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Huh? If the government wanted to ban facial recognition, they could do it. Our democratic system absolutely has the power to ban it. It hasn't been done, presum

Huh? If the government wanted to ban facial recognition, they could do it. Our democratic system absolutely has the power to ban it. It hasn't been done, presumably because there isn't a public consensus that it should be banned. If you're arguing for public ownership of companies, that's literally communism -- so not "democratic." But we don't need communism to regulate facial recognition.

ma2rten 7y ago
If you hadn't replied first, I would have replied the exact same thing as your first paragraph - also starting with "Huh?". That said, public ownership of companies is not necessarily undemocratic. It's just a bad idea for different reasons. USPS would be an example in the US of publicly owned company. I believe that Marx even originally intended communism to be democratic. The regime in the USSR was supposed to be transitory.
pteredactyl 7y ago
Exactly. Does Amazon have an army more powerful than the US? No? Then absolutely the government can regulate corporate America. It's a matter of the will of the people. Edit: 20 bucks OP (andrepd) has an Amazon Prime account.
- andrepd 7y ago
  >Absolutely the government can regulate corporate America. It's a matter of the will of the people. The issue (or rather, one issue among many) is that that isn't so straightforward. There is an inherent assymetry: a trillion dollar corporation can influence the government at a scale so staggeringly huge and pervasive there isn't even a comparison that can be made with the power and influence of a regular Joe. They can lobby government, bribe politicians, run ads, put on massive campaigns, all of which distort government into their hands. >Edit: 20 bucks on OP (andrepd) having an Amazon Prime account. Cute of you, but no. I've bought things from amazon 4 times since 2015 (I just checked).
  - dillonmckay 7y ago
    That is why cable modems hold special status via FCC rules and thus federal law (in the US).
  - pteredactyl 7y ago
    >There is an inherent assymetry: a trillion dollar corporation can influence the government at a scale so staggeringly huge and pervasive there isn't even a comparison that can be made with the power and influence of a regular Joe. Where does Amazon's power originate from?
DennisP 7y ago
A Princeton study in 2014 found that public opinion in the U.S. has virtually no influence on national policy decisions. https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/study-the-u-s-has-likely-been-an-oligarchy-for-decades-VcBZj8xeaUK9i9Qs_nGtjw/ https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/study-the... Subsequent studies have found that it's not as bad as all that. But even they found that the public often doesn't get what it wants. Therefore we can't conclude there's no public consensus for a ban just because the government hasn't done it already.

ma2rten 7y ago

If you hadn't replied first, I would have replied the exact same thing as your first paragraph - also starting with "Huh?". That said, public ownership of companies is not necessarily undemocratic. It's just a bad idea for different reasons. USPS would be an example in the US of publicly owned company. I believe that Marx even originally intended communism to be democratic. The regime in the USSR was supposed to be transitory.

pteredactyl 7y ago

Exactly. Does Amazon have an army more powerful than the US? No? Then absolutely the government can regulate corporate America. It's a matter of the will of the people. Edit: 20 bucks OP (andrepd) has an Amazon Prime account.

andrepd 7y ago
>Absolutely the government can regulate corporate America. It's a matter of the will of the people. The issue (or rather, one issue among many) is that that isn't so straightforward. There is an inherent assymetry: a trillion dollar corporation can influence the government at a scale so staggeringly huge and pervasive there isn't even a comparison that can be made with the power and influence of a regular Joe. They can lobby government, bribe politicians, run ads, put on massive campaigns, all of which distort government into their hands. >Edit: 20 bucks on OP (andrepd) having an Amazon Prime account. Cute of you, but no. I've bought things from amazon 4 times since 2015 (I just checked).
- dillonmckay 7y ago
  That is why cable modems hold special status via FCC rules and thus federal law (in the US).
- pteredactyl 7y ago
  >There is an inherent assymetry: a trillion dollar corporation can influence the government at a scale so staggeringly huge and pervasive there isn't even a comparison that can be made with the power and influence of a regular Joe. Where does Amazon's power originate from?

DennisP 7y ago

A Princeton study in 2014 found that public opinion in the U.S. has virtually no influence on national policy decisions. https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/study-the-u-s-has-likely-been-an-oligarchy-for-decades-VcBZj8xeaUK9i9Qs_nGtjw/ https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/study-the... Subsequent studies have found that it's not as bad as all that. But even they found that the public often doesn't get what it wants. Therefore we can't conclude there's no public consensus for a ban just because the government hasn't done it already.