• Rooskie91@discuss.online
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    8 months ago

    Strengthen governments? Corporations have been specifically sowing distrust in government so that they can convince voters to weaken regulations and vote against their own interests. How are corporations strengthening governments when they benefit from weak government?

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Corporations benefit from Capitalist governments. Larger Capitalists benefit when it is more difficult to compete, such as with strong IP laws or high startup costs, giving them free reign for monopoly.

      They also love large militaries, as the MIC makes a ton of money off the suffering of people worldwide.

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      The government represents the interests of the class that holds power in society, which is the capital owning class under capitalism.

    • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      They’re not weaker they’re captured. It’s a concept called inverted totalitarianism and it’s terrible.

    • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Regulations help to protect large corporations from competition, and then the larger the government is the more contracts it gives out. Are you saying we need a bigger stronger government?

      • grte@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        Regulations help protect people from corporations. This libertarian take is total nonsense. What makes competition difficult for new entrants is the overwhelming size of modern day multinational corporations and the capital investment required to wage any sort of real competition which is something that is only going to be fronted by other extremely wealthy interests. So, yes, we do need bigger, stronger governments in relation to those very powerful corporations, specifically strong enough to break them up. Or ideally nationalize them entirely.

        • John_McMurray@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          People who say stuff like this have never tried. You’ll never hear a person who actually starts a business say anything of the sort. Usually insane tax rates is their gripe.

        • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          That is kind of true but it also protects corporations from small businesses. For example min wage harms small businesses much more than large corporations. You can like the “protection” but then you will get what you get with corporations and costs. If you opt for the bigger government then you will get things like unaffordable houses and inflation, so dont complain when you get what you asked for.

            • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              It was a populous example and if you want to get into the weeds on it we could, but it wasnt the important part of the comment.

              I love how you guys claim that sort of economics is dumb as you cant afford a house and to feed yourselves. Modern monetary policy is working great!!

              • grte@lemmy.ca
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                8 months ago

                Our current economic situation is the product of decades of regulation cutting supply side (aka neoclassical) economics championed by the likes of Thatcher and Reagan, which still dominates today. You know where housing is not unaffordable? Vienna, Austria. A place where better than half the residents live in social housing. The product of a strong government and regulation.

                • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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                  8 months ago

                  So your theory is that housing is so expensive because of less regulation? And if we had more regulations in how houses are built housing would be cheaper?

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Ok but without regulation you get poverty wages, 12 hour shifts, 6 day work weeks, and food with no nutrition unless you think lead is a vital mineral.

            • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              This is not 1812 anymore. If it were like that why wouldnt you just work for yourself or an employer that treats you well?

              • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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                8 months ago

                Lmao

                Just among so many other things, like the lead poisoned baby food from March this year, you clown, the FDA was established in 1906, and Republicans are, right now, trying to abolish child labor laws and hiring 12 year olds in meat packing plants.

  • Count Regal Inkwell@pawb.social
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    8 months ago

    Human beings may not be perfect but a computer program with language synthesis is hardly the answer to the world’s problems.

  • Commiunism@lemmy.wtf
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    8 months ago

    The west, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power. Slogans such as “governments have limited power by design” come from well-paid researchers, think tanks funded by big businesses. It’s privately funded propaganda, like the Trilateral Commision in United States, for instance.

  • KombatWombat@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    This meme’s text has figures about “now” but doesn’t note that it is mostly a paraphrased quote from Deus Ex, a video game set in a fictional dystopian version of America in 2052. The speaker is not in fact talking about 2024 America. But even for the past figures, I would want citations.

    The first part seems to be talking about tax sources as a portion of total taxes raised, which isn’t easy to search for. I did find a table that cited whitehouse.gov and recorded income collections compared to total GDP at least. It did peak in 1945, but only at 7.1%.

    The US Bureau of Labor doesn’t seem to have records on self-employment before 1948. The only thing I could find talking about self-employment in 1900 was a blog post that said it was 50%. 90% self-employment sounds like a lot of subsistence farming and odd-jobs work, which isn’t exactly the ideal economic model.

    The Deus Ex part is part of a longer conversation, but here is the relevant section:

    JC Denton: Just answer the question.
    Leo Gold: Don’t believe me? It’s all in the numbers. For a hundred years, there’s been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people.
    JC Denton: Do you have a single fact to back that up?
    Leo Gold: Number one: In 1945, corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent. Number two: in 1900, 90 percent of Americans were self-employed; now it’s about two percent.
    JC Denton: So?
    Leo Gold: It’s called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time.
    
  • Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    1945 is a really weird data point, because yk, WW2 was still going on, so at least for Americans, most of them were probably employed by the state or by the various enterprises that produced the weapons needed for the war effort

  • frippa@lemmy.ml
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    8 months ago

    The fact that a worker who barely makes ends meet pays 10-20 times the taxes Amazon pays is… Fascinating in a dark way.

    Similar to feudal peasants that used to pay up in the form of free labor and produce, while their noble overlords enjoyed massive privileges and zero taxes.