Post #1382645

2025-10-01 12:18 UTC

Over 40 years, we were collectively told to give tax cuts to rich people. And we were told that if we did that, wealth would trickle down and everyone would be better off. Over 40 years, pretty much everything got cut to fund these tax cuts. Schools. Hospitals. Public housing. Public transport. Universities. Roads projects. Mental health services. Welfare payments. People literally went homeless or starved, so rich people could get tax cuts. Because the wealth would trickle down. Eventually the eroding of public goods caused social dislocation. So governments further cut those public goods to fund more police and prisons. To continue giving tax cuts to rich people. But they said the wealth would trickle down. Eventually the climate started changing because of the amount of toxic fossil fuel pollution in the atmosphere. So governments chose to keep the tax cuts rather than fund infrastructure to reduce emissions. (Many of those billionaires getting tax cuts made their money selling toxic fossil fuels.) And as the oceans and atmosphere warmed, the bushfires, droughts, hurricanes, cyclones, floods, and droughts got worse. But they said the wealth would trickle down. Eventually people were getting pissed off at the dire state of the world. The rich misdirected that anger at immigrants! And First Nations! And trans people! And neurodivergent people! Anyone but the billionaires who got the tax cuts. So governments chose to keep the tax cuts. (For the rich. Everyone else got new tariff taxes.) But they said the wealth would trickle down. So did the wealth trickle down? Well... A group of billionaires saw this kinda cool tech demo. It predicted the next pixel of an image, based on the colour patterns of every image on the internet. It also predicted the next word in a sentence, based on an analysis of every piece of writing on the internet. The rich decided that this clearly showed that a sentient computer was just around the corner. The problem was these tech demos needed servers with a lot of GPUs to work. So the rich took all the money they got from those tax cuts. And they bought GPUs. Millions and millions and millions and millions of GPUs. All the tax cuts? All the underfunded schools? All the draconian welfare cuts? All the public housing shortages? The delays in funding clean energy. In the end, it didn't trickle down. And instead of all the public goods it could have bought... ...We'll be left with millions and millions and millions of GPUs in a landfill. #ChatGPT #Claude #AI #LLM #capitalism #socialism #business #politics #Nvidia

Replies (33)

@ayilathebailey@blahaj.zone 2025-10-01 16:58

@aj@gts.sadauskas.id.au ... and the only thing trickling down is acid rain on the crops.

Open ##1695131
@shafik@hachyderm.io 2025-10-01 17:41

@aj For those who want the receipts https://hachyderm.io/@shafik/114289253103464403

Open ##1695132
@gooba42@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 18:05

@aj Tax cuts for the rich were an experiment for which we already have all the results and collectively the governments of the world have decided that the jury is permanently out.

Open ##1695133
@Pepperbike@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 18:13

@aj Depressing and true.

Open ##1695134
@lizardbill@hachyderm.io 2025-10-01 18:14

@aj Maybe the GPUs will trickle down.

Open ##1695138
@woltiv@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 18:23

@aj Trickle down economics turned out the same way as USSR-style communism. Great on paper, benefited no one but the people on top.

Open ##1695139
@bituur_esztreym@pouet.chapril.org 2025-10-01 18:50

@aj it's not 'trickle down' alas, it's 'trickle doom'..

Open ##1695140
@gimulnautti@mastodon.green 2025-10-01 19:12

@aj Millions and Millions of BURNED OUT & unusable GPU’s to be accurate

Open ##1695141
@FishNamedDog@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 20:22

@aj "There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity will leak through on those below." ~ William Jennings Bryan, in his "cross of gold" speech, July 9, 1896.

Open ##1695142
@nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de 2025-10-01 22:41

@aj Can’t be shared too often

Open ##1695164
@AlexanderKingsbury@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 23:37

@aj "Over 40 years, pretty much everything got cut to fund these tax cuts. Schools." Uhhh, no. School funding has increased over the past 40 years. By a LOT. Welfare? "From 1977 to 2021, in 2021 inflation-adjusted dollars, state and local government spending on public welfare increased from $154 billion to $862 billion (458 percent increase)." https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cross-center-initiatives/state-and-local-finance-initiative/state-and-local-backgrounders/public-welfare-expenditures

Open ##1695165
@Rickd6@mstdn.ca 2025-10-02 01:44

@aj the death of democracy is caused by uncontrolled capitalism feeding on unbridled consumerism

Open ##1695166
@johnlogic@sfba.social 2025-10-02 03:33

@aj In the USA, the tax burden shifted from high earners to the working class with the passage of the Revenue Act of 1964. That's when the average annual rate of inflation in the USA jumped from negligible to consistently about 4%. I believe it's because rich people started hoarding money, taking it out of circulation.

Open ##1695168
@andersgo@infosec.exchange 2025-10-02 07:22

@aj @dch Trickle down economics is marxist theory for capitalists

Open ##1695169
@flauschbert@mastodon.social 2025-10-02 11:50

@aj word

Open ##1695170
@eldritch48@mastodon.social 2025-10-02 23:06

@aj When will we rage? It's only coming down in fire.

Open ##1695171
@miket330@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 16:49

@aj it was bullshit then and still is

Open ##1695172
@GoodKing@mstdn.party 2025-10-01 16:47

@aj I believe you are describing the “Tinkle-Down” theory: the rich get the money and piss on you. Seems to be working.

Open ##1695173
@dyckron@mstdn.ca 2025-10-01 16:27

@aj neoliberalism has been the premier ideological project of the last several decades, with its massive success meaning it's basically too big to fail now, or, we're doubling and tripling down on it even after being led to ruination. Book recommendation: In the Ruins of Neoliberalism The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West Wendy Brown https://cup.columbia.edu/book/in-the-ruins-of-neoliberalism/9780231193856/

Open ##1695174
@TeflonTrout@beige.party 2025-10-01 15:19

@aj we can fix it With blood trickling down their necks

Open ##1695175
@DavidM_yeg@mstdn.ca 2025-10-01 15:09

@aj Conspiracy Theorist Anonymous: Trickle Down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5x1sSjfknM

Open ##1695176
@TheSilentHolographer@techhub.social 2025-10-01 14:59

@aj you'd think they'd be interested in having more customers who can afford what they're selling

Open ##1695177
@juneosborne@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 14:41

@aj so you're saying its never gonna trickle down?!? If MAGA ever gets educated to understand it was never meant to, they're gonna be pissed!

Open ##1695178
@acm_redfox@jawns.club 2025-10-01 14:37

@aj and I think we knew by the end of the Reagan Era that this was nonsense, and still we've played along for another several decades...

Open ##1695179
@sasyecat@mstdn.social 2025-10-01 14:25

@aj Conservatives want to know how the poor spend every little dime they have, shame them for wanting a soda or a candy bar for their kids' birthday. How do millionaires and billionaires spend their money? Fast cars, mega yachts, and private jets, adding more pollutants. On a 2nd, 3rd, even 4th vacation home, but hey, "lock the homeless up!" And according to the Epstein files, underage sex trafficking. Drug test just about any billionaire, and they'll test positive for something. Hypocrites

Open ##1695180
@lednaBM@stranger.social 2025-10-01 14:14

@aj I grew up in the 60s. I learned never to trust what "they" tell you. That is, not without doing the mental exercise of understanding and sorting the facts from the bullshit!

Open ##1695181
@sarpau@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 13:58

@aj So nothing of what they is true wow 🤔

Open ##1695183
@EndicottAuthor@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 13:36

@aj Trickle Down Economics is a SCAM.

Open ##1695184
@SusiArnott@mastodon.green 2025-10-01 13:07

@aj Wealth doesn't trickle down, it gets hoovered up

Open ##1695185
@CelloMomOnCars@mastodon.social 2025-10-01 13:06

@aj Hence those GenZ protests all over the place. There is a theme. Every single one of them is about inequality and social injustice.

Open ##1695186
@populistensohn@climatejustice.social 2025-10-01 12:46

@aj in german (because it matches fist to glove to where we stand as well): Über 40 Jahre lang wurde uns kollektiv gesagt, wir müssten den Reichen Steuersenkungen geben. Und man sagte uns, dass, wenn wir das täten, der Reichtum nach unten durchsickern würde und alle besser dastünden. Über 40 Jahre hinweg wurde so ziemlich alles gekürzt, um diese Steuersenkungen zu finanzieren. Schulen. Krankenhäuser. Sozialwohnungen. Öffentlicher Nahverkehr. Universitäten. Straßenprojekte. Psychiatrische Dienste. Sozialleistungen. Menschen wurden buchstäblich obdachlos oder verhungerten, damit reiche Leute Steuersenkungen bekommen konnten. Weil der Reichtum nach unten durchsickern würde. Schließlich führte der Abbau öffentlicher Güter zu sozialer Zerrüttung. Also kürzten die Regierungen diese öffentlichen Güter noch weiter, um mehr Polizei und Gefängnisse zu finanzieren. Damit sie weiterhin den Reichen Steuersenkungen geben konnten. Aber sie sagten, der Reichtum würde nach unten durchsickern. Schließlich begann sich das Klima zu verändern – wegen der Menge an giftiger fossiler Verschmutzung in der Atmosphäre. Und die Regierungen entschieden sich, die Steuersenkungen beizubehalten, anstatt in Infrastruktur zur Emissionssenkung zu investieren. (Viele dieser Milliardäre, die Steuersenkungen erhielten, verdienten ihr Geld mit dem Verkauf fossiler Brennstoffe.) Und als sich Ozeane und Atmosphäre erwärmten, wurden Buschbrände, Dürren, Hurrikane, Zyklone, Überschwemmungen und Trockenzeiten schlimmer. Aber sie sagten, der Reichtum würde nach unten durchsickern. Schließlich wurden die Menschen wütend über den katastrophalen Zustand der Welt. Die Reichen lenkten diese Wut auf Migrant*innen! Und auf Indigene! Und auf trans Menschen! Und auf neurodivergente Menschen! Auf alle – nur nicht auf die Milliardäre, die die Steuersenkungen bekamen. Also entschieden die Regierungen, die Steuersenkungen beizubehalten. (Für die Reichen. Alle anderen bekamen neue Zollsteuern.) Aber sie sagten, der Reichtum würde nach unten durchsickern. Also – ist der Reichtum nach unten durchgesickert? Nun ja… Eine Gruppe von Milliardären sah dieses ziemlich coole Tech-Demo. Es sagte das nächste Pixel in einem Bild vorher, basierend auf den Farbmustern aller Bilder im Internet. Es sagte auch das nächste Wort in einem Satz vorher, basierend auf der Analyse aller Texte im Internet. Die Reichen entschieden, dass das eindeutig zeigte, dass ein fühlender Computer kurz bevorstand. Das Problem war nur: Diese Tech-Demos brauchten Server mit einer Menge GPUs, um zu funktionieren. Also nahmen die Reichen all das Geld aus den Steuersenkungen. Und sie kauften GPUs. Millionen und Millionen und Millionen und Millionen von GPUs. Alle Steuersenkungen? Alle unterfinanzierten Schulen? Alle drakonischen Kürzungen bei Sozialleistungen? Alle Wohnungskrisen? Die Verzögerungen bei der Finanzierung erneuerbarer Energien. Am Ende ist nichts nach unten gesickert. Und anstelle all der öffentlichen Güter, die man damit hätte finanzieren können… …werden wir mit Millionen und Millionen und Millionen GPUs auf einer Mülldeponie zurückbleiben. #ChatGPT #Claude #AI #LLM #capitalism #socialism #business #politics #Nvidia

Open ##1695187
@Dave_Goldsmith@mastodon.scot 2025-10-01 12:27

@aj Trickle- Down vs. Bubble-up. Another world was possible. I wonder if it still is?

Open ##1695188
@madengineering@mastodon.cloud 2025-10-01 22:37

@aj@gts.sadauskas.id.au a local expression where I currently live says "don't pee on me and tell me it's raining." Trickle Down indeed. :blobthinkingcool:

Open ##3081179