"So long as I'm free to exploit you into subsistence, you're free to die in the gutter when you're too broken to produce value for me!"
-The capitalists destroying us and the habitability of the world for any future humans, solely to run up their ego scores.
I'm about three-quarters through Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and I wonder how she would interpret how reality played out in this country, being that her biggest fears would come from the value system she thought of as the solution.
They always double down with a no true Scotsman defense that we didn't go far enough or didn't implement the idea in full. This kicks the can down the line to ensure further exploitation.
We all sit back and act like we know how to fix it all but really we don't. What we do know, and what we need everyone to understand, this ain't it. Everything else we are capable of improving given the flexibility to make nessisary change and allocating the resources to appropriate people who have real philosophies and experience to make the change. Getting everyone on board needs to happen first.
How? How? How?
Stop listening. Stop listening to the internet. Stop listening to cable TV. If someone says nothing is wrong and nothing needs to change they are benefiting from the purposefully broken system. Stop listening.
Listen to your neighbor. Listen to the teachers. Listen to community's. Once we can do all that. Then we need to unite all communities under the common goal of providing rest. The builders have built. The creatives have created. The workers have worked. Now they need to rest. They need to heal. They need to raise children who know what a bright future looks like so they can appreciate this life and their own humanity.
Now, everyone panic and tune out because sadly, I've given you an impossible task and you will never overcome your own programming.
heres some radom impractal ideas.
identify excesses fo power that do not work in the national interest and figure out what stable system can be put in place to regulate those excesses down to lower levels as effectively as possible. simples. /s
regulate banks so that they invest more of your savings in businesses and services that your country needs for your future. (this is a very long term fix as they've spent 40-50 years divesting from your society).
regulate capital gains so that business can not meet shareholder needs with asset price bubbles, only dividends. regulate dividends too. (aim is as Keynes said to avoid "whirlpools of speculation" and see only "bubbles" on a steady stream of investment).
nominal transaction tax (tobin tax), and transaction delay times for all exchanges to stop stock markets being ran so fucking stupidly they do not need to trade that much that often
dissociate commercial banks from building societies separate and minimise home loans- but regulate house prices to prevent mortgage bubble. (/ust accept low gdp growth , gdp is fucking made up number) basically do a load of FDR bank regulation stuff that got scrapped in the 70s/80s under dubious pretexts.
better to promote localised banking and local lending coops and such, then the power to make businesses loans is held closer to the savers and borrowers, and can be more accountable just by being a closer group that interacts mmore frequently.
regulate scarce situations that are hard to replicate , rent controls in centre of town or near transit (or other land use regualtion). try to manage away property bubbles - this is part of the reason businesses become uncompetetive, along with all the other stuff that pushes up cost fo living.
Of course regulation is difficult, prone to corruption, as al) the freedoomers will say. It is after all an excess of power - but it it not the only one and might be the only one with a chance of reducing the ppower of the others unles you cound bloody revolutions every now and again that also end up investing a new set of powerful people.. And it doesn't help that one of your(assuming i'm talking to usa by context) parties just works solely on behalf of al those power mongers that most need regulation; their real neat trick,"govt is shit", "look at us we're govt", "you'd better reduce the power of regulators in case you elect idiots like us again" And that line of reasoning is so successful that the other party imitates it.
So you need a way to make the regulators accountable, and elections are not a necessarily the best way to improve regulation , but they can be part of a wider system to hold the regulatros to account. On a more local scale , something like having to explain themselves and their decisions to random anonymous juries. They should also, as public officials have to submit their income and weath statements to the jury of the people to try to demostrate no bribery.
you dont need perfect, just a framework where it can improve bit by bit, and gradually weed out those with excess power orwho abuse it. which basically needs transparency and accountability at a level and frequency that matches the circumstances at hand.
You've got a chicken and egg problem here. If you don't provide any solutions why would anybody follow you? You need an idea for people to get onboard with. Currently leftists mostly don't know what they want, just that it isn't this. How is that supposed to convince anyone? You can't just say the current system doesn't work then not provide any viable alternatives. Lots of people know the current system isn't great, but they see it as the best system we have because essentially it is until someone comes up with something that doesn't turn into the CCP or USSR.
And to top it all off, in order to preserve the only thing they have left - their freedom - they want to hand the country over to a dictator. It just doesn't get any more oxymoronic than that.
Fascism is the logical endpoint of capitalism. Just look up the largest German companies, then what they did between 1933 and 1945.
You will own nothing and be happy
Thanks for the link. I'd heard the expression in this context before, but never knew where it originated
Shareholders Uber Alles
Ü
No ü
Don't forget depression, anxiety and thought crime caused by social media addiction
That last bit is all conservatives care about keeping though.
They care about keeping the guns because they can't see they are one stupidity away from the guns being used on them. All it will take is all those idiots believing something bad about their leadership. Something that may not even have a shred of truth. After all once a regressive starts thinking somethings true, no truth will every sway them from the lie.
Missing is destroying any hope of owning a house
Do you think that allowing millions of illegals into the country puts no pressure on the housing market?
Imagine being so fed up with propaganda to the point of believing that immigrants are causing the housing market prices to go to the moon, completely ignoring the companies, trust funds and banks essentially repeating 2008 all over again, but slightly different, buying houses and apartments as "safe investment"
I think the impact from illegal immigration is a fraction of a fraction of the impact from letting VC 'invest' in housing.
Those millions of illegals sure are forming companies that buy up all the houses and sell or rent them at 10x the price
If capitalism worked, then those workers would be a flood of cheap labor that could be used to build cheap housing (among other things).
preach it fam
Is anyone on Lemmy worried about socialism?
Who is this for?
The choir. This is preaching to the choir.
Fuckin' A right.
Som.. the american dream.
in USA*
In most places under the American empire's control to varying degrees.*
so only usa?, look at europe, even in brazil we have so much shit but nothing like that, and we are usa garden
At least if you lived in a socialist place before that naturally left you so helpless that you now wish for the heavy restrictions to be back because you rely on them.
"At least the walls of the prison kept me warm"...
What?
Well as long as we'll have guns then things can be turned around...
It can be done with guns or it can be done without. Can is the magic word here, and guns are optional.
You’re gonna need a nuke, big guy. You aren’t taking on the American military with your lil pea shooter.
So "Capitalism" ( by which you mean crony Corps in league with government - a socialist system) took away socialist 'benefits' - huh. Are you sure you are looking at the right end if the stick?
Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about?
I think the best solution is a healthy balance of socialism and capitalism.
Extremes always tend to be dangerous.
You mean market socialism
"I think we need a balance between the system that wants to oppress workers to maximise profit, and the system which wants workers to control their own lives"
I think the best solution is a healthy balance of socialism and capitalism.
Why?
Extremes always tend to be dangerous.
WHY?
I dont think the FED + state which printed 70% of USD money supplies during covid years has anything to do with capitalism and free market... They are anti free market and capitalism if anything...
rofl it's not communism just because the government is involved...
The US is capitalist. Full stop. Period. The government BUYS its physical currency, for fuck's sake.
You see only binary. I didnt said its communism, I said its not free market capitalism, if the state can devalue your money by half with a single action (why do you think basic groceries cost double since 2020 ?), and its not a free market capitalism, when they impose 50% tariffs on anything Chinese regarding EVs and stuff around https://apnews.com/article/biden-china-tariffs-electric-vehicles-solar-254546e92f823a78220c195a0a42a10e
They dont buy their currency, they print promissory notes, that they will repay the debt, in exchange for money. And if you still believe that US can once repay its debt, you are delusional... Especially now, as China and many others are trying to get rid of petro dolars...
It's simple, a State in Capitalist society serves the interests of the Bourgeoisie and defends Capitalism.
Capitalism naturally destroys free markets.
The US has the largest government in the history of the world, it is not remotely pure capitalist.
It's absolutely Capitalist and additonally Imperialist. Having a government doesn't mean it isn't Capitalist, especially if the bourgeoisie controls the state, rather than the proletariat.
I don't care. I am perfectly comfortable nestling into my giant pile of cold hard guns.
Sounds healthy.
Lauren Boebert levels of mental healthy.
Looks Pension and savings look like they're all there. Looks Still employed. Looks Still have free health care. Looks Still seem to be churning out graduates with pace. Looks No debt.
🤷♂️
So things are working out for you, specifically. Great, nothing needs to change.
So things are working out for you, specifically.
I didn't say that, this meme just seems ridiculously off target.
I'm not worried about either socialism or capitalism, they're both abstract ideas. I'm much more concerned with actual, real assholes who are aplenty under both socialism and capitalism.
You don’t have free healthcare, unless you don’t live in America. And if that’s the case, your comment means nothing.
your comment means nothing.
WTF?!
And if that’s the case, your comment means nothing.
That's not very socialist of you.
Where's do you live that you have a pension and free healthcare?
The golden palace in their mind.
Seriously though who the fuck still has an actual pension anymore?
I do. But that's because I'm in a union. This country needs more unions!
Skinny tails on bell curves always exist.
You are from the UK....?
He's talking about things happening with pace rather than speed, so...
