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Too many apologists keep totting the line that capitalism as practiced in the US is A-OK and then deflect with "what's the alternative?" The alternative is to
by Frost1x 4y ago
Too many apologists keep totting the line that capitalism as practiced in the US is A-OK and then deflect with "what's the alternative?"
The alternative is to fix rampant abuses we see with highly concentrated capital accumulation that results in a proxy of many unchecked powers in private and increasingly public spaces. There's lots of paths being pursued to curb this.
Antitrust legislation and most business regulation exists because of abuses that naturally arise, I don't know why the narrative of continued deregulation solves these problems--regulation is pretty much the only way to leverage the benefits of capitalism without allowing it to become yet another oppressive system over the majority of society where the oppressors just become a class of the ultrawealthy. My opinion is that were well on our way down that path as we see increasingly less value add back to society and a lot more value capture strategies instead.
- drekipus 4y ago> Too many apologists keep totting the line that capitalism as practiced in the US is A-OK and then deflect with "what's the alternative?" I don't think as many people say that as you think. I think most people want better regulation and control, but perhaps done incrementally (with haste) and with a feedback circuit. Most alternatives that have been "hard-stop" switched to lead to a lot more destruction and problems than we currently have now
- fallingknife 4y agoI would like to see some evidence for this "continued deregulation" I always hear about. Seems like everywhere I look regulation either has stayed the same or been tightened.
- chalst 4y agoThe hobbling of Dodd-Frank by Obama and its gutting by Trump, in each case at the behest of Wall Street, is an obvious example. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_in_post-financial_crisis_reform_debate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_in_post...
- fallingknife 4y agoYour linked source does not support the claim, but rather talks about efforts to restore Glass-Steagall in some form and their failure, which is not a loosening of regulations, but a continuation of the status quo. I do acknowledge that the repeal of Glass-Steagall itself was a loosening of regulation, but that was 25 years ago.
- chalst 4y agoThe link was 'Cf', meaning it gives background on the part of financial regulation I talk about, rather than being a direct source. It talks about the rationale for not adopting Glass-Steagall-strength measures during the Obama years. During the Trump years, most US banks were exempted from Dodd-Frank in 2018 via the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act.
- Aunche 4y agoAnyone in finance would tell you that Dodd Frank drastically changed how banks are run. Glass–Steagall was never reinstated because it had very little to do with the financial crisis. Many of the bigger players of the mortgage crisis never did anything related to commercial banking (e.g. Lehman Brothers, AIG).
- missedthecue 4y agoDodd Frank was not gutted by Trump. They lifted the asset cap so that the onerous regulatory requirements only applied to banks with $250B+ in assets, rather than banks with $50B+ in assets, as it was previously. This was a great thing for consumers and banking competition. There is no reason a small bank with $50B in assets should have the same regulatory requirements as JP Morgan.
- thomassmith65 4y agoThere's an article with examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation#United_States It doesn't seem like a comprehensive list. For example, I scanned the page for "Fairness Doctrine" and found nothing.
- HWR_14 4y agoCheck out Uber/Lyft/AirBnB. All of them ignored regulations for long enough that the regulations eventually got removed. I'm not aware of many regulations that were tightened in the past 5 years. Changed sure, but usually aiming for fixing regulations that no longer properly applied. The regulations that "tightened" would be: FOSTA/SESTA It's possible I missed a lot, but please enlighten me.
- nathanaldensr 4y agoRight, and the most frustrating thing is that antitrust laws have been on the books since 1890. We as a country and a people know how to stop unchecked corporate power, and we already have laws to do so. Unfortunately, lawlessness is much more of a problem than any one ideological position.