If you're upset about regular folk hoarding toilet paper

[kpete]

wait till you hear about how a tiny percentage of rich people have hoarded most of the world’s wealth.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Clash City Rocker]

1. If we're already angry about the second thing, can we be angry about the first thing too?

I’m a multitasker when it comes to being angry. I can be angry about several things at the same time.

[Boomerproud]

8. Thank you.

I can process more than one thing at a time

[crickets]

17. +1

[at140]

2. If the wealth was earned honestly, I don't have a gigantic problem

For example Bill Gates was the founder of the DOS operating system which revolutionized how data is stored on hard disks, and I do not envy his riches. But I do have a problem with people who never created or manufactured a useful product, and got rich simply by shorting vulnerable institutions or currencies. That hastened the demise before the institution had a chance to revive.

[oldsoftie]

3. I've long thought that "shorting" should be made illegal on large scale trades

And also illegal when involving ANY company that is lightly traded. Its too easy to manipulate the price.
If you are sure that a stock is overvalued, then buy options.

[at140]

5. +plus+plus+plus+ and thank you!

[oldsoftie]

25. I learned about the impact of shorting from Shkrelli long before anyone heard of him.

He personally ruined the stock of a company i was involved with. Around 2012, He shorted the thinly-traded company, then released a statement to his readers about why the FDA should deny a company drug. The petition was full of falsehoods, but by law the FDA has to accept it anyway. So this act by ONE MAN caused the stock to drop 80%. It never regained what was lost and is now a penny stock
The FDA denied his petition, as expected, but it was too late. And there is no punishment for willfully filing a fraudulent petition.
And i wouldn't mind seeing a story where Shkrelli got his ass beaten in prison.

[IronLionZion]

9. Bloomberg proposed a tax on trades

There are so many shady financial practices out there it can be hard for the SEC to keep up. We need a president who will empower regulators and get good reforms passed through congress.

[oldsoftie]

24. I dont even think a Democratic controlled Congress would ban shorting.

Too many of THEM are making money from it themselves. We can hardly get them to agree to stop insider trading amongst members of Congress.
As far as taxing trades, I dont think individual traders should be taxed. But high frequency trading should be. Those trades make money of fractions of cents. Impacting that would do away with a lot of the price manipulation that occurs because of HFTs

[at140]

29. I have supported transaction tax over capital gains tax for 40 years

For 2 reasons...
First it simplifies the heck out of figuring long term capital gains with stock dividends, eliminates record keeping for years if not decades,
and second, it eliminates tax cheating.

[phandancer917]

7. Though I do agree with your sentiment....

...Gates merely BOUGHT QDOS from Seattle Computer Systems. He is a good man and a visionary -- but like many people, their Grand Ideas are built on the back of other's work.

Now, he DID take a little known OS and turn it into the GIANT that is Microsoft.

[mdbl]

12. It was too bad QDos was the wrong system to build a decent consumer/business OS

It was made to test hard drives, not be a secure system. So we paid billions of dollars to MS to take many years to fix something that wasn't meant for prime time to begin with.

[at140]

30. I am old enough to have used IBM 1620 computer

which had no disks, everything was on punched cards. Programs, data files, everything.
Then IBM introduced hard disks, and I was ecstatic. There was only one problem, all files had to be contiguous!
DOS allows fragmented files, so you never have to worry about disk space management.

[mdbl]

35. It also had fragmented security holes

just sayin

[at140]

36. LOL so true, but punched cards were even more insecure!

If you have never worked with 100% punched card systems, you have no idea.
I do all my banking and bill paying on internet and I use a unique system to stay MORE secure
(there are no absolutes) and it has served me well since 1995.

[mdbl]

39. Punch cards were more proned to errors than a security risk

But congratulations to be one of the lucky users with no trouble since 1995 I had to edit the post twice because auto correct kept changing my words

[at140]

41. My method is disarmingly simple and very cheap...

I bought a used laptop for $50 on eBay, formatted the hard drive, installed windows operating system and I use it only to log in to the bank and broker. So it is turned on not often and if I get a virus it will be from Bank or broker, both of whom are some of the largest in country and I expect they should be running secure systems. The short time exposure and limited web connections seem to do the job of security.

All my web surfing and utility bills paying is done from this computer I am typing from. I have nothing of importance stored here. I don't even use a virus protection program running in background because all of them slow down the computer some. I am amused when some utility companies are so particular about security! I tell them if someone steals my password to log on to their electric utility, I have zero problem if they wish to pay my bills.

[mdbl]

42. good plan

[at140]

43. Thanks, it has worked without a hitch since 1995..nt

[Magoo48]

13. How often is great wealth earned honestly? Even American philanthropists

sell products created in horrid sweat shops under unimaginable conditions.

[c-rational]

21. Gates bought the rights to DOS from a coder for a pittance of what he knew it was worth. Not a

particularly 'honest' or fair thing to do.

[at140]

31. Well, Gates had the foresight, you and I did not!

And he managed the idea of disk management with fragmented files and grew it into a huge company.

[Chipper Chat]

4. I am just a normal American who needs to buy a 4pack of toilet paper

And couldn't find any last night. My midsize town in indiana is Charmanenic. .

[FailureToCommunicate]

11. The good news is toilet paper is a domestic product. Something like 150 companies make

Last edited Sun Mar 15, 2020, 10:20 AM - Edit history (1)

the stuff in this country. Supply shouldn't be an issue.

The reasons people are buying up the stuff probably includes,
that it is relative cheap,
doesn't go bad,
you'll ALWAYS need it sometime,
it may help make you feel like you're doing SOMETHING in a dire situation that is out of your control, and lastly,
if you really have to stay home for weeks on end, running out of toothpaste isn't so bad, but running out of TP WOULD be kind of shitty.

Then there's THIS stuff that may still be on the shelves...

[Mendocino]

15. Koch industries

The caca kings of TP.

[DownriverDem]

20. Suggestions

Did you try dollar stores, drug stores or gas stations? I just don't get why folks think they need to hoard TP.

[at140]

32. Good suggestion about dollar stores, dollar general etc.

[TexasBushwhacker]

37. Check an office supply n/t

[Chipper Chat]

40. STAPLES still has some if you want to

Pay out your ass. Uh, no pun intended.

[czarjak]

6. Rushbo said...

“Wealth is like rainwater, all that’s ever been generated is already here, it’s just a matter of distribution” Conservative Republicans made sure it went to the top so there would be less for those at the bottom.

[calimary]

23. The biggest problem was that ol' Rushbo was even given a forum

from which to spew his poison, to begin with. He’s spread as much sickness - no, WAY MORE sickness than the virus ever will. And longterm, the “infection” he’s been spreading, every doggone day since the 1990s, is FAR more deadly.

[live love laugh]

34. 💯

[at140]

33. Economy worldwide currently produces 100 times more wealth than during

World War I. So wealth is not a stagnant commodity.

[NNadir]

10. It's pretty funny but my wife has been hording paper towels and toilet paper for years.

When we lived in California, she always had an Earthquake kit, and with the hurricanes in New Jersey, the weeks without power and no gasoline to speak about she decided to stock up on reserves of food and essentials.

It always kind of annoyed me; particularly in California, because we've never had huge amounts of storage space and it's led to clutter.

Funny story: A lot of Californians used to make fun of her for the Earthquake kit, which had batteries, candles, wrenches for shutting the gas, stuff like that. Much of it ended up in the trash when we moved.

After the Northridge Quake, there were news casts showing people waiting on long lines for batteries, and she couldn't restrain herself from saying, "See! See! They all laughed at me."

We did feel some nasty quakes in California, but nothing requiring opening the Earthquake kit. When Hurricane Sandy hit, we were prepared, and we were prepared now.

I would have never done this, been prepared. It's yet another reason why I'm so lucky to have married her.

Yesterday she went for her normal shopping trip and saw that all of the paper goods aisles were cleaned out. She took some pictures for posterity.

Also gone were canned beans, rice, coffee.

It's pretty startling.

[Magoo48]

14. Be kind to the proletariat,

they may one day be swimming in your pool, dining at your table, camped on your lawn?

An old and often reconfigured admonition still ripe with wisdom. 😉

[LiberalArkie]

16. What ever happened to "Occupy Wallstreet" ?

[klook]

18. Their ideas live on.

As others have pointed out here before, the popularity of "The One Percent" and what that means in terms of economic inequality -- as well as as "We Are the 99 Percent" -- are directly attributable to Occupy Wall Street. The Occupy movement didn't invent the term or the concept, but they did a lot to popularize it.

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread kpete.

[DownriverDem]

28. Biden's Coronavirus Plan

THE BIDEN PLAN FOR CORONAVIRUS
Mobile drive thru test facilities.
Creation of temporary hospital facilities.
Free testing and treatment.
Coordination among local, state and federal governments and agencies.
Free, widely available vaccine when possible.
Restoration of the Pandemic Response Team 45 cut
Oversight on spending to combat the virus
Immediate economic steps to stabilize economy and help those who live paycheck to paycheck. Not tax cuts or subsidies.
Step by step layout of populations that need help to eat, get education, maintain homes.
Paid sick leave during emergency
State and local emergency fund to combat each state’s unique issues
Look beyond borders and engage with the rest of the world. Lead a coordinated, global response.

[Orrex]

22. If I were to advocate for the elimination of billioinaires, would my post be hidden?

Asking for the common good ~7B people.

[not_the_one]

26. It's not the "regular" folk you have to worry about. It is the "irregular" folk.

'Cause when the finally go, they REALLY go, and use LOTS of toilet paper.

I'm just sayin'...

(ok, I'm a sick puppy.... )

[lame54]

27. So much they wipe their asses with it

[meadowlander]

38. +1. Rats already fleeing a sinking ship.

There's been a steady stream of private jets landing in New Zealand airports for the past two weeks as people who can afford to get out of the US do.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12316696

This is the shit people should be furious about.

How many of these assholes made their fortune price gouging in the US health care system?

[Generic Brad]

44. They hoard dollars like it is toilet paper

Hmmm. Perhaps to them it is.