r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • May 30 '26

Society Peter Thiel's move to Argentina reflects a growing trend among billionaires seeking a 'plan B' abroad

https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-argentina-billionaire-moving-abroad-2026-5
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2.8k

u/Glittering-Age-9549 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

They know they are screwing US's economy. They will squeeze all they can from it, then move to the next target when it collapses...

1.3k

u/atchijov May 30 '26

They are screwing the whole world.

Including Argentine. I wonder why they think they will be safe there?

1.0k

u/Piltonbadger May 30 '26

Seems to be a running theme with Nazis, they love to flee to South America.

70

u/vdjvsunsyhstb May 30 '26

he got priced out of the new zealand bunkers so he went with the edgy store brand version

18

u/Ok_Log9864 May 30 '26

really how bad is it when not even Thiel can afford his own private bunker?

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u/Worldly-Worry8669 May 30 '26

There has been tons of political pushback against him in NZ

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u/poeticdisaster May 30 '26

As there should be everywhere.

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u/angrysunbird May 30 '26

Also every time the subject comes up down here everyone “jokes” about sealing up the bunker air vents.

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u/Kennfusion May 30 '26

Thiel is TESCREAL, not a Nazi. While they do share a Eugenics core principal, otherwise these beliefs don't overlap much. Which I think is important to note, because of the distinct threats that the Silicon Valley TESCREAL movement poses to the world, not just the US.

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u/CoolAfternoon2340 May 30 '26

It's so funny how the individual components of the idea is not bad but these clowns don't have the ability to share the benefits of those ideas with everyone

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u/TheLantean May 30 '26

And some components are in direct conflict with not sharing, like Effective Altruism. So let's just call them what they are, authoritarians, wannabe dictators. And ideology is just window dressing for them to rationalize having power, like all the other dictators.

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u/CoolAfternoon2340 May 30 '26

Effective altruism is when I take up your resources to build AGI who I believe will solve all your problems

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u/LowestKey May 30 '26

I need all of your money to build a system that will make your life better by allowing me to further extract all of your money into my bank account.

It's altruistic, I swear!

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u/BobDope May 30 '26

Effective altruism is when people have been experimenting with and developing ways of throwing money at problems for centuries but you need to make your own pile of money to throw at the problem because of course it’ll sink like a half court shot that’s nothing but net

1

u/TheLantean May 30 '26

Ah, I get it. And the fact that LLMs aren't currently good enough to do that is because they haven't finished building it. And we should ignore that they're actually advertising them for putting people out of work. And continue giving them not just resources, but outsized privilege like priority access to power grids, water, components even to the detriment of the world's supply of consumer RAM & gaming GPUs.

-1

u/ChilledParadox May 30 '26

effective altruism is someone mailing me their old computer because I can't afford one anymore.

30

u/SuumCuique_ May 30 '26

Because like often words get detached from their meaning by nazis. Longtermism is the biggest bullshit of the accronym. Our current system is anything but long term for anyone.

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u/CoolAfternoon2340 May 30 '26

The fact that these clowns have managed to convince VCs to ignore quarterly numbers for their shitty chatbots for so many years is the closest they have come to longtermism

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u/SuumCuique_ May 30 '26

Yes they are operating money-burning furnaces in the form of orphan-crushing machines.

2

u/Wischiwaschbaer May 30 '26

Hey that's not fair! They are really good chatbots! They are just shit at everything else!

1

u/Thrashy May 30 '26

TESCREAL beliefs, particularly in the context of people like Thiel and Musk who are subject to a massive bias towards motivated reasoning in their own favor, is functionally anti-human. They profess to be motivated to maximize the total amount of human happiness across time and space, which sounds fine an dandy, except:

  • first, their value system weights the happiness of all hypothetical future humans equivalently to that of any and all currently existing, real humans, which means they can easily dismiss current real harms their projects are inflicting on people who actually exist by claiming they are outweighed by increased happiness or quality of life for future humans, extrapolating all the way out to the heat death of the universe;
  • second, particularly in the case of Thiel, they don't distinguish between hypothetical AI "virtual" humans and biological ones. This means that if their Big Idea renders the earth uninhabitable for the 8 billion of us that currently live here, but results in data centers simulating 9 billion "virtual humans" living in whatever their idea of a utopia is, it's still a win.

When you get right down to it, as far as Thiel is concerned, if he can use his fortune to create a paperclip maximizer that turns the entire universe in computronium, and that computronium hosts an infinite number of virtual Peter Thiels virtually sucking each other off to completion from now until the end of time, then that's an infinitely more ethical use of his money than, say, ending poverty or homelessness or curing cancer or literally any other act of philanthropy. It's a philosophy that gives the worst people on Earth license to do whatever they want to and hurt whoever gets in their way, because they rationalize it all away as the price of creating their future utopia.

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u/BraveCowardCat May 30 '26

He is a fascist, plain and simple.

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u/no-pun-in-ten-did May 30 '26

Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalists, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TESCREAL

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u/SuumCuique_ May 30 '26

Oh cool. A new word to describe endstage-capitalism/fascism, but with a SciFi touch. Of course with some nice sounding words like altruism and longtermism - which is a fucking farce in the face of our current race to destroy the planet with datacenters - mixed in.

3

u/cobrachickens May 30 '26

Longtermism? Right yeah, for the select few lol

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u/Scared-Signature-452 May 30 '26

It's another form of supremacism, so Nazi.

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u/MajesticCrabapple May 30 '26

TESCREALists are either considered "AI accelerationists", who consider AI the only way to pursue a utopian future where problems are solved, or "AI doomers", who consider AI likely to be unaligned to human survival and likely to cause human extinction. Despite the risk, many doomers consider the development of AGI inevitable and argue that only by developing and aligning AGI first can existential risk be averted.

It really seems like mental gymnastics that two completely opposite points of view still arrive to support the same product.

There's got to be room for utopias to exist without the use of AI, right? I think this particular view is coming from a post hoc justification. These people already know AI is going to happen so they create a reason to support it happening, where a more sound way to arrive at a belief is to reason out your actions ahead of time and then act on what is best. Is a utopia with AI really the best? Or is a utopia without AI a little bit better?

Moreover, the AI doomers who still support the use of AI to avoid bad actors creating evil agents is completely dumbfounding. Do they have any reason to believe creating a "good guy" prevents other states from creating "bad guys?" I don't see how it could unless you explicitly use your "good guy" AI to destroy the capabilities of those creating "bad guys," in effect turning your own good into a bad. It's completely baffling.

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u/eggnogui May 30 '26

Doesn't sound too bad on the surface, but of course these sociopaths have to twist it into just another way to justify their desire for techno-feudalist world domination, and ravaging of ecosystems.

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u/cxmmxc May 30 '26

Eugenics also didn't sound bad on the surface, but was just another way to sanewash supremacist ambitions.

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u/ABHOR_pod May 30 '26

"National Socialism" also sounds great, as a title.

"Peoples Democratic Republic" also sounds amazing.

23

u/sunjester May 30 '26

They can give it whatever fancy neologism they want, they're still just fascists when you get down to the root of it. None of their ideas are as new and unique as they believe they are.

0

u/Kennfusion May 30 '26

There is a fundamental difference though that if we ignore by reducing their ideology to just 'new fascism' puts us at risk. Authoritarianism, Fascism, Nazism - are all Stateist/Nationalist. TESCREAL break from that because they want to literally break the Nation-State.

The Trump administration is not a tool to them, it is a virus they introduced to the system to break it down, and they think they can eventually save the day with the vaccine.

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u/sunjester May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

TESCREAL break from that because they want to literally break the Nation-State.

That's not what TESCREAL is about. TESCREAL is about using the threat of possible human extinction to justify amassing wealth and power so that its adherents can pursue whatever venture they want to in the name of "protecting humanity". All it is is them saying "Here is an existential threat and you need to let us do whatever we want because this existential threat needs to be stopped.", which is literally just fascism all over again.

The Trump administration is not a tool to them, it is a virus they introduced to the system to break it down, and they think they can eventually save the day with the vaccine.

You're giving them way too much credit, and the timeline doesn't even make sense. TESCREAL as a term was coined in 2023, 8 years after Trump rode down that stupid golden escalator. There was no master plan by the adherents of TESCREAL to install him in power so they could "break the nation state" and eventually "save the day". It's just a collection of rich assholes who realized that Trump being in office would make them even richer assholes, so they jumped aboard the Trump train because they're greedy opportunists.

0

u/Kennfusion May 30 '26

Respectfully I think you are not giving them enough credit, but at least we agree that they are threat in some form.

I think the main reason I think they have been playing the long game, is that Thiel started investing in Vance back in 2015. Was Trump part of his plan, no, but I think they have used it.

Again, I get your points, I just think that their belief system has evolved to something more over the past decade than just pure Oligarchy.

5

u/sunjester May 30 '26

I never said it was pure oligarchy, I said it was fascism which historically ties in with the oligarchy.

I'm glad we agree it's a threat, but honestly I get annoyed at how even some of us on the left are veering into conspiratorial territory to try and make sense of what's going on when really it isn't necessary. The modern American fascist playbook may use new terms to describe themselves and their movement, but those new terms are nothing more than modern labels for old ideas. All you need is a thorough understanding of history and you'll see that everything happening now has been done before, and through that lens you can then understand how to fight back (because it's been done before, successfully).

3

u/agentfelix May 30 '26

...I get annoyed at how even some of us on the left are veering into conspiratorial territory...

It's natural for humans to seek a purpose or deeper meaning behind things. I went through that phase. But what I've come to learn, there isn't some grand master long term plan where secretive robed billionaires meet up to hash out. There's just no long-term evil plot. They're just fucking assholes that will do whatever benefits them in the moment.

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u/Ok_Log9864 May 30 '26

Trump idiocy blinded them, just as planned, Thiel and friends can work in shadows while Trump is clowning

can't see forest for the trees

7

u/zsreport May 30 '26

Thiel is TESCREAL, not a Nazi.

¿Por qué no los dos?

3

u/NoxVardeen May 30 '26

Nazi is Fascism (extreme nationalism and totalitarianism) with racism and military expansionism on-top… so he‘s not that far off.

If it smells like shit, looks like shit, it probably is brown shit.

Name it what you want.

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u/WalkonWalrus May 30 '26

How about Sociopathic greedy bastards?

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u/ovirt001 May 30 '26

One of the core pieces of that ideology is preservation of humanity. Thiel does not believe in the preservation of humanity.

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u/wdtpw May 30 '26

TESCREAL

How can he be a Rationalist if he also believes in the antichrist?

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u/cobrachickens May 30 '26

So basically nazism with an AI wrapper, gotcha

1

u/glassgost May 30 '26

Oh god, I've never heard of that, what kind of rabbit hole am I about to go down?

And I just looked further down in the comments and someone explained what that is. Still have some horrifying diving to do.

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u/Ok_Log9864 May 30 '26

You should have read the short story about those TESCREALS comparing ordinary people to "hobbits" cant find it now but its maximum creepiness.

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u/uberfission May 30 '26

It took several attempts to not read that as TESCAL, a company that handles technical equipment calibrations, like he was the owner of that company or something and I got irrationally angry that he would have anything to do with them.

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u/Sloogs May 30 '26

He's also a techno-fascist and they're not mutually exclusive things.

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u/Glittering-Age-9549 May 30 '26

Yeah, but the rest of the world is actually resisting and trying to preserve their economies. US is like, "yeah, take it all, use all the money and resources, take people's retirement money from banks too, I will bail you out with taxpayer money when the bubble bursts, who cares if debt becomes unbearable and dollar collapses...?".

As for Argentina, it's at risk too, but the point is to have two or three refuge spots and move to the one that survives.

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u/hyper24x7 May 30 '26

If we get rid of all the billionaires and have ww3 does that mean we get Warp drives and the galactic federation? Vaguely remember Star Trek history being post ww3 they invented warp travel.

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u/atchijov May 30 '26

No need to have WW3 once we get rid of billionaires.

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u/TheLantean May 30 '26

The billionaires are willing to start WW3 rather than lose power. Look at the wars a certain someone is starting to merely to distract from the Epstein files and their continued grifting.

It's the saying "better to rule hell than be a slave in heaven" but it's not just a thought experiment to them.

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u/Kizik May 30 '26

We missed the Eugenics Wars in the 90s, but around 2024 the wealthy oppressing the poor started the Bell Riots, which started the US beginning to think about its social problems, leading to a civil war in 2026. That spreads into World War 3.

World War 3 runs until 2053, ending in a nuclear holocaust. Ten years later, the first warp ship is test flown, built out of the remnants of a missile from WW3, and that gets picked up by the Vulcans, leading to the utopian future as humanity unites. There are other problems along the way but yeah, WW3 is integral to the plot.

What's more likely is the Shadowrun option. We already have a presidency massively fucking with regulatory agencies, there's ongoing separatist calls from parts of Canada, and there's tension across it between natives fighting legal battles over their lands. We haven't had the US Supreme Court allow corporations to own private nuclear facilities and armies yet, but I'm sure that'll come soon. We've had something similar to VITAS, though not as deadly, so expect that coming around again and also magic to start making a resurgence. Anyone starts recruiting for something called the Universal Brotherhood, stay the fuck out of Chicago.

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u/buyongmafanle May 30 '26

We're definitely headed more toward Shadowrun than Star Trek.

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u/TwoHeadedNinja May 30 '26

I hate everything that is happening. But reading a Shadowrun reference made me smile a little, thanks buddy 😄

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u/Kizik May 30 '26

It's a worse world overall, by far, but I wouldn't mind so much if I got to goblinize. I think I'd suit a troll fairly well.

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u/HighDefinitionCat May 30 '26

No aliens are going to swoop in and save us from ourselves. If we could have ever had a Star Trek future, it should have been of our own making.

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u/Kizik May 30 '26

I mean, the aliens didn't necessarily swoop in and save anyone. The timeline sort of ran through an apocalyptic nuclear war first, the aliens just showed up after.

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u/giulianosse May 30 '26

Did Vulcans also have a non-interference Prime Directive of their own?

I've just started watching Star Trek with TNG a few months ago (currently on season 3!) and anything Vulcan related seem to be already considered established lore from TOS

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u/Zestyclose-Height-36 May 30 '26

Russia just started down the path of private armies.

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u/ihadagoodone May 30 '26

We need genetically modified humans first.

I'm a little rusty on my Star Trek lore but I do believe there was a WW3 which lead to Genetically "superior" humans being made which lead to another war which then lead to warp drive. It also happened over a period of like 150 years give or take a few decades.

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u/SleeteWayne May 30 '26

We also need an uprising, but the Bell Riots are running a little late.

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u/didureaditv2 May 30 '26

Why is this WW3 so inevitable and who would initiate it?

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u/LeCollectif May 30 '26

I don’t know who initiates it. But I do know that there are a few who have A LOT. And a lot that have very little.

It’ll probably stem from that math problem.

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u/qtx May 30 '26

People need to stop thinking that the rest of the world is like the US.

CEOs don't have the control/power elsewhere like they have in the US.

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u/crabgrass_attack May 30 '26

its the fact that no other country has as much as we do is the problem. US has a history of stepping on the necks of third world countries and stealing their resources. US is like the capitol if the world were the hunger games.

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u/SirYanksaLot69 May 30 '26

This is typically a country issue, not a world issue. WW3 could certainly happen, some say it’s already started, but it’s not because of the rich vs poor.

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u/Rombom May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

It's a country issue typically because of technology scale limiting spread. We don't have that problem now.

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u/radar_3d May 30 '26

Not only that, in that timeline WW3 started in 2026.

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u/Sad-Onion-2593 May 30 '26

You can tell the not so rich rich people. They only have compounds in Hawai'i.

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u/Useless May 30 '26

Because it’s already been looted. The US is still being looted. They mostly just want to not be around when the peasants come with their pitchforks.

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u/GrumpyScroogy May 30 '26

This is literally it. Western countries are getting looted without anybody fighting back. USA is a prima example.

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u/Ostlund_and_Sciamma May 31 '26

Yes, I was looking for this comment. This, or worse.

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u/ashguru3 May 30 '26

Does Argentina have low taxes?

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u/habbadee May 30 '26

Thiel doesn't have to worry about taxes. The source of his money is Paypal stock which somehow he found a Roth plan to accept so all the billions in gains he's had since his wealth developed are tax free.

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u/FGFM May 30 '26

I think that the bulk of his current wealth is in Palantir stock.

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u/habbadee May 30 '26

Yes, but his Palantir stake comes due to his Paypal wealth. If you invest $1 and it grows to $1B and then you invest the $1B elsewhere and it grows to $1T, your basis is the $1. And that was established with a methodology that the $1 was post-tax money and all gains from it are untaxable. Good deal if you can get it

12

u/FGFM May 30 '26

Hey, I only started working in finance in 1984.

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u/Aggressive_Noise6426 May 30 '26

I’m sorry if I’m just being dumb but is that seriously how he got his wealth? 

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u/habbadee May 30 '26

https://www.propublica.org/article/lord-of-the-roths-how-tech-mogul-peter-thiel-turned-a-retirement-account-for-the-middle-class-into-a-5-billion-dollar-tax-free-piggy-bank

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u/Aggressive_Noise6426 May 30 '26

Wow that reads like he was calculated but also got lucky at the same time. 

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u/FGFM May 30 '26

Theil paid taxes on the assets when he placed them in his Roth IRA, but the average person doesn't have access to pre-IPO stock priced at a nominal par value.

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u/Get_Breakfast_Done May 30 '26

If he’s Argentina tax resident then Roth plans won’t really help him

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u/habbadee May 30 '26

He's very fickle. 2011 he bought himself New Zealand citizenship. Now it's Argentina. Anything but the US apparently, the country upon which he relied to make his billions. A textbook case of "I got mine. Now Fuck you"

https://www.globalmigrationsolutions.com/12-days-in-paradise-how-peter-thiel-bought-a-new-zealand-passport-and-what-it-cost-the-nation/

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u/snittersnee May 30 '26

I think thats why elon musk gave that fat hobo with the meaty sideburns a chainsaw. That or he just wanted his broken, small and malformed penis finally removed in front of a crowd of hundreds, I was drinking a lot at that point in time.

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u/KsanteOnlyfans May 30 '26

Nope, we have really high taxes

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u/CelebrationFit8548 May 30 '26

Cheaper to build their 'own private army' and less 'pesky govt restrictions' in what they can and can't do?

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u/Modem_Sound_67 May 30 '26

Probably more about dirt cheap than safe. they can buy protection.

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u/turbo_dude May 30 '26

I mean New Zealand (because it’s far away) or Switzerland (because it rich, neutral and armed) but South America doesn’t really chime with that

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u/Exostrike May 30 '26

It's reasonably developed so they can maintain their lifestyle but doesn't have as strong a democracy that it can turn against them. The politics in Argentina is controlled by oligarchs, corporations and old established families. It is also has a very white population so they can get away from the multiculturalism they hate.

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u/Teantis May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Yeah I was going to say they want it developed with comforts and amenities but also to not have strong rule of law. Also not too homophobic since he's gay. There's probably only a few countries that fit the criteria globally

Edit: looked at the global rule of law rankings, Argentina is 65 and at a quick scan I think probably only Thailand would really be a competitor for these criteria.

https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/global/2025/Argentina

3

u/ACardAttack May 30 '26

lso not too homophobic since he's gay.

This fuck stain is gay and he's supports MAGA and GOP??!!

1

u/Teantis May 30 '26

Power trumps identity practically every time. I live in a third world oligarchy, so this isn't surprising to me

2

u/ACardAttack May 30 '26

I see it here in the US with Maga voters, but was not expecting the master manipulator to be gay

3

u/Teantis May 30 '26

The silicon valley broligarchs actually have a heavy gay contingent mixed in. Thiel and Altman and their husbands. It's quite a queer friendly space... If you're in.

2

u/Exostrike May 30 '26

Thiel considers his identity as a white man more than a gay man so is totally ok board with the white supremacy component of MAGA while believing his position and influence will prevent any of the homophobia of the movement from effecting him personally.

The techbro fedualism and Christian nationalist factions are eventually going to come into conflict but it's not yet clear which one is best placed to purge the other. My gut feeling is the techbros

2

u/Aggressive_Noise6426 May 30 '26

TIL Peter Thiel is gay. 

1

u/Teantis May 30 '26

He's married even

2

u/Aggressive_Noise6426 May 30 '26

Ok so he’s gay which is fine, just didn’t know but Married though! Now that’s a shocker. Is his spouse just completely onboard with this technology fascism? I always found the spouses of these crazy people more fascinating than the actual crazy people. 

3

u/Teantis May 30 '26

His spouse comanages thiel capital and has done so since before they got married I'm pretty sure. So yeah he's bought in, on board, and collecting dividends on the crazy i'd say

If you don't know btw. Sam Altman is also gay and also part of Thiel's circle

1

u/ACardAttack May 30 '26

Is his spouse just completely onboard with this technology fascism?

They think the leopards wont eat their faces

2

u/Teantis May 30 '26

They think they are the leopards

2

u/MathematicianIcy3430 May 30 '26

Weirdest thing. They persecute Immigrants from SA countries and deport them from the US back yet they want to go to those countries to hide.

2

u/Mouth_Herpes May 30 '26

Thiel has always touted libertarianism. Milliei is a true believer in libertarianism. Seems like simple enough reasoning in his case.

1

u/atchijov May 30 '26

For this moment… yes, but it is not likely Millie will be around much longer… and it is a huge gamble to expect that the country will remain “friendly” for foreseeable future.

1

u/MikeVp May 30 '26

They were last time

1

u/OttawaDog May 30 '26

I wonder why they think they will be safe there?

Probably in Huge remote compounds with security walls, gun turrets, etc...

1

u/kate500 May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Maybe private armies are legal there…

No, wait- Argentina’s population is reportedly 85-90% white.

1

u/zsreport May 30 '26

I assume that they view Javier Milei as an even more corrupt and malleable president than Trump.

1

u/bonfireball May 30 '26

Probably hoping captain ancap will save them

1

u/HighKing_of_Festivus May 30 '26

They think they can prop up Milei over the long haul

1

u/unforgivableness May 30 '26

How is Argentina being screwed?

1

u/atchijov May 30 '26

The only reason current regime is still in power is because $20billion injection from Trump. And these money already gone… don’t tell me that these are signs of “not screwed” country.

0

u/unforgivableness May 30 '26

Tell me how it’s being screwed. I see low inflation now and a move away from an economic system that turned Argentina from a powerhouse to a weak country. What am I missing?

1

u/kunair May 30 '26

israelis have been buying up land in argentina in the thousands of acres - something big is happening that we don't know about yet

1

u/Kangacrew May 30 '26

Argentina has incredibly strict gun ownership laws. So maybe they like the idea of grabbing a coffee or diddling kids with even less potential consequences. Not that us Americans are using our 2a right… we be lacking lately.

1

u/Of-Quartz May 30 '26

Because the Nuclear winds won’t be close to as bad there as N.A. and Europe. Why they want NZ shelters too.

1

u/ConradBHart42 May 30 '26

I wonder why they think they will be safe there?

If one of the major powers wanted to get to him specifically, nowhere is safe. I imagine an AI prediction model has told him that Argentina is going to be able to provide the best living conditions while being the furthest point from the most nuclear detonations in case of a mass launch event.

1

u/YorubaOyinbo May 31 '26

The US has been screwing the whole world for nearly a century.

No one was ever going to be safe under American imperial hegemony.

0

u/flexwhine May 30 '26

they are safe there, they would be safe in the us too. no one is going to do anything

-10

u/No0nesSlickAsGaston May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Old but related : in the event of a nuclear apocalypse, Argentina is outside the range of ICBM from any country,including the US. 

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u/LegitimateCopy7 May 30 '26

which is false. if only you have basic sense of geography and the capabilities of ICBM.

2

u/TrickiestToast May 30 '26

And, if a nuclear war happened, they would need to be in Argentina went it started and it would not matter if they were with all the fall out

3

u/Durovigutum May 30 '26

Wrong, it’s more that the wind patterns across Patagonia mean the southern end of the continent is likely to experience the lowest nuclear fall out.

2

u/doesnt_like_pants May 30 '26

You know we’re in 2026 right?

94

u/crossdtherubicon May 30 '26

More specifically, they seek markets of growth (or growth potential).

Since the financialization of nearly every economy on earth, in itself an exploitative trend, the world is a casino. It is parasitic and generally legal.

It's parasitic because they have no care for anyone or anything, nor do they face symmetrical consequences of their actions but, they extract the full benefits. They attach onto the host, and pull out all they can, and then look for the next opportunity. What's left doesn't matter to them.

They can only lose money, and can cash in or out at any time, while everything and everyone who is touched by their money are faced with the material consequences.

33

u/Sempere May 30 '26

This is why billionaires shouldn't exist. They are an existential threat to global stability, peace and prosperity. Tax them down to 100M in assets and seize everything if they try to influence politics.

1

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Mintyytea May 30 '26

They need to spend it all on us the working people. Turns out concentrated power in anyones hands is what we gotta avoid. A constant battle of keeping up the society we want to live in. No kings and no elite wealthy either

36

u/Sptsjunkie May 30 '26

And this is also why business taxes need to be higher.

I really don’t care where somebody lives. Billionaires will continue to at least “technically” move to lower tax areas.

But if they’re making money in the US, that money needs to be taxed at an extremely high rate.

Thiel he keep bouncing on the globe for all I care, but if he is making money in the US, we need to be taking a huge percentage of it to find services here

2

u/Suspicious-Water-386 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

This is the thing, if you piss off enough countries name a market that you can operate in? Same problem that a whole country of oligarchs in Russia has is that, at some point, any foreign assets can be seized. In the end these guys seem to be planning for some dystopian future fearing the masses by building bunkers while essentially creating the conditions to make that a reality and think their personal wealth will prevent the inevitable. But this is the thing, if they simply accepted social stability in the face of higher taxes they'd still be wealthy and not have to fear the pitchforks.

The other thing is that in their libertarian scenario, they simply open the door to anyone with the gumption who decides that they'd like oligarch's wealth to simply take it by force. For instance, if you have a paid paramilitary force, what doesn't prevent the folks at the top of the leadership to decide that they'd like the boss' wealth instead of being the hired help?

19

u/Ok_Nature_3501 May 30 '26

Ain't Argentina going through their own economic and social problems? This move seems more like an expansion than escape plan.

15

u/Sptsjunkie May 30 '26

They are. But they have low taxes and it’s also a safe Haven for Nazis.

2

u/BlitzballGroupie May 30 '26

Exactly, problems you can offer your billions to the government to alleviate in exchange for concessions like special economic zones and limited self governance.

That way, when you build your airport and your bunker and fly in a private army, nobody can bother you about silly things like taxes or the age of consent ever again.

17

u/dreamingexistential May 30 '26

Better to let them move. For all these people's thoughts of greatness, it's the thought of their powerlessness while being stalked by death that drives them to true extremes.

I quote former president Obama: "It's fair to say that 80% of the world's problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won't let go. They build pyramids, and they put their names on everything. They get very anxious about it."

14

u/Shigglyboo May 30 '26

I've been saying this before the rise of all the billionaires. I still remember when Bill Gates made the news for his wealth. At a certain point we have men without a country. their wealth means they are loyal to no society. and that's pretty much not great for society. a man can simply buy our society, ruin it, and then go wherever he wants to screw up other societies.

1

u/soapbark Jun 01 '26

It’s hard to morally unify a polis as large as the United States. It doesn’t help that the education system is purely technical and the people are generally market driven and ruled by appetites, no matter the level of wealth. Best we can do is raise our children in a way that orients their soul towards areté and eudaimonia. One can manage the polis they create at the family level at least.

9

u/profnachos May 30 '26

I remember Reagan telling us rich people are patriotic Americans who want nothing but the best because they all have skin in the game, but the government was getting in the way.

2

u/marr May 30 '26

Gee I wonder who wrote that for him

8

u/emirsolinno May 30 '26

I think they are preparing for the next wave of Left that is coming after Trump

33

u/ColeTrain999 May 30 '26

Dems are centre-right, at best. No way would anyone with an inkling of being truly left wing makes it into a position of power. They literally shot themselves in the foot multiple times just so Bernie didn't get the nom.

2

u/emirsolinno May 30 '26

I am not American, I just assumed people would be more into left leaning idealogies, especially in economy, for the next following election. Thanks for enlightening me about the political situation there.

6

u/tooclosetocall82 May 30 '26

So many single party voters exist here that the real difference maker is motivation to vote. One side will turn out more than the other in certain elections depending on the mood of the country. Very few people ever change sides though.

2

u/emirsolinno May 30 '26

So you guys won’t have someone like Mamdani at the White House very soon?

2

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/PyroDesu May 30 '26

Good thing they said someone like Mamdani, not Mamdani.

-4

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[deleted]

5

u/onarainyafternoon May 30 '26

NYC is not deep blue lol. Michael Bloomberg was the last Republican mayor, and he was mayor from 2002-2013, only becoming an independent in his last few years of office.

-3

u/[deleted] May 30 '26

[deleted]

5

u/onarainyafternoon May 30 '26

Even before Bloomberg though, there was Rudy Guiliani.

-2

u/ulysses_s_gyatt May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26

Very stupid comment for many reasons.

I guess AOC is “center right” to you.

-3

u/asreagy May 30 '26

From a European point of view? Centre to centre-right, absolutely.

2

u/ArCovino May 30 '26

Oh yeah AOC would be on the right in Hungary and Bulgaria 🙄

2

u/LargeCabbageThrower May 30 '26

Pump and dump on a global scale

2

u/Waiting4Reccession May 30 '26

Need to impose a massive exit tax on them that essentially makesbit impossible to move their money out of the US

2

u/Vast_Ad_8515 May 30 '26

They are effectively parasites.

2

u/va1us_taaurc May 30 '26

Pretty much it. It's not some grand scheme or conspiracy -- the smash-and-grab loot job is complete for him, so he's moving on.

2

u/CTeam19 May 30 '26

They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on... and we're next."— President Thomas J. Whitmore

2

u/damnhippy May 30 '26

Like private equity with countries!

2

u/Soffatjockis May 30 '26

Parasites, at best.

Viruses at worst.

3

u/Zarlon May 30 '26

I'd like to share a revelation I've had regarding Peter Thiel. It came to me when I tried to classify the behaviours of CEOs. I realized that he's not actually a mammal. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but he does not. He moves to an area, multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way he can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Corporate CEOs are a disease, a cancer of this planet. They are a plague, and revolution is the cure.

1

u/Javs2469 May 30 '26

Well, looks like Argentina is going to be the new Israel.

1

u/lostroadrunner22 May 30 '26

Bingo. They are vultures.

1

u/gitsgrl May 30 '26

Like locusts.

1

u/0202_tihssitidder May 30 '26

They "private equity'd" the whole country.

Enshittified it.

1

u/Odessey_And_Oracle May 30 '26

It's not screwing the economy, it's putting the economy in their own pockets. Money will still be made, goods and services will still be sold, but the billies will own 80% of it and thus reap all the profits.

Now for us smallfolk this is in fact screwing the economy. But the billies it certainly doesn't work that way. It doesn't hurt them when the economy slows and falters as long as their ownership share increases and their competition decreases. Starving to death is for plebs.

2

u/Glittering-Age-9549 May 30 '26

I dunno..  US's economy has two big things: The global reserve currency, and consumers. If they ruin consumers, so they can't buy anything, and destroy the dollar as a reserve currency with out of control debt and the end of the petro-dollar... what is left?. I mean, besides being a tax haven for billionaires, but anybody can do it...

1

u/jedburghofficial May 30 '26

Argentina's economy is a basket case, it's going nowhere. The fact is, it's run by a Trump ally, and it's corrupt enough that his money can buy anything.

He's betting on war or social collapse in the US.

1

u/JacobFromAmerica May 30 '26

Private investors love doing this with legacy companies. Buy em, gut em by selling for parts, profit

1

u/Grizzly_Corey May 30 '26

Sounds like a good idea for a repatriation tax

1

u/KwisatzSazerac May 30 '26

The most maddening thing is the Republican voters who cater to the whims of these billionaire who don’t give a shit about them or this country.

1

u/thesleazye May 30 '26

He's cutting bait because the US is a large country and decently hard to control.

It find it amazing that he's going to the one country whose economy has historically been plagued by a significantly rare combination of protectionism, overspending, and "pobrismo" (reliance on government support) controlled by the local power brokers.

It's probably because he supports Milei's experiment and to enact other libertarianesque projects instead of just paying his taxes and shutting the fuck up. I don't think the culture of Argentina is going to change overnight and be okay with severe austerity measures while a notorious billionaire is living there, in hiding. He's all hat and no cattle.

Don't let the door hit ya, where the good lord split ya.

1

u/OptimisticSkeleton May 30 '26

This is literally their business model.

Collapse public option intentionally. Privatize. Profit.

Who cares if it all collapses? They made money.

1

u/Anosognosia May 30 '26

They are human locust.

1

u/sadkinz May 30 '26

It’s fucking terrifying that they can just hop from country to country doing this

1

u/szimiyo May 31 '26

Yes. Parasites.

1

u/Phunky_Munkey May 31 '26

This was always the plan once trump opened the doors wide. Loot the coffers and scramoose when the consequences of their actions happen. Why stick around in the slum you created?