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Wealth concentration

Under our current way of doing things, extreme wealth can be seen as a dark hole - loose analogy - dragging and destroying everything within it’s reach.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/nov/18/be-brave-and-impose-minimum-tax-on-worlds-billionaires-urges-spanish-minister

#Taxation #Inequality #ExtremeWealth
#inequality #extremewealth #taxation
Tom Pearce
@fkamiah17

Thomas Piketty on how it comes about (I struggled with his book) and Richard Wilkinson (Mind the Gap) on the corrosive effect of inequality in societies.
@MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
I deliberately got Piketty's book on audio - I knew I'd choke after a few pages if I tried to read it with my eyes. Can recommend 👍
Tom Pearce
@Wen

"... tried to read it with my eyes" That's clearly where I went wrong! 😂😂😂 It was hard going. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I barely managed!
@Wen
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
And an absolute tome as well - dislocating your thumbs to hold open a 900 page book about wealth distribution is doomed to failure in this house 😂 😂
I just about managed with Shoshana Zuboff's book. I recommend it if you've not read it, either with your eyes or your ears 😉
Cover of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight For A Human Future at te New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff
Tom Pearce
@Wen

One I shall hunt down. The Japanese of course have the word for my house: Tsundoku (積ん読) - the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them. 😂
@Wen
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
That applies equally to my house. I don't know how many copies of New Scientist and Granta, among others, I've got gathering dust in various corners of the lounge 😬
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
I think Mastodon is the home of the Tsundoku Warriors 🤭

(I know that's not a thing and doesn't really work, shut up)
Tom Pearce
-- Proud to be a Tsundoku warrior. I come complete with chainsaw and a variety of garden tools (but sadly I still have to find myself a pitchfork).
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
Don't cross the streams, Tom!!

🤣
Dial M for Madeye 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇮🇪
I've started listening to audiobooks for non-fiction. Otherwise I'd be overwhelmed by a #TsundokuTsunami....
#tsundokutsunami
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
Same. I find it easier to digest, although I do miss underlining huge passages. I've got a lot of my audiobooks on epub too, for just that reason.
Tom Pearce
- Still trying to overcome childhood embargoes on writing on a book - even in pencil, (or folding down the corner of a page to mark a position, or breaking the spine - or so many other things). I struggle to adapt to listening to books - it begins to sound as though I should persevere. Maybe an eReader would let me dip my toe. But I still have fondness for written works which survive being dropped from an upstairs window better than an eBook (or a Russian)
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
I used to be a fundamentalist about it all - I've done a total 180 on it (pencil only though, I'm not a monster). I scribble notes in the margins too, mainly due to Shit Memory Syndrome 😂
The ebooks are mainly to overcome storage issues - I almost never read them, even on the tablet.
Try listening to something you've already read first, maybe? Idk about your library, but mine has a preview feature so you can tell whether you like the narrator or not.
Dial M for Madeye 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇮🇪
I recently listened to "Fatherland" by Robert Harris, which I'd read before. I'd go so far as saying I enjoyed listening to it more than reading it.
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
It's so subjective. I couldn't nail down what it is that makes me chime with one narrator or another, and even the authors themselves don't read very well sometimes. I relisten to faves at bed time, but that can lead to picking up on minor (and sometimes not so minor) pronunciation issues. Don't get me started on that subject 🤣
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
Totes. It's why I rarely listen to American narrators or podcasts. My teeth would be ground to dust 😁
Tom Pearce
I am clearly going to have to give this new-fangled thing a try. Some investigation will be needed. I may be some time...!
MiniMia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇵🇸
It's a whole new world!
(audiobooks have been in existence since about 1985 😁 😘 )
Here's a little taster for you - a chapter from Helen Macdonald's excellent book of essays Vesper Flights.

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