• davelA
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    1 day ago

    If “ownership” has any practical meaning at all, I’m pretty sure I own my toothbrush.

    In what ways do taxes give us a sense of ownership? Ownership of what?

    • j4k3@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      In many places, like here in Orange County California, the local stores stopped carrying “firm” bristle toothbrushes. They only carry more expensive and flashy “soft” bristle varieties in all kinds of nonsense designs and only single and double packs. If you live anywhere poorer, you will notice that ALL of the products sold are different between these areas. If you are very self aware, you may notice that these much more expensive flashy products work terribly and the bristles splay after a week or two in comparison to the versions available in poorer areas where the same amount if money buys an 8-12 multi pack, and each brush will last a couple of months before splaying.

      Information such as this is limited. This is about autonomy. It is also about the ancient issue of false weighted scales in a forum market just in a modern context. Property is not owned when you still pay for extra junk to keep hold of it. That is renting from the real owners just by another name.

      You think you own your toothbrush. Do you, when someone is able to manipulate your perception of choice and dial it how often you repurchase it. Similarly, you do not own property that you do not control. Like your phone is controlled and therefore owned by whomever controls the orphaned kernel and binary modules that make it impossible for anyone to maintain without the SOC and modem hardware documentation. Everything is like this in the present dystopian world. Someone is manipulating and skimming every product and purchase without adding or providing value. This is possible because they are cashing out on citizenship and autonomy often in subtle enough ways to go unnoticed.

    • over_clox@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Look back at the OG meme. It suggests the people have 100% ownership of the land, dispersed unevenly though.

      When clearly we do not. Most everyone does not own the dirt they live and dwell on. If you owned it, you wouldn’t have to keep paying for it.

      • Halosheep@lemm.ee
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        23 hours ago

        The meme has nothing to do with land ownership, it’s giving a visual example of wealth differential by diving a map of the US into sections.

        • over_clox@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          The meme literally says own in every section.

          How else is anyone supposed to interpret the words presented to them?

          • jsomae
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            19 hours ago

            Perhaps you missed this: the meme says “if U.S. land mass were divided like U.S. wealth.” It’s a simile; it doesn’t mean that this really is the actual ratio that U.S. land is divided.

            • over_clox@lemmy.world
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              18 hours ago

              I missed absolutely nothing. I read the exact words on the meme, which imply 100% of people own land.

              Get real, 1% own property, while the other 99% have to rent it from the rich oligarchs and other rich fucks.

              • YarHarSuperstar@lemmy.world
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                17 hours ago

                What? It does not imply that at all? Let me guess, you also think that the 1% own the entire northwestern corner of the country? And 40% of people live in a single city in Texas?

                Edit: I’m sorry, this was unnecessarily rude and unnecessary in general.

    • over_clox@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Also, remember that many modern devices are unnecessarily connected to the internet. Why WiFi on the refrigerator? Why on the toaster? Why on the microwave?

      Do you even own your toothbrush anymore? It won’t be long and they’ll have you paying a subscription for your toothbrush to scan your DNA at this rate…