From here:
There is no 'free' market, and there never has been. The 'free' market is predicated on the belief that all players will act honestly, and make informed choices based on available information. This is a completely false assumption, and has been proven so time after time.It completely ignores human nature whereby someone will always lie, cheat, and steal to achieve their own ends -- this is what we see here.
Industry players will always form cartels and collude in anti-consumer behavior -- price fixing being the prime example.
Without someone to keep corporations in line, the market would steadily skew to all of the power being in the hands of a few.
There is no such thing as a 'free' market, and there simply never has been. It's a utopian myth which can never be true.
People who go around spouting about the 'free' market are either naive, self deluded, or actively lying.
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Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • •bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •damn, so we've had 11 years of this very thing getting worse.
when will people get it?! people keep voting for these pro corporate parties and it's depressing
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Neil E. Hodges
in reply to bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅ • •bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •well, the same is happening here in the Netherlands. people have been voting the neoliberals into power for decades, despite things going to shit, and other parties being available here.
it's the propaganda that's working; most people still believe that free market capitalism is great, and it will take a lot more downfall before they understand it's shit.
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Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
in reply to bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅ • • •bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅
in reply to Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK • • •Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
in reply to bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅ • • •@bazkie about 10 years ago when I had learned just enough Dutch to read sites where younger folk hung out (and chat to them) I learned a fair few thought all the bicycles, good public transport (which folk in UK often envy!) and the high cost of learning to drive (which is same as UK) was imposed by "big government/EU" and they wanted to have cars just like young people in UK, enjoyed watching Top Gear and thought folk in UK and USA had more "freedom" (and those youths would be 30-40+ by now, many with families of their own)
At least you are highly unlikely to get Nexit as everyone can see the mess the UK is now in 5 years later..
bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅
in reply to Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK • • •@vfrmedia UK has been a lovely warning sign for us indeed!
..tho people have been voting far right the past few years despite Trump, so maybe most people don't really understand warning signs π
and about that dutch youth; keep in mind we've had neoliberal rule for decades now, so the whole "free market good, nationalization bad" has been really hammered in.
not sure if we'll get rid of it in my lifetime tbh. but most of the lovely social policies we have left stem from the more progressive governing we had before I was born π
btw why did you learn dutch? (maybe I asked before)
Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK
in reply to bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅ • • •Neil E. Hodges likes this.
bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅
in reply to Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK • • •Neil E. Hodges likes this.
Neil E. Hodges
in reply to Alex@rtnVFRmedia Suffolk UK • •I love pirate radio!
I don't know if it's actually a pirate station, here's an FM broadcaster near Quinault Lake here that plays all kinds of odds and ends with weird stuff in between. It might fall under LPFM, but I doubt the FCC would hassle them anyway since it's in the middle of nowhere and low power.
bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •@vfrmedia what's LPFM?
I wonder if maybe the FCC is a bit more relaxed these days since people listen to FM radio less (or well, I imagine that they do)
Neil E. Hodges
in reply to bazkie π©πΌβπ» bitplanes π΅ • •Mark Shane Hayden
in reply to Neil E. Hodges • • •the "free market" is to economics what the frictionless spherical cow is to high school physics.
The very existence of corporations means there is no free market. Corporations are a legal construct of governments that grants a business (and later even a mere collection of assets) status as a district entity separated to some degree from the owners and workers within.
As such, there is no choice between "government vs corporations" because they are *two sides of the same coin*...it is all one big hegemony.
We have all been thoroughly conditioned to think otherwise for a couple of centuries now. It is thoroughly ingrained the minds of everyone in the "free world" that corporations are the capitalist free market and government is the socialist planned economy but that is pure BS.
The biggest economies in the world have arrived in the same place from two different directions...the US being a corporatocratic regime and China practising state capitalism.
As such deregulation just means re-regulation.
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