this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2024
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[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 109 points 4 days ago (30 children)

I'm not going to argue that Taylor Swift doesn't deserve to be on the billionaire list somewhere, but if you were only going to include 4, why would she make the cut?

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 44 points 4 days ago

Insofar as Swifties need to be reminded from time to time that their favorite billionaire is still a billionaire, with all the problems that entails, I support reminding them, but Swift being put up as some major public enemy lately is weird.

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[–] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 138 points 5 days ago (12 children)

Three of those billionaires made their fortunes by stealing other's work and exploiting other's labor. I might dislike Taylor Swift's music but it is her music and her work that made her a billionaire. When someone stole her work from under her, she re-recorded it from scratch and then put on the most profitable tour in history with each show being 3+ hours long.

I'm not a Swifty, but I also don't think she qualifies to join that evil as fuck trio.

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

Not close to as evil as the others for sure. But there's a lot of labor that goes into making music and into touring that she didn't do herself. Does all her talent make it right that she makes thousands of times more money per hour of labor as all those others?

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 74 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (10 children)

Hey look everyone! This person's a billionaire apologist!

I'm (mostly) joking.
You are correct that she is not on the aame level as the others but as a billionaire and member of the ruling class T-Swizzle has an elevated responsibility to the rest of the world. Instead of helping she continues her massive destruction of the climate.

Until she is leveraging her wealth to make positive change she does not get a pass.

Oh and buying carbon offsets doesn't count.

[–] Shiggles@sh.itjust.works 28 points 4 days ago

I quantify it as: Taylor might not deserve the guillotine, the rest inarguably do.

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 10 points 4 days ago

I'm not a fan of hers but they are still correct that she's not nearly on the same level as the others.

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[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 28 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Okay but it's not a 1 woman show. She has likely hundreds of people employed she would not have succeeded without, yet she's about 1b richer than those combined

[–] Tobberone@lemm.ee 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

She is known for giving these people bonuses that surpass anything I've heard about outside corpo management, though. The occasion that made the press mention 100k USD for truckdrivers for one tour and while I dont know how much a truck driver makes a year, it'd sure make my life easier for a couple of years.

Not saying she isn't good at making money, but I'd say the jury is still out on the issue of hoarding all of it for herself.

[–] droporain@lemmynsfw.com 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Taylor Swift not like the offer from RCA so her daddy bought a record company?

Nah daddy already owned a minor stake in one, like 5%.

Her parents were rich but not billionaire rich.

[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

Of all the things to be wealthy for, making music and brining people a little bit of joy ain't bad. Don't condone the jet or the lifestyle. But I don't think it's fair to lump her in with exon and zuk

[–] vovo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

The men in the picture are the top 3 of the latest forbes list, Tylor Swift is not in the top 2,500.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago

Yeah I'm not a fan of her private jet shenanigans or her music, but the other 3 also use private jets like it's going out of style, and are nowhere close to her when it comes to societal impact. If you wanted a 4th you can use one of our own billionaires from the old continent like Bernard Arnault (who is allegedly pals with Musk)

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[–] DakRalter@thelemmy.club 60 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Where Rupert Murdoch? I'd put him as even worse than Bezos.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 23 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Musk, Bezos and Zuck are just the most visible ones but by no means the worst.

[–] DakRalter@thelemmy.club 11 points 4 days ago

It depends on where you are, of course. Here in the UK, the Murdoch press is a massive influence.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

No doubt. Some hypothesize that Vladimir Putin is the actual richest man in the world. Possibly even a trillionaire. He's definitely the worst of the radical rich.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

Indeed. The Saudi royal family also ranks pretty high up there.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Alice Walton has more DUI's than one can count. Killed someone, another time drove into a ravine. Net worth: 71 billion.

She could pay a new person $50,000 for an 8 hour shift of driving her around for every living moment, and it wouldnt dent her money. Could have a "house for a ride" program where if you give her a ride she buys you a house. 10 rides that day? She'd still make money.

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[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 7 points 4 days ago

Koch family deserves to be on here too.

[–] normalexit@lemmy.world 26 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Replace Swift with Putin and I'm back on board.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 10 points 4 days ago (3 children)

"no no, my billionaire is fine. They are really different i promise"

[–] Burninator05@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago

She isn't "my" billionaire as I don't consume any of her content or really give a shit about her one way or the other but she does feel like a weird addition to the list.

Her tag seems to boil down to her private plane usage but is it really all that more than any other person in her income bracket? There are also a bunch of other billionaires listed by others that do a lot worse. He'll, even the other three listed are having greater environmental impact because of their company's pushes into AI and the data center requirements of those.

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

it's not about who she is. it's ridiculous to have her in this group. her plane is doing damage but it's nothing compared to multinational companies that do whatever the fuck they want with your air, land and water.

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

She may single-handedly save America from turning into a fascist state with her endorsement, so she gets a pass for now. It is extremely important, yes, but we can worry about her carbon footprint after we get past this MAGA nightmare. Priorities.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Single handedly? So she is the one deciding the elections? I thought there is some 200 million voters deciding the elections. The fact that one billionaires endorsement is so decisive shows deep deep problems with the billionaire cult in the US.

[–] Tyfud@lemmy.world 31 points 4 days ago (21 children)

I get that tswift is a billionaire, but she doesn't belong in this meme.

Quit trying to equate her to the oligarchs. She hasn't demonstrated any of those tendencies.

[–] Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nobody should be a billionaire. There is no labor that can be done to become a billionaire ethically.

[–] Tyfud@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I agree with this take and upvoted you. But she is a billionaire, and also a genuinely good person who's supported her fans, the people that work with her, etc. I don't think there should be any billionaires, and I suspect TSwift would likely agree with that.

That's the difference between her and the actual oligarchs pictured. They're scum of the earth. She's guilty of wage exploitation, but capitalism is designed around that idea, so she's just playing the game.

She's not off the deep end like so many other billionaires.

There's shades of gray here. We can agree there shouldn't be billionaires on principle, and also agree that not all billionaires are using their ill-gotten wealth for pure evil, like the other 3 pictured in the "meme".

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[–] Unknown1234_5@lemmy.world 17 points 4 days ago (6 children)

You can't abolish wealth, it's practically impossible. Instead, close the loopholes that make them that rich.

[–] Saleh@feddit.org 7 points 4 days ago

Nobody wants to abolish wealth. We want to abolish people hoarding it away from others who lack basic needs.

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[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I think Bezos, Musk, and Zuck are each much more of a planetwrecker than Swift.

[–] Travelator@thelemmy.club 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Shoot them into the sun on a billionaire's space rocket!

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