Anti-Corporate Movement
This community is the first one on lemmy of its kind. It sits between the idea of anarchism/anti-capitalism and left leaning economic policy.
Our goal is to make people aware of the dangers of corporate control, its influence on governments and people as well as the small but steady abrasion of empathy around the world indirectly caused by it.
Current topics this includes but is not limited to:
- Meta's entry into the fediverse
- Game companies putting gambling mechanics in childrens games
- Embracer groups buyout and closing of smaller game studios
- IP trolls destroying small companies and keeping progress back for profit
Feel free to debate this but beware, corporate rhetoric is not welcome here. If you have arguments, bring them on. If its rhetoric trying to defend the evil actions of corporations, we will know and you will go.
Our declared goal so far is to have all companies and individuals worldwide capped at 999 mil USD in all assets, including ownership of other companies, sister companies and marital assets. The reason for this is that companies (and individuals) are not supposed to resemble small(?) countries with a single leader(-board) and shareholder primacy. Thats why we feel like they must be kept in check indefinitely.
But companies will just wander off The argument that large companies will just wander off is valid, which we embrace. We dont need microsoft, apple, google, amazon and other trillion dollar companies. There are small competitors being kept small and driven into brankruptcy by anti competitive behavior of these giants or simply bought up and closed. If starbucks left tomorrow, we would not have an issue with this.
But then we have x little microsofts that all belong to the same person(s) If in fact nobody was allowed to accumulate more than 999 mil in assets, they would not be able to own all these. And like defending agains burglary, it is not about complete defence but time and effort. You only have to keep the thief occupied long enough for them to be caught, give up or make a mistake.
But these giants have tons of IP which would then limit our growth Thats another topic we must touch on. We will (only this one time) take a page out of russias playbook and demand that IP of non complying companies (assets over 999 mil USD) will be declared invalid, which opens them up to be copied.
But then they will "live" in one country that doesnt accept this Correct, and they should be taken into custody the moment they enter the airspace of a country that supports this act.
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I'm old enough to remember when there were only four TV channels, two of them advertising funded.
I don't think it's an unreasonable model to fund a company that way, however the lack of transparency in the modern infrastructure gives the impression something is going on that they know we wouldn't be happy with if we knew.
If your business can't function without keeping secrets I want nothing to do with it.
I'm not old enough for that but I was alive when chernobyl went boom. ;)
The issue is not just making advertisement. That I would be mostly fine with. My issue is monopolism (examle google favoring youtube on search results), manipulation (showing happy people drinking alcohol, implying you will be happy if you drink), cancer-capitalism where companies drive for infinite growth, wage-slavery where people get half of what they got 50 yrs ago if you count inflation.
Thats why this community exists. People are fed up with this psycho-capitalism where the customer is just another thing to exploit and get rid of.
I get the resignation most people have about this, I agree that they likely couldn't break free or upend the system itself so they feel they might as well surrender to it.
This is really sad I think. I think with enough collective push things could change direction, even if it would be like adjusting the heading on a supertanker.
Absolutely. It is why this community exists. btw. have you seen my petition on change.org about devices being forced open after support ends? That would change the world. Feel free to sign it. We need people to sign it so others even see it. It would mean a lot.
Kinda proves the problem, and my point, when the first thing I see when I click that link is Facebook and Google logins.
Totally agree with your point, still doesn't feel right to sign a petition which relates to a political system where I'm not subject to the jurisdiction of that system.