Venice against Jeff Bezos wedding (23rd June)
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Venice? Wow, that's actually kind of on-the-nose for a show of excessive wealth.
https://historywalksvenice.com/article/early-venice/why-did-venice-get-rich/
TL;DR: Venice exists in its current form (canal city on an ever sinking atoll) not because of climate change, and not because of some fishing village put their backs into it for hundreds of years, but because of money. LOTS, and lots of money from a shipping/trade boom a very long time ago.
The fact that Bezos built his obscene wealth on shipping and international commerce, just makes this even more appropriate in a gross kind of way. Like he's deliberately connecting himself to Venice's history, and everything that implies.
Shipping of enslaved peoples even
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His private security
who control the air?
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This is a common misconception. If a person or corporation takes money for charity, like rounding up for bill at point of sale, that entity doesn't get to write that off taxes. They can claim publicity for raising money for charity, but they didn't get any direct financial windfall. They would only get something if they were to say, match the donation contribution.
Here is the kicker though;
Often the entity in question will OWN the charity they are donating to. -
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Oh dear gods, not again!
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I think they don't know how taxes work. Taxes are paid on income and realized capital gains. He's not renting venice from his Amazon stock...
I'm not exactly sure what you think the specific ask is...
It's very general, somehow he has the funds to have a maddeningly extravagant wedding, so he can afford to have a tax burden...
It's vague and doesn't invite debate over the nature and nuance of his wealth, only that he can somehow pull off a celebration no reasonable person could dream of, including closing off a whole crap ton of Venice to general public use for a whole week. That's a whole lot of spend that he can casually brush off indicating that in real terms he's got unreasonable levels of wealth.
It's not getting down in the details about unrealized gains and leveraging said gains through loopholes and the discussion about what taxable burden might should be associated with unrealized gains of that magnitude, it's showing a clear example of "he has extravagant financial power, without as high relatively of a financial burden".
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Tax property, tax inheritance, tax capital gains no matter if realized or not, tax passive income of all kinds. Tax them progressively and tax the highest brackets high enough that these giant fortunes actually shrink. There is no other way (well... besides revolution) to reduce the spiraling inequality which is at the root of major problems all over the world.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Minimum tax that they can never go below. Start penalizing tax havens like Ireland.
There are already inheritance taxes but they should have caps on them since they hit intergenerational wealth and social mobility for lower and middle classes far more than the upper.
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Venice? Wow, that's actually kind of on-the-nose for a show of excessive wealth.
https://historywalksvenice.com/article/early-venice/why-did-venice-get-rich/
TL;DR: Venice exists in its current form (canal city on an ever sinking atoll) not because of climate change, and not because of some fishing village put their backs into it for hundreds of years, but because of money. LOTS, and lots of money from a shipping/trade boom a very long time ago.
The fact that Bezos built his obscene wealth on shipping and international commerce, just makes this even more appropriate in a gross kind of way. Like he's deliberately connecting himself to Venice's history, and everything that implies.
Talk about a gross oversimplification. Venice grew out of mosquito infested lagoon due to necessity. The Venetian people were driven into the lagoon multiple times over centuries as a means of protection from Germanic invasions in the 7th century. They capitalized on shipping and trade just like any other population would do and used those riches to make their citizens lives better. What would you have expected them to do? Turn away from the money spice trading and Mediterranean shipping traffic brought them because it would make them too rich? Because again, they were a people used to fleeing into a mosquito infested lagoon when their farming population was invaded by multiple armies.
For that reason, comparing an entire cultural population like Venice to a singular person is a false equivalency. Bezos hasn't used his shipping fortune to enrich anyone but himself, but at least Venetian royalty built buildings and public spaces for their population.
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Tax property, tax inheritance, tax capital gains no matter if realized or not, tax passive income of all kinds. Tax them progressively and tax the highest brackets high enough that these giant fortunes actually shrink. There is no other way (well... besides revolution) to reduce the spiraling inequality which is at the root of major problems all over the world.
The problem is they have found it cheaper to buy ALL politicians than it is to actually pay tax. It only leaves a few options left....
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I don't get it, what's to stop people photobombing his wedding with lots and lots of annoying drones
drone laws requiring an operator license and drones to broadcast a unique id traceable back to it's operator.
and if you patch the drone firmware or build one yourself, it's still trackable via radio signal triangulation to the controller's position.
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drone laws requiring an operator license and drones to broadcast a unique id traceable back to it's operator.
and if you patch the drone firmware or build one yourself, it's still trackable via radio signal triangulation to the controller's position.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]You can fly the drone without a license in secret, and the law only requires that you scribble the ID somewhere on the craft -- something you do not need to do if flying for clandestine purposes.
Not all drone's fly via radio, many use direct WiFi connections which can be completely spoofed over 3G proxies so that the drone and operator aren't in direct contact with one another
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Minimum tax that they can never go below. Start penalizing tax havens like Ireland.
There are already inheritance taxes but they should have caps on them since they hit intergenerational wealth and social mobility for lower and middle classes far more than the upper.
It's trivial to design an inheritance tax that doesn't tax a family's (first) home and starts above a certain amount (500k, a million, two, make it 10 for all I care) that still allows lower and middle classes to build reasonable wealth. It's also not that hard to not have a million loopholes for the excessively rich. That only gets difficult when people fall for the usual lies, like "businesses will close down and you will lose your jobs".
Start penalizing tax havens like Ireland.
Tax based on passport, allow for taxes at their place of residence to take priority (so, you can pay low taxes in Ireland, but if it's less than our tax, you pay the rest here), tax them a lot if they relinquish their passport. No need to start international beef about this.
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Talk about a gross oversimplification. Venice grew out of mosquito infested lagoon due to necessity. The Venetian people were driven into the lagoon multiple times over centuries as a means of protection from Germanic invasions in the 7th century. They capitalized on shipping and trade just like any other population would do and used those riches to make their citizens lives better. What would you have expected them to do? Turn away from the money spice trading and Mediterranean shipping traffic brought them because it would make them too rich? Because again, they were a people used to fleeing into a mosquito infested lagoon when their farming population was invaded by multiple armies.
For that reason, comparing an entire cultural population like Venice to a singular person is a false equivalency. Bezos hasn't used his shipping fortune to enrich anyone but himself, but at least Venetian royalty built buildings and public spaces for their population.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]::: spoiler spoiler
sdfsafsafsdaf
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This is a common misconception. If a person or corporation takes money for charity, like rounding up for bill at point of sale, that entity doesn't get to write that off taxes. They can claim publicity for raising money for charity, but they didn't get any direct financial windfall. They would only get something if they were to say, match the donation contribution.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Except if they found a loophole such that money you donate first goes to their business account and they make it legally seem like it is a donation made from their business account in which case they might still get a tax refund. Note that this is a speculation on my part and I am wondering if there are indeed loopholes that enable this or laws are clear enough to prevent this in any form and shape.
It might also work the same way if you make a donation through their own charities. How it would work is they donate some of their profit to their own charities and get the tax refund but they don't use that money for charitable acts (as defined by common sense). They also get customer based donations to their charities which instead they use for what one would consider charitable acts, so the charity looks active instead of hoarding money. And then they use the other money they have donated themselves and gotten a tax refund for as whatever agenda pushing reasons as they see fit ( including political donations, investments in other companies ) since the definition of charitable act is quite loosely regulated.
This is what, me a regular guy, comes up with thinking about it for five minutes. An army of lawyers will make sure to find a way to turn your donations into tax reducing investments for the company.
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Original post from u/Kvolti on reddit
More informations and pictures here:
https://www.greenpeace.org/italy/storia/27709/abbiamo-contestato-jeff-bezos-a-venezia/
One day people will say “why do we let these weird weak old losers steal from us? We shouldn’t. Let’s get these assholes.”
15 minutes later it will be over
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I think they don't know how taxes work. Taxes are paid on income and realized capital gains. He's not renting venice from his Amazon stock...
The message is that billionaires can pay 'more' taxes, not that they have to pay on unrealized gains.
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Tax property, tax inheritance, tax capital gains no matter if realized or not, tax passive income of all kinds. Tax them progressively and tax the highest brackets high enough that these giant fortunes actually shrink. There is no other way (well... besides revolution) to reduce the spiraling inequality which is at the root of major problems all over the world.
Always hated that they pretend you cant tax unreleased gains when they are perfectly capable of raising loans against them. If unrealized gains can be used to secure loans then they have a quantifiable value that can be taxed.
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Tax property, tax inheritance, tax capital gains no matter if realized or not, tax passive income of all kinds. Tax them progressively and tax the highest brackets high enough that these giant fortunes actually shrink. There is no other way (well... besides revolution) to reduce the spiraling inequality which is at the root of major problems all over the world.
There is no other way (well… besides revolution)
The backlash that you'll receive from the cronies of mega-capital will make revolution inevitable. That's assuming you can get so far as to democratically reform the tax code in an electoral system that cages voters, manufacturers consent, and manipulates the courts to guarantee only their people hold office.
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Checked Reddit and Fb, thousands of bots booing Greenpeace and defending Amazon.
It seems that picture got its results.
Classic bots
Good news, the first few dozen or so top-level comments on the r/pics thread are 100% anti-Bez
Mirror:
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You can fly the drone without a license in secret, and the law only requires that you scribble the ID somewhere on the craft -- something you do not need to do if flying for clandestine purposes.
Not all drone's fly via radio, many use direct WiFi connections which can be completely spoofed over 3G proxies so that the drone and operator aren't in direct contact with one another
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I think they don't know how taxes work. Taxes are paid on income and realized capital gains. He's not renting venice from his Amazon stock...
He's renting it from the interest and profits he gets from those stocks. I'm paying tax on the gains I get from my stocks and so should he.
