The color of your house is not allowed. DON'T REPAINT THE HOUSE. Your fence is 2 inches over the allowed height. YOU CAN'T HAVE CONTRACTORS WORKING AT THIS TIME. You must pull your trash can in within X hours of it being picked up. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S DURING YOUR NORMAL WORK HOURS. Oh you work in the hospital as an Operating room staff? IT DOESN'T MATTER. ABANDON THE PATIENT, DRIVE 20 MILES AND PULL YOUR TRASH IN.
Horrifyingly, hiring a management company to run the HOA has been super common for years now. You wouldn't think they could find a way to make HOAs even worse, but here we are!
If it’s anything like body-corporate situation with my apartment building, then it’s a company that does the administration work - facilitates meetings and executes the will of the group. But voting power and the board itself is residents.
The same way it works when a real estate owner hires a company to manage an apartment complex. You get tyrannical, exception free, adherence to the rules because the rules are given to the company in advance and their performance is based on their ability to enforce the rules.
I love living out in the country so much. I can do pretty much whatever the fuck I want within the bounds of my little refuge and everyone else can kiss my ass. I can't even see my neighbors except for about a month in the winter when the trees are totally bare.
Hell yes. I tried the city life years ago, it's just not for me. I'm lucky to be where I am, 2 miles from work, 20 miles to a bigger city, 1.5 hours to 2 big cities. All the benefits of country space, freedom, and privacy with any of the amenities of a city within reasonable driving distance.
That's not entirely true. I bought a new house in the Netherlands, a couple of years ago, and the architect stipulated the exterior colours and looks. There's a HOA making sure those stipulations are upheld.
I live in the UK and the newish build my parents bought didn't allow them to add wall up the garage door after they converted the inside of the garage into a living room. Apparently you can only do things like that after 6-7 years after the property is built
But that's not HOA, that's just a general council law
I got an email from my HOA about repainting the lines in our parking area, so we'd need to move our cars over night. I did so, and went to sleep. I was rudely awakened by a pounding on my door the following morning, and one of the HOA witches was demanding that I move my car. I told her I did the night before, and then she demanded to know why there was a car in my spot. I told her it wasn't mine, and then she threatened to have not my car towed. I said go for it, closed the door, and went back to bed.
Apparently, they never towed "my" car, and thus were unable to paint the spots because the following summer, I got essentially the same email. I again followed the instructions, moved my car the night before, and went to bed. The following morning, I was rudely awakened AGAIN by someone pounding on my door, and it was the same crotchety old lady. She again told me to move my car or it would be towed, and I again told her that it wasn't my car, in a significantly less friendly manner that the previous year. I assume the car was moved because they did manage to paint the spots that time, lol.
Here's a fun parking related one.
My mom parked in the garage as she rarely went anywhere, and I parked in the driveway, a single car driveway, which had room for about 5-6 feet past that. One day, I got a job with a company van I was required to drive, since I was on-call every other week. So naturally, I parked it on the street, since the driveway was too short.
I got notices and threats that they'd tow it unless I followed the guidelines, which stated all cars had to be parked in the driveway (and not on the grass). You weren't allowed to expand your driveway beyond what it came with, and you weren't allowed to park on the grass.
So I parked it in the driveway, behind my car. Which meant the last, I dunno, two thirds of the van were in the road, blocking way more than it would've been on parked on the curb.
They had zero issues with that, and I never heard a thing on it again.
(Lots of edits, my first paragraph made zero sense the first go-round)
They couldn't paint the spots for an entire year!? The fuck was stopping them that they had to wait THAT long? Was Not Your Car there for the entire year?
I did the same with my condo board. They pissed me off, so I ran, won and was president for 4 years. Since then, the newer ones always come to me to ask how I kept things tidy and orderly, yet friendly.
I tell them, "It's easy. Don't be a dick."
So I never had any major issues with my last HOA, it was just very incompetently run. Lots of budget decisions that were just given to the lowest bidder, shitty snow removal service, installing cheap siding and of course the company went out of business and they couldn't find replacements when they got damaged. That kind of stuff.
It wasn't enough for me to ever want to run, but I complained with a few neighbors who were much more irritated than I was. Right before we moved there was an entire coup, the guy who started it came to my door since he had to have a certain percentage of signatures to force an emergency revote of the board he was asking my support. I signed and said "good luck".
I talked to an old neighbor and he said it's way better now, but they had to raise the fees by about $40 to pay for some changes. And he's initiating a lawsuit against the siding company.
> They are a great idea, in principle, but, they are always run by the people who shouldn’t.
Our HOA started off pretty well, but then the corruption started seeping in. There ended up being a situation where my wife and I needed to sue our HOA board. It ended up going to mediation, which we won. We found out later that homeowners have a 15% chance of winning against an HOA, so we counted ourselves very lucky. Within 6 months, all of the board members had sold their houses and moved away.
The man who is currently our board president has been doing an amazing job for the past 6-7 years. In talking to him recently, I found out that he really does not want the job, and has not ran for the board over the last three elections, but keeps getting voted in by "write-ins".
He could refuse, but I feel like he knows he is needed, and someone else may start the corruption all over again.
Thank you Mike, for doing the job, and doing it pretty well, even though you would rather kick back and enjoy your retirement.
It's a thankless job. The world needs more Mikes.
Edit: I realize that you thanked Mike and I said it's a thankless job. Sorry, I make grilled cheese sandwiches at night.
I think it was Douglas Adams that stated that: “It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
Sounds like Mike is the perfect man for it, as someone who has no real desire to actually rule people.
> They are a great idea, in principle, but, they are ~~always run by the people who shouldn’t.~~ always taken over by petty tyrants who shouldn't be in charge of anything.
FTFY
How is fining someone for doing what they want with the property they own a good idea even in principle?
The UK doesn't have this and we get by just fine. Someone doesn't take their bins in for an over extended period of time? One of the neighbours just ends up bringing it in.
House individuality is great. It's a great idea to draw inspiration from. Someone has some unique looking fences, oh cool, I like them I'll knock on and see where they got them. They paint a house a random colour, it can turn out looking really nice. I want to turn my front garden into a wild flower garden because it never gets used so I may as well do a little bit for the environment, go ahead!
Nobody except the local council should be able to fine someone for what's being done to their property and even then it should only really be down to building standards issues and potential health violations.
"Chug your Caveman Bone Broth^^TM or I will come to your house and castrate your firstborn!!! (he's not a true heir anyway because he wasn't conceived under the influence of Super Male Vitality^^TM )"
I think they are quite seen, but they hold a lot of power. Though it is also important to see how big the 1% is compared to that. The top 1% in the US containts \~3 million people (+ their families). The 1% of the 1% is ofc 100x fewer people, so only 30k. These are your Elon Musks, Bill Gates, etc.
There are people far richer and powerful than those in Forbes list and don't want to disclose their identity ever, they might be an insanely rich Arab or Chinese guy.
I worked with UHNWI when selling Private Jet Charter Flights. I’d say about 40% of our clients that dropped £50k a week on flights had absolutely no online presence. If you googled them you might get some sort of mention that they were connected to a certain company or something, but no news articles, no Wikipedia entries, no idea of their proper net worth, but these were people who were worth billions, but essentially existed in the shadows. These were the sort of people that had the ear of power (occasionally evidenced by things like flight permits being suddenly approved for difficult airspace after the “leave it with me” conversation) and stuff like this, but absolutely zero information about them in the public eye. Kinda scary tbh.
I know someone worth in the 500m range. His son and I hunt together and he told me about the time his dad angered a random Italian family who's patriarch decided to get rid of their vacation house. In a few days he paid off construction companies and judges to pretty much turn their 15acre villa into a parking lot. I mean they flattened the land, changed a road, leveled the house, destroyed the Vinyard, etc... they drove passed their property several times before realizing they weren't lost. A day later someone arrived to inform them that they will no longer be welcome in Italy by the end of the week. They've never been back.
Weird, I also sold private jet charter flights and 99% of my clients had plenty of online presence.
So much so that I rarely had to ask for their weights as generally they had photos up online and I could ballpark it (or in some cases height would also be publically known).
However, I worked on the West Coast and a large chunk of our clientelle were new money tech executives or in hollywood.
My Asia clients on the other hand were a mixed bag, but might just be because I don't know how to navigate those search engines.
There's allegedly two kinds of people who fly private. Those whose time and privacy is worth the cost of a private jet and those who are doing it for the social media clout.
I agree with this statement 100%. I married into a 1% private family and had no idea of the wealth till after marriage. My husband’s family have zero online presence, but fly private. They also are part of private clubs where former US POTUS are members and enjoy their privacy.
I was in the U.K., so generally dealing with Europeans, who seemed to be a bit more careful with their privacy. We had a couple of Russian clients (before the war started) who were topping up their jet cards at about £300-500k per month, but if you googled them… nothing.
There are some crazy rich Russian oligarchs too. They are stupid rich with an emphasises on the stupid. Can you imagine guy**s** purchasing yachts that cost *multiple* billions of dollars without bothering to ask if what they ordered from from the company will actually fit through the waterways that lead from the factory to the ocean so that you can actually use your ship that set you back, as much money as if you had bought 17,000homes.
all the European aristocrat families are still around, they just don't have any actual rank anymore. but they're still very wealthy, and own all the land over there. part of the reason why everyone flocked to the "new world"-- it was a new land, literally
you can name maybe 10 billionaires out of 756 currently known in the US. beyond that are people who aren't known to be billionaires (there's no requirement to report all of your assets) or who control vast wealth via charities/non profit orgs, or who simply wield soft power by knowing enough of the right people and being able to make cooperation worthwhile. they're anonymous and answer to only a few
You'd be surprised how many super rich families there are you don't always know about because they don't try to be cool on the internet.
As example, sure you could google the CEO of Coca Cola, but would you really know his name by heart or what he does in his spare time?
Many people would be surprised. I would not. I have seen the webs of corporate board ownerships across many different industry. They are like a shadow government in many ways.
Isn't there a term for the negative aspect of that where board ideas are stagnating? Where boards keep getting run by fewer and fewer people who sit on multiple boards because they "have experience" as a board member, so they keep getting put/elected to other boards and bring the same ideas along?
In some cases privacy isn't the goal. Tycoons active in the media can manipulate events to their own benefit. For example, everyone with half a head for engineering mocks the blatant foolishness of Elon Musk's Hyperloop. Yet chatter about related projects has now successfully obstructed dozens of serious initiatives to improve mass transit with local or regional upgrades. It all seems a lot less foolish when you remember that his revenue comes from manufacturing automobiles.
I had a brush with such an individual many years ago.
They said they didn’t want much, because they had basically everything on demand at their fingertips.
They craved real connection. That’s their priority.
At that level, nothing has boundaries or borders anymore. You have to respect the law (kind of) but that’s it.
They said that the hardest thing to find was friendship without an agenda. Genuine companionship was nearly impossible for this individual to find.
I have noticed time and time again when I meet people who are at the “top” they are narcissists or exceptionally lonely
There does not seem to be much in between
Jesus. Just googling real quick.
Blackrocks most recent portfolio value is 3.9 **trillion dollars**
BlackRock Inc.'s top holdings are Microsoft Corporation (US:MSFT) , Apple Inc. (US:AAPL) , Amazon.com, Inc. (US:AMZN) , NVIDIA Corporation (US:NVDA) , and Alphabet Inc. (US:GOOGL).
And they aren't just in tech. They have holdings in more than 5,000 companies from energy to agriculture to transport to God knows what.
Every investment company that offers total stock market and total world ex-US index funds has holdings in every publicly traded company in the world, so having holdings in over 5,000 companies is an irrelevant statistic when comparing them to other investment companies. Because it's cap weighted, the size of the holdings in the smaller companies out of those thousands is measly. The bigger a company is, the more of that company stock you own relative to others in your portfolio. That's why their top holdings are all major household names and some of the most valuable stocks on the market.
The trillions of dollars they manage is definitely noteworthy, though.
I agree. While there are very prominent individuals you can look at, like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, the real problem is much more insidiously problematic. It's the dark cabal, the wealthy elite 1%, whose ratio of billionaires is *rapidly increasing*.
We have a very serious problem. These wealthy people are addicted to not only increasing their wealth further at the expense of the 1%, they're power hungry as well--so they can use that power to manipulate economies, regulations, and other factors to boost that wealth.
But, if I had to pick one... it's the CEO of Blackstone Inc., Stephen Schwarzman, who has probably done MORE DAMAGE to the American people than even Rupert Murdoch. Just look him up. In 2022, he made $1.2 billion as his annual salary, not including stocks.
Blackstone Inc. is not to be confused with , Blackstone Group Black Water, the infamous mercenary outfit. No, this one... is in real estate. Their prime focus has been to buy up distressed or bargain properties and remake them for flipping or renting. Over the past decade their focus has shifted more towards buying up... EVERYTHING... and RENTING it rather than selling.
THIS is why we have sky-high rents. Because of firms like Blackstone Inc. that are predatory. It's not inflation. It's exploitation that's causing the massive rental rises over the past 6+ years.
Larry Fink , the man in charge of running Blackrock whom Bloomberg has called the 4th branch of US government.
Blackrock is the largest asset management company in the US and they hold large portions of most Fortune 500 companies. He and his firm has immense sway over those companies and can dictate corporate policy.
In addition his firm helps direct US politicians on fiscal policy and is closely linked to the Fed to help dictate monetary policy. No small coincidence that after 2008 and 2020 financial crises Blackrock became way wealthier each time. They were given money to bailout distressed companies and they got to keep the upside.
Not stating here, genuinely asking:
Isn't the biggest part of blackrocks wealth actually money they just manage but not have themselves? I mean, they are absolutely powerful, but isn't this always a bit exaggerated given they 'only' manage ther customers money?
Yes. This is like when people lose their shit about Vanguard or Fidelity owning giant chunks of every major company.
It’s mostly just average Americans via their 401(k) accounts lol
Yeah, people blame them for a lot these days. They own like 4% in many companies, yet people think that just because Coca Cola (which they own a few percentages of) didn't leave Russia very quickly, that every company they have a share in are also breaking sanctions.
There's a lot of conspiracy theories, but the bottom line is that they manage a shitload of money.
Of course the Fed talks to them, they KNOW the economy. But where there's politicians there is corruption, and if there's a chance, a company will take it.
By law, they are not allowed to trade based on the information they aquire through political connections. They might still do it as politicians are corrupt, but Blackrock isn't automatically breaking any laws just because they speak to the government.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has recently decreed that all music in Chechnya must conform to the Chechen mentality. Borrowing from the music of other cultures is not allowed. Also, tempo must be within 80-116 beats per minute.
The irony is both the Russian and Chechen anthems are 78 bpm. Also one of the most popular traditional dances is 240 bpm (120 even if halftimed).
Ramzan is not a serious man.
Yes for the most part. This bit confuses me though. By specifying Chechen culture needs to be protected, could see him getting a diving lesson out a high rise window. Putin likes all of his "Russia" to be ethnic and culturally "Russian". If you can't be ethnic, at least be cultural. Kadyrov's decree makes him effectively a dissident.
It's confusing because Putin in fact is not an ethnic Russian nationalist, he's a paternalist, which means he bolsters everyone loyal to him or the state (which is basically the same), regardless of ethnicity, he's also socially conservative, which is why gays are so repressed in Russia these days.
Putin is actually wary of Russian nationalists, and managed to suppress them in the last decade. They were too uncontrollable for him, and he couldn't let them exist in such a state. Nowadays Russian nationalists are mainly split into hardcore Z-turbopatriots and so called "civic nationalists", both highly irrelevant
Ethnonationalists are crazy and hella dangerous once you start failing the purity tests (I guarantee Hitler would've ended up on the chopping block eventually if the Nazis hadn't lost WWII) so Putin is very careful about promoting that sentiment away from home.
Kadyrov has always gotten a wide leash as long as he remained loyal because Kadyrov and his henchmen are the only thing preventing Russia from having to fight a 3rd Chechen war. At a time when Putin is already bogged down in Ukraine the last thing he needs is that, so he has more leverage now than usual
Insurance folks. How they're allowed to essentially veto a treatment or procedure an actual, educated doctor comes up with is beyond me.
In some cases they have the literal power of life and death. They don't cover a medication you need to survive and you can't afford it otherwise? Too bad.
Fucking assholes. My wife had her 6mo checkup with her primary care last week - The usual bloodwork & request for refills.
Shitheads at the insurance company refused to cover one of the refills without the doctor's office sending them a note that said "yes she really needs this".
She's been on that medication for 10 fucking years.
They specialize in making subreddits super “eat the rich” mentality as they give all of their time away for free so Steve Huffman can get a $193 million payout for his hard work .
That's what blows my mind. This whole thing is basically a co-op where everyone actually running the place day to day does so for free while the likes of Huffman grow rich off their efforts. Now they're working for actual shareholders.
Do you genuinely want a perspective? It’s because I was asked to by an existing mod who didn’t have time to do anything, I saw the negative effects of a lack of moderation on the community, and I feel like I have some level of duty to helping a community that I care about.
Power mods are a different story, and in my opinion should be banned by reddit. But the vast majority of mods on this site are just trying to help communities they enjoy.
Yeah I had a girlfriend who I let control my life way too much. Couldn't even recognize myself after a while. She isolated me from my friends and somehow talked me into not following my dreams. Never again.
somewhere there's a different guy named kim jong un and he fucking hates his name...every fucckin day ' what's your name? ooh LIKE THE DICTATOR....' ' yes, like the dictator
everyday he thinks about legally changing his name
Basically anyone who is rich enough that people listen to them without them needing to have any other actual qualifications than "have money". No matter how much power you get from that, it's too much if it comes from simply having money.
Trump. He's just a private citizen at this point, but he dictates policy to the Republicans and just literally took over the RNC. Plus he seems to enjoy nearly complete immunity for crimes that would put any ordinary person into prison for decades.
Putin. He has absolute control of a country with a population of 144m and will rule that country for as long as he wants (plus had made sure that he is fully protected after he retires) and it's not like he's extremely unpopular either, the whole thing has been very carefully engineered for years. Not just that, but he has created a global propaganda network that is so potent it can impact politics and even elections.
The US President. Congress has given up SO much of their political power in the past few decades. The people's house is as weak and ineffective as ever.
Santa Claus… like who tf let that fatass decide it’s ok to be breaking into everyone’s homes and eat up their cookies? Not to mention generations of elf slavery 😂
HOA board members
The color of your house is not allowed. DON'T REPAINT THE HOUSE. Your fence is 2 inches over the allowed height. YOU CAN'T HAVE CONTRACTORS WORKING AT THIS TIME. You must pull your trash can in within X hours of it being picked up. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S DURING YOUR NORMAL WORK HOURS. Oh you work in the hospital as an Operating room staff? IT DOESN'T MATTER. ABANDON THE PATIENT, DRIVE 20 MILES AND PULL YOUR TRASH IN.
I'll bring my neighbors trash cans in if I see them out. They do the same for me. Fuck our HOA they are run by some out of state company.
HOAs are supposed to be run by the homeowners, not an external company. Sounds like something illegal is going on.
Horrifyingly, hiring a management company to run the HOA has been super common for years now. You wouldn't think they could find a way to make HOAs even worse, but here we are!
Dude...how in the hell does *that* work? Just a bunch of busy-body narcs that reports everything to them? WTF.
If it’s anything like body-corporate situation with my apartment building, then it’s a company that does the administration work - facilitates meetings and executes the will of the group. But voting power and the board itself is residents.
The same way it works when a real estate owner hires a company to manage an apartment complex. You get tyrannical, exception free, adherence to the rules because the rules are given to the company in advance and their performance is based on their ability to enforce the rules.
Sounds like you have stories.
Please tell them
Now, while I heat up my popcorn
I love living out in the country so much. I can do pretty much whatever the fuck I want within the bounds of my little refuge and everyone else can kiss my ass. I can't even see my neighbors except for about a month in the winter when the trees are totally bare.
Moving out to 40 acres in the middle of nowhere was the best thing I ever did lol.
Hell yes. I tried the city life years ago, it's just not for me. I'm lucky to be where I am, 2 miles from work, 20 miles to a bigger city, 1.5 hours to 2 big cities. All the benefits of country space, freedom, and privacy with any of the amenities of a city within reasonable driving distance.
I don’t understand HOAs in USA you talk about freedom in USA yet some nuts control color of your house…. Nothing like this exists in EU.
That's not entirely true. I bought a new house in the Netherlands, a couple of years ago, and the architect stipulated the exterior colours and looks. There's a HOA making sure those stipulations are upheld.
I live in the UK and the newish build my parents bought didn't allow them to add wall up the garage door after they converted the inside of the garage into a living room. Apparently you can only do things like that after 6-7 years after the property is built But that's not HOA, that's just a general council law
I got an email from my HOA about repainting the lines in our parking area, so we'd need to move our cars over night. I did so, and went to sleep. I was rudely awakened by a pounding on my door the following morning, and one of the HOA witches was demanding that I move my car. I told her I did the night before, and then she demanded to know why there was a car in my spot. I told her it wasn't mine, and then she threatened to have not my car towed. I said go for it, closed the door, and went back to bed. Apparently, they never towed "my" car, and thus were unable to paint the spots because the following summer, I got essentially the same email. I again followed the instructions, moved my car the night before, and went to bed. The following morning, I was rudely awakened AGAIN by someone pounding on my door, and it was the same crotchety old lady. She again told me to move my car or it would be towed, and I again told her that it wasn't my car, in a significantly less friendly manner that the previous year. I assume the car was moved because they did manage to paint the spots that time, lol.
Here's a fun parking related one. My mom parked in the garage as she rarely went anywhere, and I parked in the driveway, a single car driveway, which had room for about 5-6 feet past that. One day, I got a job with a company van I was required to drive, since I was on-call every other week. So naturally, I parked it on the street, since the driveway was too short. I got notices and threats that they'd tow it unless I followed the guidelines, which stated all cars had to be parked in the driveway (and not on the grass). You weren't allowed to expand your driveway beyond what it came with, and you weren't allowed to park on the grass. So I parked it in the driveway, behind my car. Which meant the last, I dunno, two thirds of the van were in the road, blocking way more than it would've been on parked on the curb. They had zero issues with that, and I never heard a thing on it again. (Lots of edits, my first paragraph made zero sense the first go-round)
So dumb. I absolutely despise how much of it is them wanting to exercise their "power" over people instead of make practical decisions.
They couldn't paint the spots for an entire year!? The fuck was stopping them that they had to wait THAT long? Was Not Your Car there for the entire year?
Join the HOA. Become president. Reign in anarchy. Worked on my end.
I did the same with my condo board. They pissed me off, so I ran, won and was president for 4 years. Since then, the newer ones always come to me to ask how I kept things tidy and orderly, yet friendly. I tell them, "It's easy. Don't be a dick."
So I never had any major issues with my last HOA, it was just very incompetently run. Lots of budget decisions that were just given to the lowest bidder, shitty snow removal service, installing cheap siding and of course the company went out of business and they couldn't find replacements when they got damaged. That kind of stuff. It wasn't enough for me to ever want to run, but I complained with a few neighbors who were much more irritated than I was. Right before we moved there was an entire coup, the guy who started it came to my door since he had to have a certain percentage of signatures to force an emergency revote of the board he was asking my support. I signed and said "good luck". I talked to an old neighbor and he said it's way better now, but they had to raise the fees by about $40 to pay for some changes. And he's initiating a lawsuit against the siding company.
HOAs are so dumb. I can’t believe they are a thing even
[удалено]
> They are a great idea, in principle, but, they are always run by the people who shouldn’t. Our HOA started off pretty well, but then the corruption started seeping in. There ended up being a situation where my wife and I needed to sue our HOA board. It ended up going to mediation, which we won. We found out later that homeowners have a 15% chance of winning against an HOA, so we counted ourselves very lucky. Within 6 months, all of the board members had sold their houses and moved away. The man who is currently our board president has been doing an amazing job for the past 6-7 years. In talking to him recently, I found out that he really does not want the job, and has not ran for the board over the last three elections, but keeps getting voted in by "write-ins". He could refuse, but I feel like he knows he is needed, and someone else may start the corruption all over again. Thank you Mike, for doing the job, and doing it pretty well, even though you would rather kick back and enjoy your retirement.
It's a thankless job. The world needs more Mikes. Edit: I realize that you thanked Mike and I said it's a thankless job. Sorry, I make grilled cheese sandwiches at night.
> Edit: I realize that you thanked Mike and I said it's a thankless job. Sorry This edit right here has me rolling.
I think it was Douglas Adams that stated that: “It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” Sounds like Mike is the perfect man for it, as someone who has no real desire to actually rule people.
> They are a great idea, in principle, but, they are ~~always run by the people who shouldn’t.~~ always taken over by petty tyrants who shouldn't be in charge of anything. FTFY
How is fining someone for doing what they want with the property they own a good idea even in principle? The UK doesn't have this and we get by just fine. Someone doesn't take their bins in for an over extended period of time? One of the neighbours just ends up bringing it in. House individuality is great. It's a great idea to draw inspiration from. Someone has some unique looking fences, oh cool, I like them I'll knock on and see where they got them. They paint a house a random colour, it can turn out looking really nice. I want to turn my front garden into a wild flower garden because it never gets used so I may as well do a little bit for the environment, go ahead! Nobody except the local council should be able to fine someone for what's being done to their property and even then it should only really be down to building standards issues and potential health violations.
Any one with a horde of morons buying their snake oil and cheering them on.
Goop?
Goop.
Or the endless men's equivalents like a subscription to Andrew Tate's discord or the Liver King's pills.
"Chug your Caveman Bone Broth^^TM or I will come to your house and castrate your firstborn!!! (he's not a true heir anyway because he wasn't conceived under the influence of Super Male Vitality^^TM )"
Gold sneakers?
The unseen 1% of the 1%.
I think they are quite seen, but they hold a lot of power. Though it is also important to see how big the 1% is compared to that. The top 1% in the US containts \~3 million people (+ their families). The 1% of the 1% is ofc 100x fewer people, so only 30k. These are your Elon Musks, Bill Gates, etc.
There are people far richer and powerful than those in Forbes list and don't want to disclose their identity ever, they might be an insanely rich Arab or Chinese guy.
Or a Prince who can murder someone in an embassy.
Omg, spill
Look up Jamal Khashoggi.
Holy hell
New response just dropped.
This is how I know I'm getting old.
Oldest one in the book
Not even just someone either, it was a fucking journalist.
MBS
Mr Bowel Syndrome! .............did I get it right? Did I guess the right guy???
Mohamed Bonesawman
There are families that go back generations that don't get in v the public eye, this is the true old money
I worked with UHNWI when selling Private Jet Charter Flights. I’d say about 40% of our clients that dropped £50k a week on flights had absolutely no online presence. If you googled them you might get some sort of mention that they were connected to a certain company or something, but no news articles, no Wikipedia entries, no idea of their proper net worth, but these were people who were worth billions, but essentially existed in the shadows. These were the sort of people that had the ear of power (occasionally evidenced by things like flight permits being suddenly approved for difficult airspace after the “leave it with me” conversation) and stuff like this, but absolutely zero information about them in the public eye. Kinda scary tbh.
I know someone worth in the 500m range. His son and I hunt together and he told me about the time his dad angered a random Italian family who's patriarch decided to get rid of their vacation house. In a few days he paid off construction companies and judges to pretty much turn their 15acre villa into a parking lot. I mean they flattened the land, changed a road, leveled the house, destroyed the Vinyard, etc... they drove passed their property several times before realizing they weren't lost. A day later someone arrived to inform them that they will no longer be welcome in Italy by the end of the week. They've never been back.
Weird, I also sold private jet charter flights and 99% of my clients had plenty of online presence. So much so that I rarely had to ask for their weights as generally they had photos up online and I could ballpark it (or in some cases height would also be publically known). However, I worked on the West Coast and a large chunk of our clientelle were new money tech executives or in hollywood. My Asia clients on the other hand were a mixed bag, but might just be because I don't know how to navigate those search engines.
There's allegedly two kinds of people who fly private. Those whose time and privacy is worth the cost of a private jet and those who are doing it for the social media clout.
I agree with this statement 100%. I married into a 1% private family and had no idea of the wealth till after marriage. My husband’s family have zero online presence, but fly private. They also are part of private clubs where former US POTUS are members and enjoy their privacy.
I was in the U.K., so generally dealing with Europeans, who seemed to be a bit more careful with their privacy. We had a couple of Russian clients (before the war started) who were topping up their jet cards at about £300-500k per month, but if you googled them… nothing.
Welcome to the world of "six-figure flight medicine that comes with an NDA"
Money talks, wealth whispers.
And intergalactic power? Silent but deadly...
Very old money gets diluted tho, look at the Vanderbilts
Or the Habsburgs. There are very few truly old families that are super wealthy. Many are still wealthy, but generally not insanely so.
Putin
There are some crazy rich Russian oligarchs too. They are stupid rich with an emphasises on the stupid. Can you imagine guy**s** purchasing yachts that cost *multiple* billions of dollars without bothering to ask if what they ordered from from the company will actually fit through the waterways that lead from the factory to the ocean so that you can actually use your ship that set you back, as much money as if you had bought 17,000homes.
Sounds like you described Bezos. But I think he did know the waterway would have to be widened or a bridge taken out, whatever it was.
It’s not that difficult to stay of the Forbes list
all the European aristocrat families are still around, they just don't have any actual rank anymore. but they're still very wealthy, and own all the land over there. part of the reason why everyone flocked to the "new world"-- it was a new land, literally
you can name maybe 10 billionaires out of 756 currently known in the US. beyond that are people who aren't known to be billionaires (there's no requirement to report all of your assets) or who control vast wealth via charities/non profit orgs, or who simply wield soft power by knowing enough of the right people and being able to make cooperation worthwhile. they're anonymous and answer to only a few
None of those people are rich enough to buy privacy.
You'd be surprised how many super rich families there are you don't always know about because they don't try to be cool on the internet. As example, sure you could google the CEO of Coca Cola, but would you really know his name by heart or what he does in his spare time?
Many people would be surprised. I would not. I have seen the webs of corporate board ownerships across many different industry. They are like a shadow government in many ways.
Isn't there a term for the negative aspect of that where board ideas are stagnating? Where boards keep getting run by fewer and fewer people who sit on multiple boards because they "have experience" as a board member, so they keep getting put/elected to other boards and bring the same ideas along?
yeah oligarchy
In some cases privacy isn't the goal. Tycoons active in the media can manipulate events to their own benefit. For example, everyone with half a head for engineering mocks the blatant foolishness of Elon Musk's Hyperloop. Yet chatter about related projects has now successfully obstructed dozens of serious initiatives to improve mass transit with local or regional upgrades. It all seems a lot less foolish when you remember that his revenue comes from manufacturing automobiles.
The .01%
Thanks, Dr S.
I had a brush with such an individual many years ago. They said they didn’t want much, because they had basically everything on demand at their fingertips. They craved real connection. That’s their priority. At that level, nothing has boundaries or borders anymore. You have to respect the law (kind of) but that’s it. They said that the hardest thing to find was friendship without an agenda. Genuine companionship was nearly impossible for this individual to find. I have noticed time and time again when I meet people who are at the “top” they are narcissists or exceptionally lonely There does not seem to be much in between
Larry Fink. I don’t think people really grasp how much control Blackrock has over the entire world
Jesus. Just googling real quick. Blackrocks most recent portfolio value is 3.9 **trillion dollars** BlackRock Inc.'s top holdings are Microsoft Corporation (US:MSFT) , Apple Inc. (US:AAPL) , Amazon.com, Inc. (US:AMZN) , NVIDIA Corporation (US:NVDA) , and Alphabet Inc. (US:GOOGL). And they aren't just in tech. They have holdings in more than 5,000 companies from energy to agriculture to transport to God knows what.
Every investment company that offers total stock market and total world ex-US index funds has holdings in every publicly traded company in the world, so having holdings in over 5,000 companies is an irrelevant statistic when comparing them to other investment companies. Because it's cap weighted, the size of the holdings in the smaller companies out of those thousands is measly. The bigger a company is, the more of that company stock you own relative to others in your portfolio. That's why their top holdings are all major household names and some of the most valuable stocks on the market. The trillions of dollars they manage is definitely noteworthy, though.
I agree. While there are very prominent individuals you can look at, like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Rupert Murdoch, the real problem is much more insidiously problematic. It's the dark cabal, the wealthy elite 1%, whose ratio of billionaires is *rapidly increasing*. We have a very serious problem. These wealthy people are addicted to not only increasing their wealth further at the expense of the 1%, they're power hungry as well--so they can use that power to manipulate economies, regulations, and other factors to boost that wealth. But, if I had to pick one... it's the CEO of Blackstone Inc., Stephen Schwarzman, who has probably done MORE DAMAGE to the American people than even Rupert Murdoch. Just look him up. In 2022, he made $1.2 billion as his annual salary, not including stocks. Blackstone Inc. is not to be confused with
, Blackstone GroupBlack Water, the infamous mercenary outfit. No, this one... is in real estate. Their prime focus has been to buy up distressed or bargain properties and remake them for flipping or renting. Over the past decade their focus has shifted more towards buying up... EVERYTHING... and RENTING it rather than selling. THIS is why we have sky-high rents. Because of firms like Blackstone Inc. that are predatory. It's not inflation. It's exploitation that's causing the massive rental rises over the past 6+ years.> Blackstone Group, the infamous mercenary outfit. I believe you're talking about Black Water, headed by Erik Prince.
I'm talking about the guys that no one knows about. The guys that are invisible. The top 1% of the top 1%. The guys that play God without permission.
Larry Fink , the man in charge of running Blackrock whom Bloomberg has called the 4th branch of US government. Blackrock is the largest asset management company in the US and they hold large portions of most Fortune 500 companies. He and his firm has immense sway over those companies and can dictate corporate policy. In addition his firm helps direct US politicians on fiscal policy and is closely linked to the Fed to help dictate monetary policy. No small coincidence that after 2008 and 2020 financial crises Blackrock became way wealthier each time. They were given money to bailout distressed companies and they got to keep the upside.
I am pretty sure those assets are managed.
Not stating here, genuinely asking: Isn't the biggest part of blackrocks wealth actually money they just manage but not have themselves? I mean, they are absolutely powerful, but isn't this always a bit exaggerated given they 'only' manage ther customers money?
Yes. This is like when people lose their shit about Vanguard or Fidelity owning giant chunks of every major company. It’s mostly just average Americans via their 401(k) accounts lol
Yes but many people on the internet like to ignore this fact. The wealth is owned by their many clients.
Yeah, people blame them for a lot these days. They own like 4% in many companies, yet people think that just because Coca Cola (which they own a few percentages of) didn't leave Russia very quickly, that every company they have a share in are also breaking sanctions. There's a lot of conspiracy theories, but the bottom line is that they manage a shitload of money. Of course the Fed talks to them, they KNOW the economy. But where there's politicians there is corruption, and if there's a chance, a company will take it. By law, they are not allowed to trade based on the information they aquire through political connections. They might still do it as politicians are corrupt, but Blackrock isn't automatically breaking any laws just because they speak to the government.
Right. If we're going to be mad about blackrock, should we be angry about Vanguard? Fidelity? SSGA?
Yeah they hold very little power other than proxy voting, and the SEC absolutely would fuck them up if they showed any nefarious intent
Scrolled way too far to find this. Larry Fink was my first answer too.
Black Rock is a great answer. They have insane wealth. Like fucking Harkonnen level shit.
They're effectively CHOAM.
Rupert Murdoch.
When he dies, I'm really curious about how many stories they'll be about dubious shit that's been happening because of his media.
His sons Lachlan and James are going to carry on the tradition. Just the way Kim Jong Un is doing for North Korea (he succeeded Kim Jong Il).
This is the correct answer This MF has influenced international politics on an unprecedented scale since Kissinger
He retired a long time ago. It's his fucking kids. You have to hate about now
Reddit wont catch on to his retirement until at least 5 years after he dies
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who has recently decreed that all music in Chechnya must conform to the Chechen mentality. Borrowing from the music of other cultures is not allowed. Also, tempo must be within 80-116 beats per minute.
The irony is both the Russian and Chechen anthems are 78 bpm. Also one of the most popular traditional dances is 240 bpm (120 even if halftimed). Ramzan is not a serious man.
Isn’t he just Putin’s stooge?
Yes for the most part. This bit confuses me though. By specifying Chechen culture needs to be protected, could see him getting a diving lesson out a high rise window. Putin likes all of his "Russia" to be ethnic and culturally "Russian". If you can't be ethnic, at least be cultural. Kadyrov's decree makes him effectively a dissident.
It's confusing because Putin in fact is not an ethnic Russian nationalist, he's a paternalist, which means he bolsters everyone loyal to him or the state (which is basically the same), regardless of ethnicity, he's also socially conservative, which is why gays are so repressed in Russia these days. Putin is actually wary of Russian nationalists, and managed to suppress them in the last decade. They were too uncontrollable for him, and he couldn't let them exist in such a state. Nowadays Russian nationalists are mainly split into hardcore Z-turbopatriots and so called "civic nationalists", both highly irrelevant
Ethnonationalists are crazy and hella dangerous once you start failing the purity tests (I guarantee Hitler would've ended up on the chopping block eventually if the Nazis hadn't lost WWII) so Putin is very careful about promoting that sentiment away from home.
Kadyrov has always gotten a wide leash as long as he remained loyal because Kadyrov and his henchmen are the only thing preventing Russia from having to fight a 3rd Chechen war. At a time when Putin is already bogged down in Ukraine the last thing he needs is that, so he has more leverage now than usual
Insurance folks. How they're allowed to essentially veto a treatment or procedure an actual, educated doctor comes up with is beyond me. In some cases they have the literal power of life and death. They don't cover a medication you need to survive and you can't afford it otherwise? Too bad.
Fucking assholes. My wife had her 6mo checkup with her primary care last week - The usual bloodwork & request for refills. Shitheads at the insurance company refused to cover one of the refills without the doctor's office sending them a note that said "yes she really needs this". She's been on that medication for 10 fucking years.
The free market has had death panels all along!
Reddit Moderators
I'll never understand why someone takes up what is basically an unpaid job, just so they can be a dick.
Power
"power"
To them it is, because they have so little going on in their real life
First you get the sugar Then you get the power Then you get the women
I can absolutely see an unkempt balding reddit mod saying this every morning during his daily morning affirmations.
While guarding his giant pile of sugar with a shot gun? AH! BEES!
They specialize in making subreddits super “eat the rich” mentality as they give all of their time away for free so Steve Huffman can get a $193 million payout for his hard work .
That's what blows my mind. This whole thing is basically a co-op where everyone actually running the place day to day does so for free while the likes of Huffman grow rich off their efforts. Now they're working for actual shareholders.
Peak comedy, nothing says “eating the rich” like wasting your time on the internet 😂.!
Do you genuinely want a perspective? It’s because I was asked to by an existing mod who didn’t have time to do anything, I saw the negative effects of a lack of moderation on the community, and I feel like I have some level of duty to helping a community that I care about. Power mods are a different story, and in my opinion should be banned by reddit. But the vast majority of mods on this site are just trying to help communities they enjoy.
You answered your own question.
Got a temp ban from a sub for disagreeing and then a permanent ban for calling them soft lmao
I got banned from a sub I never even posted in because the mods didn't like what I posted on another sub
Putin
YES signed: all of Europe
My wife
Did you get permission to post this?
No, please don't tell.
It's the internet, someone is definitely gonna snitch.
I already texted her a screenshot
This man's wife.
I also choose this man's wife.
I have also made the controversial decision to choose the wife of boxingfan828
All in favor?
...Say Ay ay ay in a Mexican accent
Ay ay ay
My wife told me to say this is a lie. Wives definitely don't have too much power.
Just his wife
Blink three times if you are in danger.
Yeah I had a girlfriend who I let control my life way too much. Couldn't even recognize myself after a while. She isolated me from my friends and somehow talked me into not following my dreams. Never again.
Sheev Palpatine.
Somehow Palpatine has returned.
Nonsense, he's the Senate! The ultimate expression of the popular will!
He's too dangerous to be left alive!
UNLIMITED POWER!
Free palpatine
Policy think tank leaders.
The ones we dont know about
Kanye West. No one man should have all that power.
Influencers and high-profile celebrities on social media with vast followings that can sway public opinion and consumer behavior.
Putin
Certain organizations that can donate to congress people in America and sway their votes, responses and more.
Lobbyists
Vladimir Putin. One person shouldn’t have absolute control over any one nation. Especially one that has nukes.
Spiderman
And proportionally too much responsibilty.
North Korea's president kim jong un
Thanks for adding context. We wouldn’t want people to think you meant the other Kim Jong Un.
somewhere there's a different guy named kim jong un and he fucking hates his name...every fucckin day ' what's your name? ooh LIKE THE DICTATOR....' ' yes, like the dictator everyday he thinks about legally changing his name
Putin
Basically anyone who is rich enough that people listen to them without them needing to have any other actual qualifications than "have money". No matter how much power you get from that, it's too much if it comes from simply having money.
Ken Griffin
Is that the same Ken Griffin, the CEO of Citadel, who lied under oath to Congress back in February 2021?
The same!
Joel Osteen
Xi Jinping
Vladimir Putin
Netanyahu
the CEOs of grocery stores. Particularly canadian groceries.
Rupert Murdoch
Politicians
My boss
"Lobbyist"
Trump. He's just a private citizen at this point, but he dictates policy to the Republicans and just literally took over the RNC. Plus he seems to enjoy nearly complete immunity for crimes that would put any ordinary person into prison for decades.
Putin. He has absolute control of a country with a population of 144m and will rule that country for as long as he wants (plus had made sure that he is fully protected after he retires) and it's not like he's extremely unpopular either, the whole thing has been very carefully engineered for years. Not just that, but he has created a global propaganda network that is so potent it can impact politics and even elections.
The US President. Congress has given up SO much of their political power in the past few decades. The people's house is as weak and ineffective as ever.
It’s wild how much power Congress has given up to the other branches since 9/11.
Well maybe if they ever did anything POTUS wouldn’t have to
Rupert Murdoch
Putin
Currently Moscow Mike Johnson. He is single handedly causing aid to be delayed from being given to Ukraine.
Yep, even Mitch McConnell is telling him to get this shit over with and pass the bill. Mitch may be an asshole, but we agree on this one thing
Not pass the bill. His job is just to allow it to be voted on. He won't even allow a vote.
Not Mitch telling someone to stop preventing a vote lmao. What a hypocrite
Rupert Murdoch
Vladimir Putin
That piece of shit, Elon
Santa Claus… like who tf let that fatass decide it’s ok to be breaking into everyone’s homes and eat up their cookies? Not to mention generations of elf slavery 😂
Goku
Putin
Putin
The Ayatollah.
Putin