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Since when? Governments have a history of greed, corruption, and trampling on the rights of it's people for it's own gain. Ref: any history book on any country,
by Mary-Jane 7y ago
Since when? Governments have a history of greed, corruption, and trampling on the rights of it's people for it's own gain.
Ref: any history book on any country, ever
- cercatrova 7y agoThe problem is all large organizations strive for power. One can be more easily changed than the other, at least in democratic republics. Corporations are more like autocracies, their leadership can't be changed. One can say that corporations derive power from customers, but this is not necessarily so. As they grow larger, they can necessarily control user habits through psychological means. The government can too but it has a lesser incentive, as power is more distributed, again in a democratic republic. Money however is a much better fitness function than power, as it can be quantified, so it is unsurprising that corporations gain power.
- searchableguy 6y agoThe only difference is that someone proposed an ideal when talking about government, but not for companies. Why not use the ideal free market here as well?
- cercatrova 6y agoFree markets are sustained by governments free of bribery and corruption. Otherwise you get monopolies and oligopolies as in the Gilded Age and arguably now.
- scarface74 6y agoWhere is the government that has a history free of bribery and corruption?
- cercatrova 6y agoNone, of course, that is true of any organization of incentive-driven autonomous agents, such as humans. However, governments are not explicitly designed to make money, whereas corporations are literally explicitly designed to make as much money as possible. Money equals power to some extent, so corporations cannot be as useful as governments if you're optimizing for the wellbeing of citizenry.
- scarface74 6y agoGovernments are far from optimized for the well being of all it’s citizens. It’s optimized for the majority. Just like the “War on Drugs” turned into “treating it like a disease” when drugs started hitting “rural” America. France passed a law to make the Burkini illegal - targeting Muslims. This isn’t just the US.
- cercatrova 6y agoOf course, you can't please everyone. The distinction is, at least governments try to. Corporations do not, by design, as they are only incentivized to collect money and funnel it to the top X% of the company, not even the company as a whole which includes workers.
- notmarkus 6y agoCorporations work by providing a product or service that customers believe to be worth more than the dollars and cents they're paying for it. It's inherently consensual. The only way a corporation begins to generate revenue is literally by attempting to please as many customers as possible.
- cercatrova 6y agoYes, but the problem is not when the corporation is small, but when it is large. With increased power, it can reach the levels of a nation-state in affecting people, and it is unchangeable as there is no mechanism, unlike voting, to change its behavior. You may say that the customer is always right and so will choose a different product, but this can only be done with a free market, which does not exist currently, and can only exist with strong governments free of monetary influence, as I said before. Sure, pockets of free market, competitive behavior exist, but for large corporations, they are near oligopolies, and people can't switch to another provider. See healthcare, colleges, ISPs, and so on. Either way, one should be wary of large organizations, regardless of their type such as governmental or corporate.
- notmarkus 6y agoWhat meaningful changes have people affected in democratic republics in the recent past? Companies that don't keep up with customers' desires go out of business all the time.
- ceejayoz 6y agoEvery aspect of the social safety net in the developed world? Political power shifts happen all the time in democratic republics as the populace gets fed up with the party/parties in power.
- scarface74 6y agoWhat social safety net? You mean like universal healthcare? Paid parental leave? Decent unemployment benefits?
- cercatrova 6y ago8 hour work days, no child labor, Social Security, FDA. Look at anything that came out of the Great Depression and New Deal. Things would be a lot worse if governments ceded all power to corporations, which they basically did in the Gilded Age. To be clear, I also want what you wrote, healthcare, benefits, and parental leave, among others, but those only come about through strong governments.
- ceejayoz 6y agoAre you under the impression the USA is the only country in the “developed world”?
- scarface74 6y agoWell seeing that that the title of the submission is “US judge blocks Twitter’s bid..”, I think it’s fair to discuss the US government.....
- ceejayoz 6y ago
- scarface74 6y agoWell, because the design of the US federal government with both the electoral college and two senators per state without taking the population into account. If you live in a more populous state, you have much less voting power than “Middle America”. Not to mention gerrymandering and widespread voter suppression.
- ceejayoz 7y agoThe same is true for unregulated business.
- Mary-Jane 6y agoI agree! The biggest difference is that your interaction with any given businesses is not compulsory.
- ceejayoz 6y agoThat’s now how monopolies work. Standard Oil and US Steel weren’t easy to opt out of.
- scarface74 6y agoWhich tech company are we obligated to use?