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this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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I can't really understand the tradition of never trusting the government in the US. The government is designed in a way that enables, even requires public oversight, public opinion. If that is not the case, you are not living in a democracy. Many Americans trust private initiatives, charity more than taxes and a working public system. People have no say in what corporations do. If people don't trust the government the attitude should be towards fixing it and enabling trust, not to accept it as is. I am not judging, maybe a little bit but not really. I live in a middle eastern country. We really don't trust the government but we keep working on steering it in the right direction. We are many times smaller than the US but we have minimum income, universal healthcare, unions are the norm, etc.
I used to trust them, before 9/11 when I was young and naive. Then the attack happened. We ended up with bipartisan legislation to strip our civil liberties, torture captives, spy on citizens in direct violation of the bill of rights, and invade 2 countries that had nothing to do with it. Never again.
Shareholders do. They get a vote. The government is essentially a mutual fund you're legally obligated to buy into.
I agree. I also believe we should take care of that before we go granting them vast additional powers.
Thats a good example of why universal healthcare doesn't need to be at the federal level here. States like New York and California are larger than many countries which have universal healthcare. What's stopping them from passing it themselves?
completely agreed
yes but they vote to maximize profit not overall social benefit
They're the same people that are voting in elections.
They are a very small subset of those people, and they are not a proportional representation of all types of people.
But corporations hold each other accountable. They have to compete for your trust. If corporation A does something shady then it's im their competitors interest to call them out in order to raise people's trust in themselves. There are also countless charities and third party sites to grade them. I can choose which programs I fund. I don't get any say in what government gets my taxes or what the government does with my taxes. What if I don't want to fund war but want my money to go to charity to help the poor? How effective is universal healthcare where you are?
Wow, you seriously still believe that corporations compete with eachother in the healthcare sector despite the fact that most insurance companies have a "network" specifically so that they don't have to compete with eachother? How is healthcare a competitive market that drives towards efficiency exactly? The more you privatise healthcare the lower life expectancy you get and the higher you all pay!
93% of stocks are owned by just 10% of people... They own all the companies, and are diversified... They aren't really competing with each other in any meaningful way
Then don't shop at those companies? Go buy produce at your local farmers market etc etc. You get to choose what you spend money on. Or you can start your own business if you feel there is a market gap. You cant start your own government.
I should go to my local farmer's market to sign up for Internet service, or to buy a cell phone? The big industries are so heavily dominated by massive colluding corporations that "don't shop there" is not a tenable solution.
The reason the government is garbage is because most of them are working for the corporations. If we heavily regulated the corporations and made it so they couldn't interfere with politics, the government would be better... They'd actually be working for the people and our interests, like they're supposed to
The problem isn't government, it's corporate control of the government
Privatizing things will always cost more because then you need to account for profits as well. Publicly controlled=x cost, privately controlled=x costs+profit for the rich
Even the most corrupt government employee is only getting a pay check (no profits). They make their corruption money by colluding with corporations and rich people
Well said.
Most people are not "free" enough under current system to shop at farmers markets haha
Yes, but only if there is competition. In an anti-competitive market (thus a non-capitalist system), this balance breaks.
If one trusted their government, then, arguably, none of these checks would be required.
The trust in private enterprise is predicated on one's ability and ease to opt out of such a system. The same cannot be said for the government.