The autocrats are shocked at autocracy!

A very well written and researched piece that gives us specifics to why the leadership in the Democratic party failed everyone.

I find the part about looming fascism a bit puzzling though mainly because the rest of the piece makes extensive claims about corporate influence throughout it. I think it is the white elephant in this room and the driving factor of why US politics are so corrupted.

That’s was a lot. Thanks for posting.

I read a study somewhere that says wealth gaps and democracy can uneasily coexist as long as money stays out of politics. This is the essential problem I think.

When we allow money into politics it corrupts them. We have to look at actual metrics to measure and consider externalities whenever creating policy. Making sure a monetary system is working for everyone and that people who take advantage of the situation are dealt with is a no brainer.

I did a little research and it does appear CA law is a little lax around loaning for political campaigns. I am not from CA so I really don’t know if this is really a big deal or not. I would be concerned though that this system would be abused.

I personally think we should actively attempt to eliminate wealth gaps. Money has been used to divide people for far too long and it is such a corrupting force for some people. It is a problem that has consumed the US entirely.

Corrupt politicians are a dime a dozen. Healthy spider plants in the office on the other hand are pretty rare.

Court orders tax payers on the hook for criminal administration.

Out of all the things Trump has done, I draw the line at deferred maintenance.

Oh don’t get me wrong. Even though I live in a fascist nation my life is not bad. I just bought a house, I have a stable job. I have a big family I get to hang out with everyday.

I have a job for the first time in thirty years I can afford to insure my family with. A lot of my contemporaries are not so lucky though.

I think it is good just to point it out. It helps to keep me thinking straight and not feel gaslight by my government when it makes policy decisions to benefit the wealthy.

Oh, I like that because it puts a ever increasing burden to use it or lose it. Once it is no longer profitable it goes back to public domain.

I find patents of dubious value to say the least. It is definitely the worst part of IP.

If there is any chance of reform it would have to still appeal to all parties. We definitely need to think about solutions that have not been proposed before.

As much as I would like to advocate for abolishment of IP, I recognize it is an unrealistic demand.

After all, IP didn’t magically appear. It took hundreds of years of court cases and laws passed to get to the arguably ridiculous point we are now.

Personally, I think that if small business capitalism actually existed then it would run contrary to that.

There would be no need for copyright or patents. These systems create artificial scarcity which hinders society as a whole to benefit a minority.

I feel like our existing system of laissez-faire capitalism fully embraces the rent seeking found in intellectual property.

The fact that corporations are the dominate social structure is undisputable. Everything, including notions of democracy, is secondary to this. Whenever there is a conflict between wealth and the general populace the government will always side with money due to corruption.

This is pretty universal across all nations. There is not a democracy that does not suffer from this problem. At this point it really does feel that democracy in most forms is just a window dressing for corportocracy.

Inpantception 2: Under the Underpants

In a sane world we would already be working towards reforming the Presidential pardon. It is clear the current system is broken and prone to abuse. I guess it just took a rapist-in-chief to show us that.

Anyone has a fair shot at being a wage slave

People who defended capitalism at this point in time are in constant denial. Capitalism only works well for everyone in highly competitive new fields/markets.

Once the monopoly sets in it no longer serves a useful function to the rest of society but does enrich a minority.

An awful lot of capitalistic practice is rent seeking nowadays. It doesn’t add any value and instead creates it out of thin air.

There has never been an effective small businesses capitalism economy that every capitalists uses to justify capitalism. It always ends up as game of monopoly.

Copyrights and patents generate enormous amounts of wealth from rent seeking. This wealth has been used to continue to entrench these draconian concepts into our legal and governmental systems.

Even worse they have been used to stop the spread of information and monopolize development thus slowing down technological advancement. So many people have died so these clowns can make a buck.

One could argue that artificial scarcity is a farce, but unless you have more money than the people who benefit from IP, your voice will not be heard on a policy level.

As it has gotten worse my whole life. Adam Smith could have never have conceptualized mega corporations. In fact, corporate law at that time would have never allowed for them to exist.

People hate socialism because they are propagandized to full stop. Most people will never own actual capital so why would they be afraid of not being able to privately control it. This conflates the idea of private ownership and ownership of capital. This in itself is also propaganda.

Thatcher’s actual policies hurt working class and benefited corporations. Strange people would bring her up in a conversation meant to portray socialism negatively.

On to your points. Rent seeking existed long before the term ever existed just like fascism. It has always been bad, think of company towns back in 1800’s being the very definition of extreme rent seeking behavior. I had thought we were done with that concept but the unbelievable concentration of wealth has brought it back.

There is no one to reign it in because the systems are completely captured by the wealthy through their proxy corporations. Fascism spread like wildfire across the globe and the dominate social structure is now corporations, not governments.

There is no answer to this because all the answers threaten this dominance. We have (non wealthy people) been checkmated before I was ever born.

But hey, life is not so bad. You can always take advantage of your fellow man to get a leg up and it is highly encouraged by a legal system that is designed to protect the wealthy and not punish white collar crime.

Oh yes the myth of the small business capitalism. The reality is there was once thousands of car manufacturers in the US and now there is maybe fifty with a big three making the vast majority.

Same goes for about every sector there is in every country. The ideal of a capitalist society that uses great restraint is just a fantasy. Concentration of wealth and the wealth gap is high in every single country in the world.

There is no real example of capitalism effectively addressing wealthy inequality or creating a small business form a capitalism for any significant length of time before it starts concentrating. It may start out with small businesses, but monopolies quickly develop.

You may ask why is it bad to have wealthy people. The problem is representation. All nations policies almost always exclusively favor those with capital. They get unequal representation.

One only has to look at the mega corporations to see the concentration and do a policy review to see the majority of laws passed directly benefit them.

I would like to see a country actually implement what you say to prevent concentration of wealth. It probably will never happen though.

Cool, so what happens when the AI video can no longer be distinguished from the real thing?

We are heading into some pretty weird uncharted territory just so some Tech Bros can make a buck.

I think it is time to start a large AI fund to deal with all the damage it will cause. Something like 40% of gross profits just to be safe.