grafmax

US government organizations such as USAID and the CIA-adjacent National Endowment for "Democracy" backed this movement to the tune of millions of dollars, funding "civil society groups" and other NGOs. Yet supposedly it is spontaneous and grassroots, and we wonder how its governance will be decided.

No, the real problem is our society's wealth inequality - a tiny portion of the population can control the political process, bending all laws to their will. Bandaid campaign finance laws won't get to the root of the rot.

Where is the jail time Sam Altman faces for unleashing AI worms across the internet? Nowhere. Billionaires don't face jail time.

Megacorps have endless budgets for this sort of thing. The deck is heavily stacked. What's to gain by pretending it ain't so?

Just that they are primarily rent-seeking operations. They are based on access to what someone owns, rather than producing something. You own the utility, you charge access to it. You own the mine, therefore can profit primarily through ownership. You have assets and charge interest for access to them, adding countless surcharges in the process (finance). Tech is primarily based on network effects creating lock-in; tech firms are started by VCs building businesses at a loss leader then dialing up enshittification to profit. Healthcare is expensive because we have entrenched interests that don't want single payer - yet everyone needs it and prices can be hiked up, gouging consumers who are at a disadvantage. Without health insurance, the insane costs are boundless; insurance companies leverage their privileged regulatory positions as gatekeepers to a basic need to gouge consumers.

It's not that they don't produce anything of value, just that these industries in particular are primarily extractive and rent-seeking; companies are able to use their "moats" to resist competitive down pressures.

The problem with Georgism is that it is short-sighted. There is no economic cost to taxing rent extraction; billionaires fund Georgist narratives because it distracts from their own rent extraction.

> Every industry you named above absolutely responds to price signals.

As does land, what's your point?

US corporations have always had these kinds of relationships with foreign governments. If a given government won't accept bribes the CIA will work to overthrow them, financing and puppeting "democratic" groups to that end.

The fact is this political system of ours is heavily balanced in favor of those with the endless budgets and resources to spend engaging in "democratic" avenues of influence.

I hope one day they learn to inhabit their position more confidently instead of merely aping their competitors.

Paving the way for further stripping the populace of their rights.

The regulatory capture begins.

It's always going to be too hard as long as companies aren't held accountable.

Those Russian propagandists. Lucky the US doesn't engage in propaganda.