Musk’s Wealth
2012: $2 billion
2024: $454.1 billion

Bezos’ Wealth
2012: $18.4 billion
2024: $242.3 billion

Zuckerberg’s Wealth
2012: $17.5 billion
2024: $210.1 billion

Federal Minimum Wage
2012: $7.25
2024: $7.25

It’s not the start of an oligarchy. We’re in the thick of it.

Minimum Wage Tracker

Economic Policy Institute
@Strandjunker Wait, what would the minimum wage be adjusted for price gouging - sorry, mistyped, inflation?
@FishNamedDog @Strandjunker Inflation is not an objective measure, and even if it was, is only a weighted average. Just as the billionaires’ wealth have progressed very differently from each other, it’s not very useful to use one number for everything from rent to food, and not taking product quality decrease into account.
@ahltorp @FishNamedDog @Strandjunker in Germany we even lessen the calculated inflation due to quality increase ^^ e.g., a car in 2024 is so much better than a car in 1990, doesn't matter that it costs 4 times as much, because you now have ESP, navigation, etc. Even though you maybe don't want a lot of the extra stuff, but you can't buy decent cars without them. So bad luck, prices didn't go up, you just bought more awesome stuff for more money

@freelon @FishNamedDog @Strandjunker Quality increases are often taken into account when calculating inflation, but quality decreases are almost always not. Then someone has to make a subjective judgement how much the quality is worth.

Common inflation measures are useful in a very short timeframe, but very questionable when the timeframe is measured in decades. Most importantly, they should never be used as some sort of mathematical truth. They are a social sciences tool.

@freelon @FishNamedDog @Strandjunker There is one common case where quality decreases are taken into account, and that is if a product that has decreased in quality is supposed to still be considered the same product.
@FishNamedDog from what I've read, somewhere around $24/hr
@Strandjunker Reading those numbers makes me feel sick...
@Strandjunker o quizás en el comienzo del fin ?

@Strandjunker

Did you correct that for inflation?

Cuz you should…

@Strandjunker one of my online friends used to work at a Burger King for years (till she was fired cuz she had so many health issues + she’s from a small town where there’s not a lot of places to work at all) and was making $7.25 the entire time she worked there and she worked both part time and full time there too.
@Strandjunker people shouldn't trust billionaires
@Strandjunker Thank you for calling it wealth, not worth.
@Strandjunker And these failed humans have created nothing of significant worth with their hoards. Sad sad people who have entirely lost their way
@Strandjunker These guys should be listed on the NASDAQ. They would be an excellent investment if one could buy stock in them.

@Strandjunker This isn’t the start of a new Gilded Age. We’re living in one.

If you don’t learn from the past, you’re doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Never trust a corporation, least of all the robber baron who owns it.

Gilded Age - Wikipedia

@Strandjunker #AmericanOligarchs are a Problem...

That's why such numbers should not be up to politicians in parlaments but independent bodies - just like #ElectionDistricts should be drawn by #Census #Data and not as a political decision!

Minimum wage in Germany - Wikipedia

@Strandjunker

Liberal democracy’s last stand against Big Tech

Barry C. Lynn

These techbros are monopolists.

looking at almost every crisis in America today and down the chain of causation we will find a monopolist.

This article looks at why the US stopped monopolies since the 19th C, how Biden tried to stop them and cannot conceive of Trump winning that election.

Monopolies are anti-capitalism and now anti-democratic.

https://mastodon.social/@Deixis9/113713563143691763

@Strandjunker wow. So vast oversimplifications like that are what trend, are they? Never mind that it literally ignores 99.86% of the REST of the ENTIRE country. Jaysus, kid. Is this just the way you blues are psyching yourselves up for the fight ahead?
US business leaders set to break record on donations to Trump inaugural fund

Donations, not restricted by campaign finance laws, come as industries seek favor with incoming administration

The Guardian
@Strandjunker If they don't do something about food prices there will be bread lines.

@Strandjunker
I'd say you're in the final stage.

Rooting for an unbloody revolution. ✊

@Strandjunker
They seem to be slowly discarding the democracy disguise they were wearing, at least in the usa.
@Strandjunker I love everything you say ma'am
Thanks, Federal Reserve!