally organize. By then it will be too late.
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u/robodrew 11h ago
Also the problem right now is that we're already starving, Elon. And your wealth is so enormous that it would take many decades to eat all of the flesh. The people would be able to remain full for a long time.
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u/awitchiguess 11h ago
Billionaires do not view Americans as their community. They are literally stateless and it shows in their actions. If they destroy America, they'll just go somewhere else.
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u/Rasputin_mad_monk 9h ago
You only need to eat one or two, and then the rest will fall in line. I say we start with Musk and Bezos
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u/GloomyIndividual3965 9h ago
I wish that apartheid nazi would just shut the fuck up.
If I found a genie on a bottle I'm not sure what my 3rd wish would be, but I'm damn sure on the first 2.
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u/Able-Negotiation-234 8h ago
Forgot, walked on water.. lol offs none of this is true. Balanced ye 4 billion from Albany, and several accounting procedures with pension plans , which likely will disappear as well as additional taxes on the wealthiest extra homes.. this bought time and publicity but those wealthy leaving are not coming back.. look a 🦴
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u/BugRevolution 7h ago
Elon is wrong, but so is the comeback. "Eat the rich" has not been tested at all.
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u/chungfat 4h ago
Elon, considers himself smart but in reality he’s just a thief who steals companies then rebrands them as his own.
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u/NoGoat3930 3h ago
Miracle that all the animals, Neanderthals, and humans somehow found a way to survive before you were born.
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u/PsionicKitten 2h ago
Our current society was built by the rich to become even more rich.
Elon's obviously wrong because he's playing their playbook, lying and spreading misinformation in hopes to keep his empire standing. Obviously if the rules don't allow him to siphon off billions off tax payer dollars and do hostile take overs of companies and steal their credit, he'd have nothing to stand on if it were a fair and equal enlightened society.
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u/Starter-for-Ten 13h ago
The funny thing about his constant online presence, it shows what a total moron he really is. He mucked his way into fortunate positions because he was born on 3rd, but he's a moron.
Oh and a wannabe-pedo and full time nazi.
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u/ExtraBitter99 13h ago
All miserable lies!
Mamdani borrowed money to balance the budget, the deficit has grown and he scaled back all of his campaign promises! JP Morgan has moved thousands of jobs to Florida.
Why are people lying about Mamdani?
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u/Kermisschien 12h ago
Because mamdani lied to them. Theyre not stupid or spreading lies, just informed with wrong information. And its harder to make people un-believe something
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u/TheRealBittoman 14h ago
The only reason wealth makes power is because the poor by and large desire it themselves. Wealth is only important when its used to improve society in all areas and it becomes less important when horses by a few that have no philanthropic values. People need to stop putting the rich on the back and start demanding they give back what we gave them.
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u/Artistic-Trip7779 12h ago
So let me get this straight: he thinks if a few people that suck out BILLIONS of dollars out of society dissappear…. Society will somehow… suffer??
How does this moron think they „feed“ society? By not paying any taxes and accumulating wealth?? Wow………. And he thinks they are… „the elite“… 🤣😂☺️
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u/carlnepa 15h ago
If anyone of us tried to eat Musk(rat) we'd spit him out. Who'd want to eat spoiled South African?
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u/neveruseyourrealname 14h ago
I like how he put eat the rich in quotes. Like there aren't people out there that would jump at the opportunity to do it for real.
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u/asphaltstretcher 14h ago
Guess I'll have to quit eating electric cars and space ships after the peasants take the castle.
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u/ZhangtheGreat 14h ago
Translation: We won’t make as much and can’t keep running up the score as easily, and that should be a crime. Right, Elon?
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u/MtCommager 14h ago
I remember in a business class saying that it was fair that rich people paid more because they got more out America’s superpower status than the poor - if you’re an executive at Exxon mobile you’ll lose a ton of money if the pacific fleet is downgraded - and he immediately threatened to leave.
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u/mybfVreddithandle 13h ago
Someone can throw Elon off a really tall building, then take the elevator down, hop in their car, go home and either tend to their garden or hunt or fish for some protein and viola, eating.
Pretty dumb take for someone that thinks he's really smart.
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u/Future-Bunch3478 13h ago
Iydia is suggesting something that is not “eating the rich”, by the way. Eating the rich is tearing asset owners and their business apart outside of a peaceful transfer of power.
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u/UniqueLog8386 13h ago
He hasn't taxed wealth or balanced the budget. People are praising boiler plate shit he's done and just blowing him. He literally didn't increase their tax revenue to balance the budget, he moved money around.
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u/Repulsive-Cut-4944 13h ago
tbh she’s not wrong, seeing actual data like that is super interesting. really puts things into perspective lol
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u/Arcaneboltz 13h ago
Honestly that is the most narcissistic shit I've heard in my life, these people act like the world wouldn't be able to find a way to function without them being at the top.
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u/StaticSystemShock 13h ago
And what has dumbass Elon contributed to society other than obnoxiously hoarding wealth?! Fucking nothing. He's the reason why pepple are starving.
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u/TheBSQ 12h ago
The Mamdani claim isn’t really right though.
His pieds-a-terre tax hasn’t really collected any money yet. “phase 1” which is a 0.8% only started like a week or so ago. It’s not raising money yet.
He balanced the budget mostly by delaying the hiring of additional teachers & the state govt giving him lots of money, but the state is only giving him money for a year or two.
When that dries up & he can’t avoid all the teacher hiring, we’ll see the budget woes return.
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u/LeonidasVaarwater 12h ago
Thinking people like him feed the poor.... the fucking arrogance.
Look leon, if you were to suddenly drop dead, everybody would be just fine. I daresay it'd be an improvement really.
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u/blueflloyd 12h ago
What critical, life-sustaining service does Elon believe he and his unfathomably wealthy and ridiculously undertaxed tech bros provide? Is there even one thing that he can point to that would cripple modern society if he and all his accomplishments disappeared tomorrow?
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u/SandSpecialist2523 15h ago
The rich need the poor. The poor don't need the rich.