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The existence of billionaires is a policy failure (europe.pub)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/workreform@lemmy.world
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[–] 16 points 1 year ago (11 children)

It's not a policy failure at all. It's a systemic feature. Capitalism is dog eat dog until only one dog remains. If you want to fix it you need a new economic system.

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  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    Thr government is supposed to enforce regulations in a capitalistic market like ours.

    Amazon should have been torn a new asshole for some of the anti competitive things they've done for example, which would have maybe prevented or at least slowed what happened.

    Google should have been broken up ages ago

    And so on.

    The rules and regulations are there, it's just become so corrupt they aren't being enforced.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I think capitalism can work depending on two things

    1. The state must discipline and tax the capitalists constantly.

    2. There is a competing system that capitalism has to outperform.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    No, what actually ends up happening is the capitalists constantly pressure and influence the state to not tax them and not discipline them. It's hard for the state to say "no" to that kind of money.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    There is a competing system that capitalism has to outperform.

    That's an interesting thought. Still trying to wrap my mind around how it might work.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

    Public services.

    E.g A well funded and not abused USPS.

    Let them compete with that instead of crippling USPS in favor of the private options.

    Edit: In Canada we had Air Canada, which was then sold off and privatized. We shouldn't have done that.

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  • [–] 0 points 11 months ago* (2 children)

    If you want to fix it you need a new economic system.

    We could try actually free markets with no benefits to anyone. By benefits here I mean tax breaks, government contracts and subsidies for companies.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    "We could try actually free markets with no benefits to anyone. By benefits here I mean tax breaks, government contracts and subsidies for companies."

    I'm far from an expert but didn't we more or less try that during the industrial revolution? As I recall from old history books, it wasn't so great for the majority of citizens and the economy was an actual roller coaster ride.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    I don't think so. Protectionism was high, government-granted monopolies were typical. The British East India Company was the only company that was allowed trade with India and China from UK, for instance. The Dutch had something similary.

    Perhaps later though in late 1800s it was more like you described.

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