ginalynn8942
48456
1935
41
Jan 17, 2025 1:16 AM
ginalynn8942
48456
1935
41
DeathAnGravity
"We can't free slaves cause it would destroy the cotton industry."
We have made hard corrections in the past. We can do it again.
JohnSmithterms
The military industry is there to ensure the oil flows. Which is one reason why i am so heavily pro renewable energy. Solar panels pay for themselves in 3 years now. So the only big reason we have not switched is night usage. But we could massively reduce our daytime oil usage if we built enough solar panels. But we are not. It's madness.
frontseatdog
We can't have any of those things because we have corrupt or incompetent government officials. Scapegoating capitalism is a distraction.
NoSirIDontLikeit
at this point we can barely afford "the thing" let alone the right one.
PlainlyPuzzled
The USA kind of capitalism
Pokegeologist
Can't have decent mass transit because it will destroy the auto industry.
ThatGuyFromJustSouthOfTheMiddleOfNowhere
"Too big to fail"
DeeplyBroken
Imho, capitalism works quite well in its middle ranges, but both its high and low ends need serious work.
AyatollahBahloni
Whenever one company buys another, it is for one reason, and one reason only - to extract value.
The value that is added to the purchaser's bottom line must come from somewhere, and that somewhere is always the consumer. More value for executives and shareholders means less value in the product produced, either in quantity or quality. Hence Sturgeon's Law: "90% of everything is crap."
Smogy
Same for prisoners and private detention facilities
ByThePowerOfSCIENCE
We're trying to replace (most of) the oil industry, but maybe not hard enough to make it happen faster. We can't have healthcare because some think it's going to make them go broke. We can't have peace because assholes keep convincing idiots to hate.
req4adream99
We can’t have healthcare because then people who shouldn’t get healthcare (ie women, any minority) would get it too. Also because de-linking health insurance from a job weakens the employers position, which is why they spend billions on convincing people that socialized healthcare would bankrupt them.
seekingdaedalus
“Make man-eating un-lawful, and you starve the Vholeses!” Dickens's allegory in Bleak House rings truer every day
carrotsonfire
Having peace wouldn't destroy the weapon industry. Infact peace DEPENDS on there being a weapon industry. Who else is going to arm the ships that protect international shipping?
Tarumbar
Money makes wanna make more money.
Zeplin
That has nothing to do wit capitalism. Denmark is capitalist, none of these problems exist here.
Richter12x2
If making life better for everyone destroys an industry, then that industry should be destroyed. You don't think they'll find a new industry?
Zixtank
You can afford it. They can't.
selbie
Create the problem, sell the solution.
13579rocket
Sounds like an MMO game developer’s business standard.
SaintSleepyWeasel
Ok but in Capitalism industry is SUPPOSED TO FAIL. That's the whole point of competition. Something else will replace it and we learn from the companies mistakes. The problem is Citizens United made it so only corporations get to decide if they should fail or not. Not one of them is going to willingly fail for the people.
bladerunner93
Utopia… we need utopia
Zilthuras
No that's not capitalism that you have, true capitalism would let those industries die out because they're not useful anymore
RichardNunez
StarmineRendezvous
And it will never go away peacefully, sadly. Just a matter of time until a generation is willing to die to get rid of it. 1/
StarmineRendezvous
That or robots will automate protecting them before then and we all suffer until the world becomes uninhabitable. It's one or the other. /2
errantcompass
TheEvenPrez
Any company with a networth that exceeds $100 million should be forced to become a non-profit on the basis for societal need.
sambaah05
We can have those things. Issue is many people don't care, or actively don't want those things. The government is a reflection of the people that elect it.
ginalynn8942
Hence why we have to do another for years
ginalynn8942
Four
SkutFarkas
"We Are Now In The 'Rearrainging Deck Chairs On The Titanic' Stage Of Humanity!"
DJThuglifeSupreme
Oil industry would diminish, but not disappear. Fossil fuels are used to make all kinds of plastics and other stuff
tesseract4d2
And lubricants. People act like oil is only used for fuel, but they don't realize how many different kinds of lubrication oils and grease are petroleum based. I have like 7 different kinds of grease in like 27 5g buckets at work, and we aren't a very high-use customer. Power plants, shipping facilities, anywhere with moving parts demands a steady supply of grease to keep everything moving. The Amazon facility I used to work for went through an entire 55g drum of NLGI1 every few days
Aimlockbelch
It takes tons of coal to make a ton of steel
encrypteddecryption
We can't have *only* clean energy because the technology isn't viable or available enough yet to meet the energy consumption needs of the world. We can't have healthcare because our elected representatives are bought by the highest bidder. We can't have peace because some people are cruel and predatory by nature.
SilverFoxChaser
But all of those 'industries' they mentioned could literally disappear and it would make everyone's lives better.
jibbo883
When Trump doesn't believe in climate change it's affects really bad on everything when he's trying to make he's oil billionaire buddies rich.
usingYourMomAsAHat
Won't someone think of the shareholders!!
UserNamesArentEasy
That's their problem with it.
MissSiesta
We need health care. But health-care insurance? Yup. Shouldn't even exist.
siddily1
Won't you consider the rich peoples yacht money!? /s
sarah1047
Yep
pcopmaster
What about the millions of people who lose their jobs when those industries are gone?
thinkybrainpains
Health prevention industry employees can shift to working in actual universal health CARE. But who will think of the executive team and their predatory bonuses?
pcopmaster
I never said anything about the execs. That's a small minority of any work force. You can't talk about eliminating industries without having a plan in advance of how to help the common worker who's just trying to make money to pay their own bills
Frostedjakes
So let's make a plan and do it. I don't see the problem.
mike13815
It'll inconvenience like 30 rich people to fix the problems, so you have to keep the status quo.
RAJrios
IdRatherBeOnThePlaystation
Overthrow the current regime and make these things happen
TheUglyGuy
Those industries employ millions of people. Suddenly their lives are not better, they're now living in a van down by the river.
mike13815
Yes, the industries have hostages and that is a major concern. The collateral damage doesn't outweigh the damage they do each year anyway.
dposton70
Take the billions in subsidies and buy them a place to live.
quackersforcrackers
It's more than that - there isn't enough clean energy capacity to make up for the immediate drop in oil, there aren't systems in place for medical, there isn't political stability to support a loss of weapons. It would lead to a dystopian future. BUT phasing out of all of these is possible, just not straight forward.
SilverFoxChaser
Yes. My comment was obviously hyperbolic. They'd have to be phased out to not kill millions of people but by large they're not 'necessary'.
Salticido
The oil and weapons industries could just shift their resources anyway. Many oil companies already also invest in green energy, so they could just shift more heavily to that and retrain workers as needed. And making weapons consists of materials and factories that could be manufacturing something else. Can't really of what insurance companies could do besides just die, though.
TheJuiceLoosener
Yeah, look more closely at their green energy projects. It's all just greenwashing and predatory delay.
Salticido
Oh I'm sure. I wouldn't trust the leadership in any of those industries as far as I could throw them and probably most of them should be in jail. But what I'm trying to say is that if we as a society could enforce these industries "disappearing", there's a way we could do it that wouldn't mean all those workers becoming unemployed, which is a common argument for why we can't do it. Get new leadership, refocus, and retrain.
vcgetdown
I mean a good number of the employees for health insurance could work for the newly created single payer healthcare system
fibbertitgibbet
The American insurance industry is a monster. It is super powerful and profitable. But that doesn't mean that you need to be a monster to make a living. There are insurance industries in Europe and India too, and they survive well despite universal health care and regulation. The American industry would simply downsize. Maybe medical advancements would slow down, but Ozempic wasn't created in the US, neither was the COVID vaccine, so maybe, advancements won't slow down either.
Salticido
I don't think the insurance companies in the US are responsible for medical advancements. Most of the new drugs, equipment, tests, and other medical advances are invented by doctors who are sponsored by the government and/or big pharma/tech, and then the government and/or pharma/tech pay for it to be tested.
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Salticido
It takes one person to downvote to 0. That doesn't mean anything. You've already made arguments against "stifle innovation" idea in your previous comment, so I'm not really sure what your point is here. You don't need to make a new insulin to charge more. You just need to increase the price of the pre-existing insulin, which we've already seen happen.
Sonicschilidogs
If you think the oil industry disappearing right now, suddenly, would make everyone's life better, you aren't living in reality, and I agree it is imperative to our survival to end it, but the growing pains will be there, it won't instantly make everyone's lives better, and people will outright die.
Nagodreth
The weapons industry as well, it's laughable how naive people are. There's a reason why Russia invaded Ukraine and not a Baltic state, and there's a reason why China hasn't invaded Taiwan, and it ain't because they wouldn't if they thought they could get away with it.
iamarealwizard
What about the shareholders? Did you think about the shareholders??
JulioSteinlager
They can buy new shares.
FTUG
SavageDrums
Should have invested in things that didn't suck.
MajorasTerribleFate
If they're so awesome, they can find ways to profit off of the better replacement systems we replace this shit with.
KillingTlme
They can disappear too. (not talking about the people who have .0001% of their pension in some share)
kJerAFK
Would somebody please think of the yachts!?!
PharosGloaming
They could buy shares in clean energy, longevity research, space exploration, and scientific studies that would increase the general happiness and wellbeing of mankind. Ya know, hopes and dreams.
NozzleBozzle
Hmm no, because if you own shares you only want profitability. So you end up with e.g. the health care industry again, where the aim of making people better is undermined by the aim of making profit. If you want capitalism to be moral it must be democratized
SavageDrums
I own shares. I specifically invest in "ethical funds" because profit is (sadly) important, but the rest is more important.
I made like 23% on my ethical investments last year.
DukeDarkwood
Make the free market free again? Where businesses that fail just fail, lose their money, as it goes to the things the people want instead?
deletable
Sounds risky….. probably just going to keep destroying the planet….
xylex934
Why spend money if you're already happy
DukeDarkwood
They're not happy. They will never BE happy. They are always reaching for more. So, they've got four homes, three yachts, a private jet, and can get anything they want at a moment's notice... but they're not happy with it.
migratingotter
The French had a solution to their problems.
UncleRat
If companies cared about shareholders, a CEO wouldn't make more than $400,000 per year.
Awomdy
Except that ceos usually ARE shareholders. They get to vote for their own payrises, which in turn gives them more incentive to make the company more successful
CythrawlArawn
Basically you want the biggest lawful evil psychopath in a CEO. The most successful ones get paid a lot of money to build insane amounts of wealth, whatever means necessary. Big business WILL NOT have a bad year, and it's the CEOs job to make sure that happens. Legal or no, fire 20% of your employees to make numbers this quarter? CEO isn't losing sleep over it, he'll glad sacrifice most anything for short term gains. That's literally his job. So fucked up. Capitalism fucking sucks.