27 Jul 2021 9:35 am
There was a time when certain activities were deemed necessary for the benefit of the state and its citizens, and those things were paid for with tax money, creating an unfortunate layer of beaurocracy, but suppressing some degree of corruption that always comes with profit motive.
For example, criminal justice and incarceration. The state governments, and federal penitentiaries were responsible for housing, punishing and rehabilitating prisoners, at the taxpayers expense. Now, the criminal justice system is privatized, with companies like Vanguard (NYSE VTI) making bank off crime, literally. With profit motive clearly driving criminal justice, the United States prison population has ballooned to the highest in The world… we now incarcerate more people than China or Russia, by far.
Providing clean water used to be a function of city government, that was turned over to Nestle who now charges you by the bottle to drink Evian (naive spelled backwards, a subtle mockery of the great unwashed masses).
phone service was once a public utility, now it is handled by private cellular companies like Verizon.
I could go on, there are many examples. The point is, government has no raison det’re anymore, no purpose, no reason to be, except for one thing… to enforce the will of the oligarchs at the barrel of a gun.
If Nestle runs out of ground water to bottle and sell you, the military will secure them new territory to drain more ground water. If Apple runs out of lithium for to make cell phones and iPads, the military will occupy Afghanistan for 20 years so they can mine more. If Monsanto needs to enforce their IP (privately owned seeds and crops) rights by taking over your farm, the military will be there to evict you off your land.
The previous functions of government are totally taken over by multinationals in the U.S., except for deploying government muscle as a tool of the corporations, and keeping track of SS, Medicare, welfare, etc. (pacify the masses with just enough money to keep them from rioting).
This trend will only continue, government is not public anymore. The multinationals ARE the government for all intents and purposes, and they write the laws and enforce them.
So the argument about how FB and Google and YouTube are “private companies” and not held to the same standard as government, in respecting and protecting free speech, is insane. Corporations now effectively govern us all, in the applications of operations that used to be public, are now private, and the biggest difference is, we at least got to vote for the public asshole politicians, but nobody elected the current rulers.
They are unelected rulers who can displace thousands or millions of workers by closing down Walmart’s in one town and opening in another. The power of a Fortune 500 CEO to effect the lives of average citizens is far greater than a Senator or governor. Hail to the NEW chief.. multinational corporations
1 Nomination
Annoyed Liberall Jul 26, 2021
Go to original post on Jul 26, 2021 10:28pm
For example, criminal justice and incarceration. The state governments, and federal penitentiaries were responsible for housing, punishing and rehabilitating prisoners, at the taxpayers expense. Now, the criminal justice system is privatized, with companies like Vanguard (NYSE VTI) making bank off crime, literally. With profit motive clearly driving criminal justice, the United States prison population has ballooned to the highest in The world… we now incarcerate more people than China or Russia, by far.
Providing clean water used to be a function of city government, that was turned over to Nestle who now charges you by the bottle to drink Evian (naive spelled backwards, a subtle mockery of the great unwashed masses).
phone service was once a public utility, now it is handled by private cellular companies like Verizon.
I could go on, there are many examples. The point is, government has no raison det’re anymore, no purpose, no reason to be, except for one thing… to enforce the will of the oligarchs at the barrel of a gun.
If Nestle runs out of ground water to bottle and sell you, the military will secure them new territory to drain more ground water. If Apple runs out of lithium for to make cell phones and iPads, the military will occupy Afghanistan for 20 years so they can mine more. If Monsanto needs to enforce their IP (privately owned seeds and crops) rights by taking over your farm, the military will be there to evict you off your land.
The previous functions of government are totally taken over by multinationals in the U.S., except for deploying government muscle as a tool of the corporations, and keeping track of SS, Medicare, welfare, etc. (pacify the masses with just enough money to keep them from rioting).
This trend will only continue, government is not public anymore. The multinationals ARE the government for all intents and purposes, and they write the laws and enforce them.
So the argument about how FB and Google and YouTube are “private companies” and not held to the same standard as government, in respecting and protecting free speech, is insane. Corporations now effectively govern us all, in the applications of operations that used to be public, are now private, and the biggest difference is, we at least got to vote for the public asshole politicians, but nobody elected the current rulers.
They are unelected rulers who can displace thousands or millions of workers by closing down Walmart’s in one town and opening in another. The power of a Fortune 500 CEO to effect the lives of average citizens is far greater than a Senator or governor. Hail to the NEW chief.. multinational corporations
1 Nomination
Annoyed Liberall Jul 26, 2021
Go to original post on Jul 26, 2021 10:28pm