[American biased post, because that’s what I know and where I am]

Been screaming that capitalism is not the problem you are experiencing. Monopolies, or more to the point, cartels, have exploded in scope over the past 40-years. Think of a company you hate, a company that’s fucking you over, a company that’s fucking us ALL over. Bet they fit the bill.

Hate your job at Lowe’s? Go to Home Depot! wait… There’s a great family-owned, local hardware store, but I can’t afford to shop there.

Walgreens piss you off? Just go to CVS! well damn… New local pharmacy chain is really nice! They can’t take my insurance.

Don’t like your bank?

If you’re under 40, or maybe even under 50, I cannot relate how alien this all is, the words fail me. If you’re in your 20s or 30s, it’s easy to think it was always like this. Oh hell no it was not.

Along with allowing corporations unlimited political “speech”, i.e. campaign contributions, the proliferation of cartels will go down in history as America’s failing point. (Basically the same thing?)

News like the current entertainment mergers didn’t fucking happen. And here on lemmy we’re talking, with a straight face, about the ups and downs of the Netflix/Warner Bros./HBO merger. And if you’ll remember, Warner Bros./Time Warner/AOL was the largest merger in US history!

  • daannii@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Op… I don’t feel like I want to say the same thing as others but you realize capitalism causes monopolies .?

    And as a 2nd point Ive not seen mentioned because it’s slightly off topic but.

    Capitalism encourages unsustainability.

    By it’s very nature there is no end goal but growth for the sake of growth.

    This can’t happen forever. You understand that right?

    We live on a planet with finite resources. And a breaking point for pollution that many believe has already been met.

    Capitalism WILL kill this entire planet and everyone on it.

    It’s not a theory or a prediction.

    It’s absolute. Again, by its very nature, the goals of capitalism is to cut corners to keep producing. To constantly expand. To reduce production costs constantly. (Usually in the form of labor).

    Which is not sustainable.

    This is why billionaires want more babies. To feed the capitalism machine.

    But what we really should be doing is celebrating lower birth rates. We don’t need more humans to be slaves.

    We need less humans. And sustainable economies. Sustainable lifestyles.

    Machines have reduced the need for human labor a hundred fold. And increased human production by quite a lot. Yet humans are still paid low wages.

    Capitalism will continue to exploit human labor.

    The more of us there are, the lower value we have.

    You ever have a job where they make it clear how replaceable you are? I have. And there are a lot of jobs like that.

    True communism is the only system that will save us. Not Russia fake communism. Not China authoritarian fake communism.

    I mean legit actual real communism. Where the workers own the companies. Not billionaires.
    Why do people believe those men deserve to hoard?

    I don’t get it. Just watch videos of those losers. They aren’t great men. They don’t deserve to hoard the wealth. They are rich from harming others. Exploiting. Funding wars and politicians in other countries and our own that allow them to keep exploiting.
    Literally. Not figuratively. We have allowed the worst of humanity to take control.

    This has to stop.

    True communism or something like it, is the only sustainable system that will save humanity and the planet.

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      I feel like you’re missing the economic system vs. the government system. Those are two separate entities that must be controlled for.

      Mu point here is that capitalism is a fucking mess, with no government controls. Of course it is! As with any economic system.

      • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Surprise! The system of accumulating power was used to gain power to influence the government to let them gain more power to influence the government to let them gain more power to influence the government… Ad infinitum.

        Government regulation of capitalism is fundamentally impossible in the long term, unless you lock it down early into something barely recognizable as capitalism. That ship has sailed long long ago.

      • daannii@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Uh… Government controls the economic system by laws and enforcement of said laws.

      • dontmindmehere@programming.dev
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        2 days ago

        politics and economy are not separate worlds. capital, monopoly or not, is political power greater than any vote or government seat

        what sense does it make to say you’ll keep the ruling class in check while letting them keep their power?
        can you make a benevolent mafia by taxing the racket and breaking up mafia monopolies?

      • loonsun@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Well yeah any economic system requires government oversight to be effective but that’s because there isn’t really a decoupling of government and economics. Our current governments around the world are primarily representative democratic nation states and they are neoliberal capitalist institutions. These are not separate, both have evolved alongside each other and we are currently seeing them crack under pressure together. There is no point in making this distinction at the macro level.