EndRedStateSubsidies

joined 5 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Unfortunately, what many don't realize is a win for capitalism is a loss for basically everyone else.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002169

Tldr- the endlessly parroted "capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty" notion stems from a study that basically equated subsistence farming to poverty because despite meeting all their needs and desires it made zero money per day.

Basically, the entire notion that capitalism is swell is a lot like saying Africans were better off as slaves because they were previously unemployed and then given jobs. Which is basically the first argument capitalists tried to make while "extracting value" with the slave trade.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Oh, and the reason it's mutually exclusive to democracy has already been demonstrated with Citizens United and putting unlimited dark money into elections and politics. If the law can be purchased, the wealthy have all the means and motivation they can to strip mine anything of value and pay for the propaganda calling it good.

The majority of all news is owned by billionaires telling us how to feel about what they tell us happens.

The Nixon campaign ADMITTED the war on drugs was a front to marginalize anti war leftists and black people. By criminalizing cannabis, they not only stifled Vietnam protests and the civil rights movement but also protected the profits of pharmaceutical corps, the alcohol industry, and the paper/wood industry.

The 24/7 news cycle came along to keep us hyper stimulated with bullshit we don't even notice the things that matter and front line reporting has become a thing of the past specifically because of how motivated it made people to speak out.

Now, if you complain about Palestinian genocide you get called anti semitic by bots paid for by corporate interests and foreign states.

It's all theater to keep us scared and fractured while they work us to death, steal our retirement with bubbles they pump and dump, and then start resource wars so poor kids will die for a chance at college.

Man vs woman, black vs white, gay or straight, it's all divide and conquer to keep the workers from realizing the one fight that matters is the have nots vs the have yahcts.

The priority of news should be telling us what is happening in the world. Instead, it's ad revenue, clicks, and sensationalism.

You have no rights when truth has become a toy of the ultra rich drunk on their own farts.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I'll bite.

The bitch of post social media reality is attention spans are fuck all and you're either going to be sacrifice specificity to be succinct enough for people to get the point or you cover all the details in a tome no one but the most pedantic or argumentative will engage on. The above was a massive over simplification, yes, but it at least sets a stage for a more significant suggestion.

I guess, unfortunately I'm a grown ass man with teenage kids and decades of reading but again to my previous point, citing all the above turns it into an academic project no one wants to fuck with but nitpickers.

What you have to learn and accept is that capitalism as an economic system is mutually exclusive from democracy as a political system.

I'll again use simplified views for the sake of brevity at the cost of some nuance...

What is capitalism? Are you a capitalist?

Economic systems basically revolve around who owns the factory that makes the things and private ownership. Now, that's not to be confused with PERSONAL property, items owned by an individual.

Capitalism is where the building is privately owned either by an LLC or some other corporate entity.

Socialism is where the building is owned by the workers.

Communism is when the building is owned by the government.

None of these have exclusive ownership of the concept of work, employment, wages, or anything and all of them exist side by side in the modern economy. I work in a municipal utility where money is collected from everyone to pay for infrastructure and resources owned by the city. We work with solar co-ops owned by the workers that get profit sharing and we consult with privately owned corporations that have higher prices to account for advertising and payouts to shareholders. Our local privately owned utility has higher rates and always raises them as much as they can meanwhile we're legally obligated to save as much money as possible as stewards of public funds.

And due to all of that, we have lower rates and far better service metrics.

The focus of communism is serving society. The purpose of socialism is serving the workers. The entire point of capitalism is wealth extraction for capitalists.

But what the fuck is a capitalist? A capitalist owns capital. Having and using cash doesn't make one a capitalist. Capitalism creates two groups in society: a small group of very rich capitalists that own the resources and a massive group of workers paid as little as possible to create and maintain those resources without getting much of them.

Every American is propagandized from birth to confuse consumerism with freedom.

Publicly traded corporations have a fiduciary duty to shareholders which is ultimately the engine of the race to the bottom. The short term focus on the obligation to beat q/q metrics is the reason people get laid off and you pick up their work instead. It's the reason raises aren't in the budget despite your cost of living going up. It's the reason we all have to tighten our belts and make sacrifices for 'the family' and executives making hundreds times more get millions in stock bonuses for laying off the people responsible for those achievements and holding on to the duplicitous self serving ladder climbers.

This isn't bitterness about the success of others or my personal failings. The system itself isn't sustainable because the focus of capitalism has always been about acreting wealth by stiffing employees and customers. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X22002169

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Once you understand the purpose of market makers it's easy to understand the market is just a method of wealth extraction from the working class to the already wealthy.

The cornerstone of pricing is supply and demand. If you don't want to sell for $5, you don't. Either someone else sells for $5 or the buyer has to offer more. Pretty simple.

However, market makers will borrow other people's shares, sell them under market value to drive down price, and then hope to buy them back at a lower price. They also have the ability to internalize sales, that is, not report them to the lit market if they would increase the price.

There are rules for this they don't follow. The Sec waits a decade and fines them pennies per million made and then eventually fails to collect and writes off the fine.

Market makers have been interviewed openly stating they use psychological models, high frequency computer trades, and internalization to dictate prices. There is no legitimacy in the stock market. The price goes up literally because they want/need it to to cover their positions.

On what planet is Tesla worth more than every other auto builder combined? This one because it's a mad house of bullshit that people only believe works because they don't understand shit about fuck.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bro, I've been high basically every fucking day for the last 5 years for sure but we're getting on a decade here.

There isn't much shit I haven't tried on weed because raw dawgging this timeline is a guaranteed shotgun slurpee.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

It is but with inherent negative connotations.

One schemes to get away with shady shit but plans to do good things.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ironically, forgiving the debt would generate immediate economic activity that the government would tax and collect that money back with far greater returns.

Every dollar in food stamps generated $1.70 in economic activity and that's just for "normal" poor people.

The problem isn't (just) the cost of education being insane but that wages aren't increasing to cover the bigger numbers.

The problem is that it's becoming harder to hide the entire country is a "company town" or African diamond mine where keeping you trapped in debt you'll never escape is the goal and it's perfectly legal because they own the laws.

I have been with my employer for a decade. My nominal wage has increased 50% but once you account for inflation I'm still basically at my starting wage even after a decade of promotions and certifications.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

But see it's not consistent because the moment they're that soldier, elderly on fixed income, sick, etc, the system and everyone in it are supposed to drop everything and help them. "Get your government hands off my Medicare", as it was.

They're the same shit eating morons that voted for Trump's tariffs because Biden made things to expensive .

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I mean morally consistent like being pro life but also pro death penalty and pro war but then again vote down any VA funding. Family values and rapingb kids, etc...

[–] [email protected] 77 points 3 months ago (9 children)

They have values they're just not logically or morally consistent with reality.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Jon Lovitz wants work.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

People should constantly talk about Democrats being controlled opposition unwilling to speak against the wealthy.

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