Charlie StrossNew blog entry: More in Sadness than in Anger: https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2026/02/more-in-sadness-than-in-anger.html
Footnote: the outcome of the Epstein/Gates email itself is immaterial—what's interesting is the mind set underlying it, which seems to have strong explanatory power for our current mess: there are too many poor people, and Epstein and his mates would like to get rid of us.
GinevraCat@cstross And the thing to understand about being "poor", is that that includes everything up to the very tippy top of upper middle class!!
Kayla Allen 🏳️⚧️ 💉x8@cstross @GinevraCat In the county in which I live, I’m theoretically “rich” because I’m in the upper quartile of income here, but people from places like the SF bay area scoff and describe anyone not making multiple millions per year as “poor.”
@cstross @GinevraCat And by “in the upper quartile,” I mean “just barely in it.” So I’m probably around the 75-80%, not the 99%, in a mostly rural county primarily depending upon being a commuter country for Reno.
@KaylaAllen @cstross I wish more people realised how far away they are from billionaires and pushed for better tax on them!
I wish more people realized that if you have to work for a salary—if you can't just decide to retire tomorrow and still have an income in the top 1%—then you are not "rich".
"Rich" is like being Steve Jobs keeping a Gulfstream jet fueled up on the ramp, with crew ready and waiting 24x7 *for nine months*, in case a histocompatible liver came up for transplant at short notice in a neighboring state (they only last a few hours out of the donor body).