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MisterFrog

@ MisterFrog @aussie.zone

Posts
1
Comments
157
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Three Australian millionaires say the nation’s super-rich should face higher taxes

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  • Do you not understand how jobs and providing services for money work?

    I most certainly advocate for a better society where work is more democratic than it currently is (in general).

    I'm well aware of how jobs work, just that I don't think it's a efficient or fair way to structure society (in general). It's pretty hard to argue that the amount of money people have is purely, or even mostly, correlated with merit or how hard someone works.

    There’s nothing wrong with profiting off your employees labour though.

    Agree to disagree. I'm not having a go at any small business owners in particular, since many don't profit that much more than their employees anyway - just in general it's not desirable and we ought to move away from capitalism.

    Oh I see you are a fan of communism lol. Never mind.

    Technically not communism specifically ,because I think money is a useful accounting tool, which allows people to choose what they value, and don't think we need to get rid of it - but much of a much. Yes I am a socialist and not shy about it.

  • NSW Police target Sydney home over 'Boycott Israel' sticker

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  • A state ≠ ethnic or religious group

    Anyone who this criticising a state is racism is an idiot.

  • Health star rating to become mandatory on all packaged food in Australia

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  • country of origin for each too

    This probably wouldn't reasonably fit on the packet. There ought to be a QR code on their that links to an Australian government website where they provide all this fine detail though.

  • Three Australian millionaires say the nation’s super-rich should face higher taxes

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  • I think perhaps we'll just have to agree to disagree on this.

    I need to reiterate that your former colleague is just living within the system we have, and I can't make personal comment on whether or not he's done any of the worse things I mentioned.

    Initially, it was him and his wife, yes. Though they now have a decent sized company with a few hundred employees.

    How is this not proving my point?

    He has a decent sized company, that generates profits for him from the labour of their workers, who share in a smaller share of those profits. And this is the typical arrangement. I think it's pretty hard to argue that (in most cases) the amount of profit people generate vs what they get paid is just.

    I'm sure he's worked hard - well, I guess he has - but it can't be denied that his excess wealth is only possible because of other people's continued labour.

    if he should keep all the work and wealth to himself

    This is fundamentally what we disagree on. He didn't "share" the work. He had an idea, worked hard on that idea, and then hired other people in order to grow his company and make more money. That's capitalism, and people pretend as if it's the only way we can structure society. As if innovation would stop existing without the profit motive.

    Innovation would happen regardless. The profit motive only "drives innovation" because that's how we've structured things to work. I also find the claim doesn't hold water because a huge portion of innovations are already from publically funded university research which otherwise wouldn't be funded.

    Currently a few people profit massively off other people's labour, and looking at wealth inequality, and pay inequality, it's getting worse and worse every year.

    Unless one has the opinion than a tiny percentage of the population is thousands of tens-of-thousands times more productive and deserving than everyone else, then it's kind of hard to argue the current state of the world makes sense.

    I have no issue with some people making more money than others to reflect their harder work. But only to a point. The profit motive seems like a stupid way to do this though, because it's also pretty plain to see that innovating is probably not even the main way more profit is achieved.

    Monopolies, dark patterns, price gouging, wage theft off-shoring and other anti-competitive behaviours are far more common paths.

    Again, nothing against your former colleague personally, as I don't know him.

  • Three Australian millionaires say the nation’s super-rich should face higher taxes

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  • $500 million purely in sales of software he wrote alone? That would be a feat for sure.

    Nothing against him personally, just that buy-in-large this former colleague of yours would be an outlier, the ultra wealthy generally generate profits off the backs of other people's work.

    The part that's wrong isn't doing well and making money, it's advocating against taxing corporations way more than we are, lobbying for loopholes, and engaging in rent seeking behaviour. Which is extremely, extremely common. Having some kind of cap on how much wealth you can amass seems sensible to me.

    I'm sure he's worked hard and done well for himself, but are we really suggesting that once you have money, you don't "make your money work for you"? What that phrase really means is you can invest, which is only possible because of other people's work at the end of the day.

    Yes, I am doubting a bit that after his real work of creating a product, that the rest of the money he's made is directly from that work, or made possible by a system that in general is profiting of the working class.

    At a certain point allowing people to have vast sums of money is antithetical to democracy, which seems almost self-evident to most people no matter their other political views.

    So no, your former work colleague hasn't done anything wrong, but doesn't mean it's a great way for us to structure society. Gestures broadly to everything

  • Three Australian millionaires say the nation’s super-rich should face higher taxes

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  • All of the world's billionaires have amassed their wealth off other people's labour.

    If you can name me ONE billionaire who hasn't, I'll be extremely shocked. One billionaire who just worked for their money.

    Selling something to investors is indirectly profiting off others labour, just in advance. You think the investors pull up their sleeves and generate billions? Lol. No no, they get workers to make whatever business profitable.

    Some billionaires may have created something worthwhile (Taylor Swift, for example), even she has an army of workers who make her continued career possible. (Even though she definitely was a "self-made" billionaire starting without massive capital).

    Billions is so much you can practically never spend it. And no one can work literally >1000x (or much, much more) harder than someone else. Or generate something so worthwhile they deserve billions.

    You don't need the profit motive for people to create great things. The creator of insulin sold the patent for $1. And countries like Denmark (while still be capitalists) are proof that more people would be entrepreneurial if they have more of a safety net to try. We're probably missing out of tonnes of innovation simply because the person hasn't been given the chance through education or they're in poverty.

    And we only have poverty because we live in a system where you can amass unlimited wealth, on the backs of everyday people, instead of the workers sharing in the profits of their labour.

    Without the labour of others, or the proceeds from the labour of others (advertising, investment, etc), it's impossible to make a billion dollars.

  • Three Australian millionaires say the nation’s super-rich should face higher taxes

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  • We could abolish billionaires entirely. No one needs a billion dollars. No one "earns" a billion dollars.

  • Australia quietly builds tariff wall on Chinese steel exports

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  • We really ought to do more processing here. It's pretty silly that we ship of raw resources

  • Sydney protest: NSW premier defends police in ‘impossible situation’ after accusations of violence against protesters

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  • It's because they don't give a shit about accountability or democracy.

  • [Video] Australian attorney-general Michelle Rowland confirms it is now illegal in Australia to say Israel is committing genocide.

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  • The second-level comment is.

    "It's not okay to be Israeli" is a different statement than: Israelis are doing xyz and are bad for it.

    I do agree that in most cases this doesn't need to be specified, but "It's not okay to be Israeli" is a blanket statement against individuals.

    I suggest we stop talking further though, as it does not seem we disagree very much.

  • [Video] Australian attorney-general Michelle Rowland confirms it is now illegal in Australia to say Israel is committing genocide.

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  • It's a fair generalisation of the Israeli polity. The same way I judge Japan as a country for never really apologising for their warcrimes, but never hold it against an individual.

    That's just prejudice.

    That being said, fuck Israel, and fuck these stupid laws that may end up in criticism of a state being illegal.

  • [Video] Australian police violently beat up protester with his hands up at demonstration against Israeli president Isaac Herzog visiting.

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  • The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is fucking stupid.

    Anyone arguing criticism of a STATE is racist is fucking stupid.

  • Minns invokes special powers for NSW police to restrict protests during Israeli president’s visit

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  • Fuckwit

  • Tanning apps that offer ‘safe’ sun routines undermining efforts to tackle skin cancer

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  • I dunno about you, but I'd much rather take a vitamin D supplement/vitamin E fortified foods, than get skin cancer

  • Help open the source of the myGov Code Generator app

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  • I hate the fact I can't use my own 2FA app (Kepass)

    I don't like the idea of losing access to my myGov account just because I lost my phone...

  • Company handling Australia’s immigration detention playing key role in Trump’s ICE migrant crackdown

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  • It's fucking insane how much of government work is outsourced.

    This is just the latest shocking example. :(

  • Why most Australians won't get a weekday off for Anzac Day in 2026 [but Western Australia and ACT do]

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  • This feels illegal!

  • Removed

    The capsicum paradox: new Australian supermarket pricing a ‘massive transparency fail’ for customers

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  • Where is the goddamn ACCC? I swear they do a good thing once in a blue moon, if that...

  • Woolies' new AI system fundamentally changes the role of the shopper

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  • This would be incredibly easy to get a refund for under Australian consumer law, at least.

    Not that I believe most people would do this.

    Nor that any fines will be handed down for this despicable behaviour...

  • Australian Politics @aussie.zone
    MisterFrog @aussie.zone

    When can I take advantage of the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025?

    www.abc.net.au /news/2025-07-24/labor-seeks-to-legislate-to-protect-penalty-rates/105565016