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1. Embed this notice
   HighlandLawyer (highlandlawyer@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 21-Dec-2024 21:14:34 JST HighlandLawyer

   • Charlie Stross
   • Thomas Depierre

   @Di4na @cstross
   As a side note to that, what to do about all the Boomers getting equity release plans, thereby on their death transferring their accumulated capital to financial institutions rather than their offspring?
   That's going to cause a massive increase in the concentration of wealth within the timespan of a single generation, on top of how much that's occurred since the '80s.

   • Charlie Stross repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Saturday, 21-Dec-2024 23:59:20 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Thomas Depierre
     • Alisdair Calder McGregor

     @A_C_McGregor @HighlandLawyer @Di4na It's called American-style private health insurance. You're welcome!

   • Embed this notice
     Alisdair Calder McGregor (a_c_mcgregor@topspicy.social)'s status on Saturday, 21-Dec-2024 23:59:21 JST Alisdair Calder McGregor

     in reply to

     • Charlie Stross
     • Thomas Depierre

     @HighlandLawyer @Di4na @cstross I'm waiting for the financiers to somehow engineer a means by which the "heirs" get stiffed with the tax bill while they take the wealth

   • Embed this notice
     Rob Landley (landley@mstdn.jp)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 21:23:45 JST Rob Landley

     in reply to

     • Charlie Stross
     • Thomas Depierre

     @HighlandLawyer @Di4na @cstross "Filial responsibility" laws already do that.

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filial_responsibility_laws

     The hospital performs "heroic measures" in the parents' last hour of life (out of network of course) and saddles the estranged child with a $15 million dollar medical bill payable to United Health. Neither the parent nor the child ever have to consent to this.

     The billionaires haven't just already locked up all the boomers' assets when they die, they've made debt inheritable.

   • Embed this notice
     acb (acb@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 22:31:26 JST acb

     in reply to

     • Rob Landley
     • Charlie Stross
     • Thomas Depierre

     @landley @HighlandLawyer @Di4na @cstross They’re betting a lot on algorithmic mass surveillance being sufficient to stop an entire wave of Luigis with nothing left to lose

     Charlie Stross repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Rob Landley (landley@mstdn.jp)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 22:31:26 JST Rob Landley

     in reply to

     • acb
     • Charlie Stross
     • Thomas Depierre

     @acb @HighlandLawyer @Di4na @cstross The trouble with hiring bodyguards is a lot of emperors have been killed by their own bodyguards. (Modern billionaires don't even have poison tasters.)

   • Embed this notice
     lemgandi (lemgandi@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 23:04:24 JST lemgandi

     in reply to

     • acb
     • Rob Landley
     • Charlie Stross
     • Thomas Depierre

     @landley @acb @HighlandLawyer @Di4na @cstross Funny, I'd say paying more taxes is cheaper and more secure than a phalanx of mercenaries.

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 23:04:24 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • acb
     • Rob Landley
     • Thomas Depierre
     • lemgandi

     @lemgandi @landley @acb @HighlandLawyer @Di4na Elon Musk's net worth has mushroomed by—conservatively—more than a billion dollars a month for the past several years (possibly more than a billion dollars a week). You can hire a LOT of guards when your pocket money budget is larger than some nations' militaries. And the tax bill on $400Bn would be slightly eye-watering ...

   • Embed this notice
     Donald Roy (djr2024@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 23-Dec-2024 02:41:58 JST Donald Roy

     in reply to

     • acb
     • Rob Landley
     • Charlie Stross
     • Thomas Depierre

     @landley @acb @HighlandLawyer @Di4na @cstross

     That was also the experience of #indiragandhi !

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Monday, 23-Dec-2024 02:41:58 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • acb
     • Rob Landley
     • Thomas Depierre
     • Donald Roy

     @djr2024 @landley @acb @HighlandLawyer @Di4na Also Anwar Sadat. (I'm half-surprised the US Secret Service has such a good track record for *not* killing their charges.)