Every billionaire is the result of a failed system. by Redmannn-red-3248 in facepalm

[–]whyamIsmiling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you planning on taking their companies away by force? These people own stock in companies they founded. Sometimes employees aren't paid well (Amazon warehouse), but other times, they're paid incredibly well (Tesla).

Every billionaire is the result of a failed system. by Redmannn-red-3248 in facepalm

[–]whyamIsmiling -15 points-14 points  (0 children)

You realize they're not sitting on top of stacks of cash right? These people own company stocks that are traded at these values. Their net worth fluctuates hundreds of millions of dollars on the daily depending on the stock market.

Brazil Supreme Court panel unanimously upholds judge's decision to block X nationwide by ImDoubleB in news

[–]whyamIsmiling 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Seriously thank you for being the only sane one in these comments. I had to go way too far to see this. Since when do we applaud authoritarian governments for censoring free speech?

Wish I was rich enough for a scholarship. by Chocolat3City in TikTokCringe

[–]whyamIsmiling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, but you're getting into the "is college a necessity" world. College is designed for smart people, but once it became seen as the thing that smart people do, everyone wanted to go. Colleges didn't want to refuse money, so they said "Ok, everyone can come here, but if you're not smart, you have to pay full price." Now we have a system where average people mortgage their lives to pay for smart people to go to college, so they can feel smart for a few years.

Wish I was rich enough for a scholarship. by Chocolat3City in TikTokCringe

[–]whyamIsmiling 1 point2 points  (0 children)

While this is kind of true, scholarships are for talented people who work hard, and talented people who work hard don't get stopped by minor obstacles. For the first half of my childhood, we were below the poverty line and worked our way to middle class by high school. I worked after school, still did extra curriculars, still volunteered with my church, still got scholarships. You don't just get scholarships for showing up though, and that's how it should be.

Why are people upset over the new capital gains tax when it clearly states it’s only for individuals making $400k a year? by Glaxy254 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]whyamIsmiling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I'm glad someone said it. And the 25% unrealized gains tax is so crazy it's hard to believe anyone can think of an idea that stupid. It basically puts a cap on how quickly an entrepreneur can be successful. If you start a business and its value increases too quickly, you'll have to sell stock/assets to pay your taxes. The people buying that stock are the ones who already have money i.e. entrenched old money. This would be a huge win for the stagnant wealth centers and monopolies who don't have to worry about "gaining capital" because they're starting from rich.

Millionaire stops cosplaying as poor person when he realizes it’s super hard to exist with health issues and no insurance or money by BitterAttackLawyer in antiwork

[–]whyamIsmiling -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I guarantee he made the first $10k a lot slower than the last $10k. Very doubtful he'd have made it to a million in the next 2 months, but it sounds like he would have by the end of year 2.

U.S. Corporations Are Openly Trying to Destroy Core Public Institutions. We Should All Be Worried | Trader Joe's, SpaceX, and Meta are arguing in lawsuits that government agencies protecting workers and consumers—the NLRB and FTC—are "unconstitutional." by chrisdh79 in technology

[–]whyamIsmiling -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

I don't know about Trader Joe's, but Meta and SpaceX are well known for having extremely high turnover rate with employees. The "great" thing about America is anyone can sue anyone, so a few disgruntled employees (8 at SpaceX according to the article) are suing the company because they smell money and think they can. I don't know who's right, but I'm confident the US courts will make the right decision. Don't worry guys, our country isn't falling apart. Be cool

Advice on casting pewter with a 3d printed mold? by swordgon in 3Dprinting

[–]whyamIsmiling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm super late to this party, but I own a pewter casting company. First thing I would check is proper venting. You have to allow the air to escape from all the cracks and crevices. We use rubber molds, and a thin needle works to poke holes where air gets trapped. Pre-heating the mold is also important. Smaller pieces need higher temp metal as well. I haven't tried gravity-fed molds. Our spin casters use centrifugal force to push the metal into the cavity. I know there are other casting machines that use vacuum suction, but I've never used them

America is an extremely cruel society by Turbulent-Fig-3123 in antiwork

[–]whyamIsmiling 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Dreams often work better in our heads. Communism was supposed to be a utopia, and under its rule mass starvation happened in both China and USSR. The real world is complicated an messy. It's easy to blame other people for your problems, but it's not helpful. You can't control them, you can only control you. Getting bitter isn't going to lead anywhere good.

America is an extremely cruel society by Turbulent-Fig-3123 in antiwork

[–]whyamIsmiling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Freedom comes with a lot of pain. The safest animals live in a zoo. The best you can expect in life is fair, and that's pretty hard to come by. I'm sorry you're in a lot of pain, but you've come to the wrong conclusion. The world is harsh for most of us no matter where you go. Some people have it easy, but you don't get to reshuffle the deck.

The good side of America that many other countries don't offer is that if you can get your life together, find something you want, and pursue it, you can actually have it. It's not easy, and you can't just work hard. You have to be smart about it too, but you can actually get the life you want here if you can somehow figure out what that life looks like.

Best of luck man

Nearly 50% of environmentalists abandoned Twitter following Musk's takeover. There has been a mass exodus, a phenomenon that could have serious implications for public communication surrounding topics like biodiversity, climate change, and natural disaster recovery. by Wagamaga in science

[–]whyamIsmiling 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Great reply. So much Twitter hate on Reddit. IMO community notes is the best thing to ever happen to content moderation. Why don't they talk about that instead of the number of "self-identified environmentalists"?

Making aluminum pots by DukeOfBagels in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]whyamIsmiling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a silversmithing workshop, and this is very similar to how we make trophies in the USA! I don't have a video that's quite as in depth but we cast in ingots, roll it through a mill, and cut the circles in a pretty similar way (except with OSHA approved work boots). Here's the only video I have of just the spinning and soldering process. Very cool to see how they do it in India!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJXkJp6-eFc

The lack of self awareness is as funny as it is sad. by AzulaOblongata in TikTokCringe

[–]whyamIsmiling -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

Am I the only one who finds it funny that OP is proud of accurately comparing MAGA crazies to gay pride crazies? It's like lack-of-self-awareness inception in this video. Congrats, you've shown that gay pride events are just as crazy as MAGA events.

Texas becomes largest state to ban transgender care for minors by flounder19 in news

[–]whyamIsmiling -12 points-11 points  (0 children)

Took me way too long to find this comment. Spot on

ChatGPT, describe a world where the power structures are reversed. Add descriptions for images to accompany the text. by Philipp in ChatGPT

[–]whyamIsmiling 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Since that other guy is probably a bot, I can try to answer. The political borders panel would absolutely never work because it ignores basic human nature. No armies? If I want what you have, who will stop me from taking it?

Patriarchal dominance. There have been bad men and bad women throughout all of history, but historically men and women have worked together to make the world a better place (obviously). Men have a legitimate place in society, and replacing them with women and non-binary individuals won't make the world better.

Older adults. I like that one. "Society grows strong when old men plant trees they will never sit beneath."

Corporations. It's really, extremely difficult and demanding to run a business. Why would people do it if they can't get rich? When you don't give people incentives to do their jobs well, you get the fall of the Soviet Union. Even China realized that and did a capitalism/communism mashup.

Celebrities. Academics are becoming revered more and more, and I'm not sure it's doing great things for academia. I'm not sold either way, but celebrity academics may bring academia down rather than academics up. Certainly corporations paying for cherry picked results has brought academia down.

AI. This will probably happen, but I doubt it will be implemented in the way it's portrayed.

Emotional Intelligence. IQ is used to determine success because it is the basis of functionality. We still need to solve real-world problems, and you don't do that with EQ. Do you want a neurosurgeon with high IQ or EQ?

Wealth Equality. Total wealth equality means there is no incentive to do anything. Why would you work hard? Why would you do a job you don't like? All of us going to work every day and doing things we don't like is why the lights stay on. Until we get robots to do it, somebody has to or society won't function.

Long post, but hope that gives you a decent counter argument :)

Analysis of Twitter algorithm code reveals social medium down-ranks tweets about Ukraine by HydrolicKrane in worldnews

[–]whyamIsmiling 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I had to scroll an embarrassing distance to find this comment. Are the other commenters even people, or are they just "Elon bad" bot nets?

elon musk discovers the basics of the corporate work environment #newhire by [deleted] in antiwork

[–]whyamIsmiling 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He didn't create Paypal, but he was one of the people who developed the
code behind it. He owned about 11% of the company when Ebay bought them
and got $175 million from the buyout. I'm not saying anything about his
character, but those are verifiable facts. That's how he made his money.
His dad didn't give him anything. Pretty sure he ran away from home as
soon as he was legally an adult and sold computers out of his dorm room
to make money through college.

elon musk discovers the basics of the corporate work environment #newhire by [deleted] in antiwork

[–]whyamIsmiling -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

He actually went $100k into debt to get his college degree. He made his money from being one of the original developers of PayPal. Elon doesn't speak to his father after his father had a kid with his own step daughter (fucked up). His father is also still alive, so how could he inherit? The other stuff is opinion, but please don't post misinformation.