this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2024
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United States | News & Politics

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A couple of slices:

Extreme wealth disparity is not due to a lack of taxes, but rather a lack of competition. In a competitive market, profit margins are quite low. If any one company tries to set its prices much higher than the cost of production, rivals quickly undercut it. Unfortunately, large parts of our economy are blocked off from competition by laws and regulations. This allows monopolistic corporations to charge exorbitant prices.

...

Therefore, it is important to understand how billionaires create and maintain these monopolies that allow them to amass such unfathomable riches.

And:

A lack of competition allows billionaires and their corporations to not make, but take wealth from everyone else. It is not enough to merely tax them on their ill-gotten gains. We need reforms to ensure that they can’t exploit and fleece everyone in the first place.

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Rather than breaking up monopolies that will only ever reform themselves eventually, it makes more sense to fold them into the Public Sector, whereby their existing planning infrastructure can be better put to use in a more efficient manner. We need to move the clock forwards, not keep setting it back.

[–] JairajDevadiga@lemmy.world -5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

fold them into the Public Sector

The only thing worse than a private monopoly is a government monopoly. Especially when that government will soon be under Donald Trump.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Why do you believe it's worse to have public ownership? Moreover, why didn't you respond to the reasoning I laid out for why perpetually trying to move the clock back and stagnate instead of progressing onwards is false thinking?

[–] JairajDevadiga@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Why do you believe it's worse to have public ownership?

Do you want the government to run crucial services such as search engines (Google), e-commerce websites (Amazon) and so on?

You imagine an ideal government which has the best intentions, rather than people acting in their self-interest.

Would you like Trump to control these things? What about law enforcement getting all the data with no constraints of getting warrants?

why didn't you respond to the reasoning I laid out for why perpetually trying to move the clock back and stagnate instead of progressing onwards is false thinking?

Government ownership is not progress. It has been tried, and shown to work poorly in many countries repeatedly.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I'm a Communist, I advocate gradually working towards full Public Ownership and Central Planning. I believe history has proven the inefficiency of the profit motive and the gross excesses of Private Property. Trump controlling the government wouldn't give him dictatorial control over all aspects of the economy, that's akin to saying we should abolish the Post Office because Trump is president. This is a silly logical train to follow.

Moreover, I am very confused about what you are vaguely gesturing towards when you say "it has shown to work poorly repeatedly." If anything, Public Ownership and Central Planning has largely proven to be quite effective, but more effective when applied to developed areas of industry where Markets have already done the best they can to centralize beforehand. In underdeveloped areas, markets are still a useful tool, but eventually outlive themselves.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Government ownership is not progress. It has been tried, and shown to work poorly in many countries repeatedly.

This is neoliberal claptrap.

.
The reason government services don’t work well in the US is because the capitalist class (which runs the country, and always has) doesn’t want them to work well. They intentionally sabotage government services, because they want those services to be privatized, so they can own them and profit off of them.

The reason socialism has failed several times is because imperialism does everything in its power to destroy it.
And yet:

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Private monopolies will charge as much as as their captured market can bear, whereas governments don’t even need to break even.