> Assuming that the capitalists do not flee this country, wouldn’t they work tirelessly til the end of time to erode these regulations? What is to stop them from using illegal avenues to do so? Sure you could catch and jail some of them but under capitalism we require capitalists to exist so you can’t jail all of them. Effectively what you require are all capitalists to be good people forever which is unreasonable.
What the capitalists are currently doing to erode regulation is by gaining power in red states and stripping regulations in those states. I believe stronger unions that have federal protections would go a long ways towards keeping the capitalists in check. Not every business is necessarily going to skirt legislation, but any business big enough to afford it will try to lobby or just pay off the fines.
I think making it so the public has a share in the stock of publicly traded companies can keep them in check, as the executive officers and the board should face financial and criminal penalties based on the scale of them breaking the law. The government could then step in and replace the board and/or executive officers, or close the company entirely. Harsh penalties and punishments are how we should best try to keep bad actors in check.
Creating a culture around more ethical business practices is how you change things for the better in the long run imo. Our current system rewards the greediest actors and consolidates wealth to the select few. I would say that actually having a culture that holds leaders to higher standards and harsher punishments would go a long ways to creating a more ethical society.
If anything, I think creating a seat in government for union leaders to collectively vote on the House and Senate bills could be a helpful check by the people. If they had seats of power at the state house level as well it would be an extra layer of protections for the workers in our country.
Come to think of it, I believe it’s entirely possible to do something like this at the state level with either a simple majority or 2/3 majority depending on the state. It could be a helpful protection for the people in blue states and help build up unions. We could even give the union leaders the ability to draft legislation to pass along to the House and Senate within the state legislatures.
> Imperialism is actually just as bad as its always been maybe worse. It just looks different. There is a vast system of unequal exchange between the imperial core and imperial periphery. We still go to war to maintain our grasp on key resources. We still overthrow governments that try to nationalize their resources. We still influence foreign elections to get politicians elected who we can control. We still commit genocide in the name of profiteering. We just don’t rule over them like we used to because that was too blatant.
I agree that there are still cases where our actions were plainly imperialistic from the government side, such as the war in Iraq. I would say we lean more on our alliances for extracting resources, but that’s not to say we aren’t doing things that are imperialistic in nature. We’re more just doing it from every angle these days; from the business side, to strong arming countries.
> Ultimately what you want is great and I agree that it would be cool. But there are contradictory interests between the working and owning classes that always eventually lead to a necessary system change within production. Capitalists have a material incentive to do what they do and they are gonna keep trying to do it. It happened to the feudal order and it will happen to capitalism too. I only hope we survive the process.
I would say that incentives for the owning class are to make as much money as they are allowed to make. For some reason that is deemed acceptable legally and culturally since we let individuals have more than $1 billion in actual money and in wealth. Until those things are changed, individuals will continue to push to for maximizing their wealth. Things need to be reined in. If anything, wealth could be taxed to such an extent that these wealthy individuals can’t afford to do these forever legal challenges or to be buying lobbyists. Plus it would help our system as a whole since if people reach the maximum income threshold, they may not care to expand their business much more since that extra income will be taxed at 95+%. This would leave holes in the market for other businesses to pop up and create competition.
If we change the rules, they will have no choice but to either play by the new rules or leave the system and let new players take their place.
> Assuming that the capitalists do not flee this country, wouldn’t they work tirelessly til the end of time to erode these regulations? What is to stop them from using illegal avenues to do so? Sure you could catch and jail some of them but under capitalism we require capitalists to exist so you can’t jail all of them. Effectively what you require are all capitalists to be good people forever which is unreasonable.
What the capitalists are currently doing to erode regulation is by gaining power in red states and stripping regulations in those states. I believe stronger unions that have federal protections would go a long ways towards keeping the capitalists in check. Not every business is necessarily going to skirt legislation, but any business big enough to afford it will try to lobby or just pay off the fines.
I think making it so the public has a share in the stock of publicly traded companies can keep them in check, as the executive officers and the board should face financial and criminal penalties based on the scale of them breaking the law. The government could then step in and replace the board and/or executive officers, or close the company entirely. Harsh penalties and punishments are how we should best try to keep bad actors in check.
Creating a culture around more ethical business practices is how you change things for the better in the long run imo. Our current system rewards the greediest actors and consolidates wealth to the select few. I would say that actually having a culture that holds leaders to higher standards and harsher punishments would go a long ways to creating a more ethical society.
If anything, I think creating a seat in government for union leaders to collectively vote on the House and Senate bills could be a helpful check by the people. If they had seats of power at the state house level as well it would be an extra layer of protections for the workers in our country.
Come to think of it, I believe it’s entirely possible to do something like this at the state level with either a simple majority or 2/3 majority depending on the state. It could be a helpful protection for the people in blue states and help build up unions. We could even give the union leaders the ability to draft legislation to pass along to the House and Senate within the state legislatures.
> Imperialism is actually just as bad as its always been maybe worse. It just looks different. There is a vast system of unequal exchange between the imperial core and imperial periphery. We still go to war to maintain our grasp on key resources. We still overthrow governments that try to nationalize their resources. We still influence foreign elections to get politicians elected who we can control. We still commit genocide in the name of profiteering. We just don’t rule over them like we used to because that was too blatant.
I agree that there are still cases where our actions were plainly imperialistic from the government side, such as the war in Iraq. I would say we lean more on our alliances for extracting resources, but that’s not to say we aren’t doing things that are imperialistic in nature. We’re more just doing it from every angle these days; from the business side, to strong arming countries.
> Ultimately what you want is great and I agree that it would be cool. But there are contradictory interests between the working and owning classes that always eventually lead to a necessary system change within production. Capitalists have a material incentive to do what they do and they are gonna keep trying to do it. It happened to the feudal order and it will happen to capitalism too. I only hope we survive the process.
I would say that incentives for the owning class are to make as much money as they are allowed to make. For some reason that is deemed acceptable legally and culturally since we let individuals have more than $1 billion in actual money and in wealth. Until those things are changed, individuals will continue to push to for maximizing their wealth. Things need to be reined in. If anything, wealth could be taxed to such an extent that these wealthy individuals can’t afford to do these forever legal challenges or to be buying lobbyists. Plus it would help our system as a whole since if people reach the maximum income threshold, they may not care to expand their business much more since that extra income will be taxed at 95+%. This would leave holes in the market for other businesses to pop up and create competition.
If we change the rules, they will have no choice but to either play by the new rules or leave the system and let new players take their place.