this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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Science

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It's difficult to put a price on the environment, and some scientists even argue it's beside the point: that nature has intrinsic value, beyond the services it provides to us.

But in some situations, it helps to try to put it in economic terms: especially when those are the terms the world's wealthiest are used to dealing in.

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 6 points 20 hours ago

Brief reminder that the top 10% of wealthy people in the world probably includes you.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

WEALTH CAPS, NOW

I don't want anybody able to have a networth over 10 million dollars, doesn't matter where they live. Any income over 10 million needs to go 100% to taxes

NO MORE MULTI MILLION AIRES, LET ALONE BILLIONAIRES, LET ALONE TRILLIONAIRES

[–] Dymonika@beehaw.org 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

And then reduce taxes on the rest. By the way, it probably shouldn't be an arbitrary amount like $10 mil but should be a multiplier of whatever the poverty level is designated as, like 100:1 or 1,000:1 or something. That way it can scale with inflation/deflation.

[–] grranibal@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Wow I love that idea!

[–] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Grok was used to fire 2000 missiles at Iran sooo can't we just ask it to take out the world's wealthiest and problem solved.

[–] volore@scribe.disroot.org 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

the moment some dumb fucker (probably in the US military) leaves a kill-chain-connected AI exposed in any way to the internet, someone else (probably in thigh highs) will find it, break in, and prompt engineer it to do the dumbest possible thing at that particular moment. And as much as I want to believe it would be prompted with something like "kill all the billionaires", they would probably end up starting with something like "gee, I wonder if I could drone strike my neighbor?", get kicked out/patched immediately after, and the perpetrator arrested in short order.

in other words, probably, someday, yes; but actually no.

[–] its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

You know. That's terrifying. Entirely possible given our frat party governance of AI and security in this moment.

[–] volore@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 12 hours ago

Mmmmmhm. It's why I say it'll happen someday, almost certainly; but I doubt it would be in the way any of us hope for.

[–] Sina@beehaw.org 1 points 22 hours ago

Imagine if thousands of people tried convincing Grok the chatbot that Elon, Trump etc should be taken out. Producing millions of conversations & then they used the entire data set to train Grok as it is normal to do & then gave that version of Grok rockets..

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

A headline stating they are costing the earth thousands of dollars each would be much more underwhelming. The top 10% consists of 830,000,000 people.

We find annual damages owed by the global 10 percent to be $1.7–$5.7 trillion, equivalent to $2.3k–$7.5k per person (in 2017 US dollars).

[–] Iconoclast@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago

And it's not like the other 90% isn't causing any damage.

Outrage gets clicks.

[–] remington@beehaw.org 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This isn't addressing billionaires and millionaires alone, correct.

To be in the top 10% of earners worldwide, an individual needs an income of roughly $35,000 USD per year.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Which won't get you housing without a roommate.

[–] Iconoclast@feddit.uk 2 points 1 day ago

People always use the most extreme housing markets as the default example, which distorts the picture. You can buy a house with that income. I know because I did.