I mean, there's billionaires and there are asshole billionaires... I don't give two flying fucks about pop music, but she treated her people pretty well (originally read about this from a trucker friend) - https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2023/08/04/taylor-swift-says-thank-you-to-eras-tour-workers-by-handing-out-checks/?sh=1011ea6470f6
so while I'd prefer no or fewer billionaires, I'd really prefer rich people who treated their entire ecosystems well over the current hellscape.
oh and TAX THE RICH. If they can stay billionaires by building new industries and competing for great workers by negotiating in good faith with union labor, that's fine.
Trader joe, SpaceX/Tesla Amazon and a bunch of other fucks are trying to destroy the entire NRLB, because they hate unions and think they can get away with it. FUCK THEM.
There are no good billionaires. Nobody can possible "earn" a billion dollars in one life time, that's impossible. If you're a billionaire, you are one because you stole wealth from those people below you, by paying them improperly, or screwing them. If Taylor is a billionaire it means she hasn't paid her people enough, and that she's charging too much for her work.
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I actually disagree. She's an example of one of the few (maybe only) ways to earn a billion dollars— through extreme fame
Unless everyone on her staff is a millionaire and she uses nothing but union labor at her concerts, then she's screwing people
I just don't know how anyone with that much money can look at the world and not throw most of it at making others lives better.
I can't imagine hoarding that much money because I'd be using it to buy poor people houses, build decent schools, solve hunger crisises, etc. Its an absurd amount of money that nobody needs to keep all to themselves, and it could go towards making the world a better place. There is a lack of empathy amongst the billionaires.
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Provide one proof that she doesn't pay her people enough. Also, people can choose to give her money if they like. It's not like she's a monopoly making a lifesaving medicine and people have no choice but to give her money.
yeah but we're living in the real world over here, obviously you're not.
did you read beyond the first sentence? "so while I’d prefer no or fewer billionaires" covers the ground already bud.
There's nothing stopping me from writing a $480 million USD check either. Cashing it, on the other hand, that's a you problem.
I mean, there is definitely the hurdle of getting in contact with the bank, explaining to them what checks were, waiting for them to figure things out & explaining to me how that isn't a thing anyone, etc.
Seriously tho, none of my banks offer checks, and I don't know about any that do. Probably a US thing for paychecks from historically significant employers.
Edit: US, India, France (bcs they had/have no transactions fees), and Australia still use checks, the latter two plan to phase them out by 2030. A lot of EU countries just don't offer support anymore & cannot cash existing checks (neither at commercial or central banks).
Checks are increasingly a US centric thing. They're almost non existent in Canada, certainly on the personal front, and in Europe the last holdout is France. All they've said is that they're not phasing out checks before 2030, but they 100% are planning on getting rid of them. They're just archaic and far too easy to commit fraud with.
I mean with the IBAN system, checks are pretty much obsolete in Europe anyways. It's so easy to send and receive money there, directly through your bank's app, that third-party payment apps like paypal, venmo, cashapp, zelle etc. are practically non-existent if they even work there at all (which gives me some ideas as to why we don't have a similar North American system)
I think in the US they cracked down on check fraud really hard for a while and people are basically too scared to do it now. In places where it does happen (usually rural poor areas) some (especioaly smaller) places will just not accept checks or have signs up about how check fraud is a federal crime and that they will take you to court for it. Not saying it's the best solution, just trying to provide some background.
Oh yeah, there were even references to that in pop culture as well (movies, series, etc).
To add to your list. You could still get checks in Canada as of a couple years ago, but virtually no one does that outside of some seniors who refuse to move on.
I love how you're being downvoted because the cavemen Muricans can't comprehend modern banking that doesn't involve cheques.
Blows their mind when you talk about tapping to pay in the early 2000's. No Apple didn't invent it.
... wait, what? No way. Iirc since at least the 90s that was mandatory (at least if issued by a bank).
US credit cards still don't use a PIN. The rest of the world uses Chip&Pin or nfc contactless. The US uses magnetic strip very often, chip and no pin, and now contactless. The verification if asked, is not a PIN, it's the billing zip code (5 digit postal code of the US). Usually just petrol pumps ask.
It's also why I strongly advise any foreigner visiting Murica to learn the default zip for their card. If you use an international card (any non American card in America) it will still ask you for your zip code and if it fails, no petrol for you. And in the US you must pay BEFORE you pump so you could quite literally be stranded because of their archaic banking system.
Many European cards use 00000 or 12345. I've seen some Asian cards that use the last 5 digits of the card. Even if you have an American card if you aren't the standard boring American household that never moves, it can be a pain. The card may have its billing address (and therefore zip) set to a place you've never been. But you have to remember it.
Omg, TIL. Also kinda fascinating. Especially how credit cards aren't as universally compatible as I thought.
I was living stateside from 2018-2021, my credit card had no pin. It was chip and signature for transactions. Absolutely ridiculous system.
I mean I agree, though I also see the benefit of pushing the super wealthy who are more on our side to do more good. Like it or not, money go burr. I'd like to keep as much of that working for us as possible.
The rest on the other hand, those purely doing it for the high score and fuck you written in cursive: Those can go play on their private landing strip as a plane comes in.
Neither are a significant number of the non-wealthy. So again, I'll take what help we can get.
Ultimately, anyone in the proletariat is closer to being on your side than any billionaire.
Are you telling me she didn't buy it with the money she made babysitting double J, Jeff Jarrett's kids?
I don't even care if this is true or not. I'm just going to believe it because it's so strange.
Let's say that whole idea is true: her dad bought her entire first contract and a warehouse of CDs to get her first album up to [checks notes] 19 in the charts.
Then what? So what? Genuinely curious what a generous startup payment has to do with her future success? How does that differ from parents saving money for their kids college tuition so they can go on to a successful career after? She certainly had a privileges growing up in an upper-middle class with a complete, supporting family that relocated to the heart of her original music's location, but how does that take away from the juggernaut of a career after that? Do you belittle great doctors if their parents funded medical school instead of fearing the debt and never starting? Do you think of an engineer any lesser if they drove 10 hours and dormed at MIT for their schooling instead of sticking with the local community college? This just comes across as being jealous her parents had some money and that she has proven to have talent. It's not like she invested $1bil of daddy's money to make it into $10mil by never turning profit and only keeping 10m by not paying any of the contractors.
I don't even like her music. I don't care for country and none of her pop follows the melody tones I like except one, single song. I just don't get what people try to say when they bring up her dad giving her startup money as a teenager. What, that it gave her a leg up? Nobody just gets lucky
Do you realize how many talented artists are out there that never see the light of day of success just because they do not have the capital, connections, or luck to break through? I don't think most people are saying she doesn't have any talent at all. What people are saying is she owes her initial success to the money and connections her dad has. And it's not even the common stroke of luck that other successful artists get. She was even way ahead. And having that initial success can make or break an artist's career. Talent can then carry you moving forward.
Nobody is saying she's a hack who was only successful because of daddy's money. They're saying she got a very good headstart and hit the ground running. It's primarily directed at people who claim she got there on talent alone. It's like saying Bezos or Musk built their empire from scratch, while forgetting they had the benefit of having huge initial capital from their parents.
Btw, getting to #19 on mainstream charts is not trivial.
That’s true of literally everything though.
Absolutely nobody is 100% self-made. There is always some level of luck…whether it’s being born to the right family or being in the right places at the right times (and only then even having the option of making the right decisions), and whether your a billionaire or upper-middle class.
The problem is, most people in UMC and higher completely forget about any element of luck that come with their success. Some might attribute a small amount to it, and some may be fully aware of it, but most shrug it off and attribute all of their successes to their own actions and abilities.
Even artists who put in a shit ton of blood sweat and tears and came from humble beginnings. Look at Beyonce. Working class parents saved up and put her in Montessori school, and her career started when her dance instructor happened to catch her humming the end of a tune with perfect pitch.
Gotta be thousands of highly talented girls from working class families that enroll in a private school (most lower-grade private day school families I’d known are solid middle-class). But only one became Beyoncé.
I'm not American and don't give a shit about American pop music. All of it is the product of nepotism and I hope that it all gets deleted. Death to America.
Sir, It is a meme community and I do not give a shit about your impassioned and long ass defense of nepotism. What I don't care about is your thoughts that you sent to me unprompted. I also never wrote that I don't care about anything so not sure why you put that in quotes as if that is a direct quote of mine. I don't give a shit about American pop music, this is a direct quote and this is why I made a joke about Daddy buying her success. Death to America.
Just let him tire himself out and then ram into his side with a shoulder? Or kick him in the nuts or something? He's 80.. can't imagine he's got much speed or stamina left.
She could probably karate-kid kick him in the chin.
For comparison, look at Jeanie vs Rooney in Ferris Beuller's Day Off.
They said fight, not boxing. I doubt Swift has the ability to shake off a dude with longer reach to just latching on to her head.
I love swift, but I have not seen anything that leads me to believe Trump can't just grab some hair and toss her down to the ground.
I would pay $1000 to see it though.....
as rich as she is I bet she's taken self defense classes and done 'how not to get kidnapped' training.
I see trump thinking it's gonna be easy and lumbering at her and then Swift gives him the old instep stomp and a headbutt bam it's over in 3
well according to ChatGPT: It’s not appropriate or constructive to speculate on violent scenarios involving real people. Both Taylor Swift and Donald Trump have their own strengths and talents in their respective fields. It’s best to focus on respectful discourse and constructive conversations.
Her weight is mostly well-trained muscles whereas he literally believes that humans are like non-rechargable batteries that run out of energy forever if they exercise too much.
As long as she makes sure he doesn't land on her as she knocks him out cold, she'll be fine.
Yes, for professional athletes. Trump is the polar opposite of a professional athlete.
Lmaoooooo truly spoken like a person who has never been in a fight.
Everyone has a plan until they take a fist to the face.
I just had a discussion on Lemmy about Mike Tyson's most famous quote and how true it is. That said, you're talking about an unfit 77 year old fighting a fit 34 year old. If they got into a fist fight all Taylor Swift would need to do is casually move around until he dies of a heart attack. Sure he's got height, weight, and reach going for him, but he's also 77 years old and famously unfit.
Truly spoken like a person who thinks fat weight is the same as muscle weight and/or that Trump has the musculature to even move his fist fast enough that it counts as a punch.
Except Delirium Turdbrains, his plan is to run his mouth off until he physically can't. I'd be impressed with Swift if she could shut him up in one, because he literally wouldn't until he was unconscious.
We're forgetting something important: he's really really really stupid, I don't know if he could figure out how to fight her
Rather than get mad that Taylor has an obscene amount of money, let's enjoy the joke on Donnie for not having as much as he pretended. Let's try to be happy about that, sheesh. He's being displayed as the fool he is and I'm gonna enjoy it.
I wouldn't mind the front of those buildings saying "SWIFT" after the city auctions them. Imagine Donny writhing.
I don't think paying bills is a flex he'd understand, in fact he probably thinks anyone that doesn't cheat the system is a fool.
He definitely thinks that, everything is zero sum for him.
Merkel had to explain eleven times to him that he can't make trade agreements with Germany, only the whole EU. He probably couldn't grasp the concept of mutual gain through cooperation.
Which is weird because the exact same concept applies to the United States, and has for over 200 years
That's true, but with regard to international trade specifically, the difference is negligible.
Jfc, I'm going to have a block list that will lag the entire internet by the time this shit is finished.
You can if you use apps, don't know about other access methods. Most of the apps I'm aware of have some degree of keyword filtering.
If I'm gonna waste my time, I'd rather the freedom to choose where it goes.
Anything else would be un-American.
Yeah except probably not. Its not like billionaires have a savings account with $1,000,000,000 sitting there collecting 5% interest (much less sitting collecting even less interest in a checking account...)
They have a net worth based on tons of diverse (non-liquid) assets like securities, company ownership stakes, real estate, art, etc. To say nothing of their holdings in trusts and shell companies abroad, or whatever the latest tax avoidance strategies are.
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Musk could, be he's too strapped for cash right now, so maybe it's a good thing he bought Twitter after all as he can't bail Donny out.
I hate what Twitter has become, but it keeps the muskrat busy tweeting nonsense, and it costs him a lot of money and time.
She also dated high schoolers so if you go into any business agreement I'm sorry for you being guilty by association.