Nov 22, 2022·edited Nov 22, 2022Liked by Robert Reich
And of course, let's remember that every time some unregulated or insufficiently regulated sector forces their way into our lives, economies, pensions, etc., at no point do elected officials talk about how the people will be protected when things crash and burn or poison us.
Fracking, casinos and cryptomining will bring jobs!
Ok, but what about the destruction to our land, the increase in gambling addiction, the loss of disposable income, the health risks from contaminated water, or the fallout when the prices or the industries themselves crumble?
HEY! Just shut up with all those questions!! There will be some jobs and I will get the money I need to get elected this cycle and by the time you're all suffering, I'll either be so entrenched in this position I won't have to care what you think or you'll be so powerless I won't even have to hear it. But you're right, if something happens and the company or investors suffer, we will need to take more of your tax dollars to bail out the most important donors, but that is a price I'm willing to let you pay.
And that ladies and gentlemen....is what we call "capitalism."
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had several co-workers advise me to get in on crypto-currency Thank goodness I listened politely and ignored. Yes the government is largely to blame, but so are the idiotic, pie-in-the-sky. let's all get rich, gamers. As my Daddy always said "If it sounds to good to be true, it is". As to the ticket racket, the entertainment industry shares some of the blame. Why can't you buy tickets to a show from the theater where the entertainment is appearing. "Hey, Billy Bob, let us sell your tickets and you can fire most of your staff and keep the profits for yourself". My husband got bilked of $300,000 by his stock broker. We both sat in the office and I kept saying this doesn't sound legal and the broker kept assuring Jack it was. So then I changed to even if it is legal it doesn't sound ethical or moral. It's what the broker called selling short or some such thing. it amounted to using someone else's money to take a chance on buying stocks that were going to fail using only 10% of your own money and then selling at exactly the right second to score a win, Yes the planners and schemers should have all their assets taken from them, but why are people so damned gullible. So I won't die the richest old bitch in the cemetery, I'll still be dead, and I haven't stolen, conned or tricked anyone either.
A great question with a long and complicated answer and history. I know some attorneys who work only on antitrust lawsuits. And according to various sites on the internet (also belonging to this problem) its historic. But I instantly thought about Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s when the auto and oil industries destroyed the street car transportation system. Think of all that resulted: traffic, freeways, smog, loss of affordable transportation, neighborhoods destroyed for freeways, a social structure of neighborhoods and local shops, businesses, schools and freedom of movement for people who couldn’t or didn’t want to drive. And often shopping was concentrated in malls people had to drive to. Suburbs were built up and connected to the automobile and loss of social contact. Sprawl became the emblem of life. Remember Roger Rabbit? He tells the story. https://www.investopedia.com/insights/history-of-us-monopolies/
Anything we do to reduce the partisan role of money in politics will be tempered by people finding the next way around it. This doesn’t mean that we should not move in that direction. Rather it underscores how important it is for us to move aggressively in that direction, and expect it to be a multi-move game. We must approach this as one approaches fighting high profile crime, relentlessly. We attack, they parry. We attack again, and again.
I have to thank you for always keeping up with what’s going on around us that most people are not aware of. It’s like being in a classroom with you on a daily basis, and I love how you put it simply so that anyone can understand. The truth is everyone should be reading what you write so that they do understand and aren’t living in some La La Land. I’ve noticed a lot of young people prefer to live in that land and don’t care what’s going on around them and that’s a shame. I try my best to get many young people registered to vote and explained the importance of these midterm elections. No matter what I said, or how I said it, including how it would affect them more than it would ever affect me, they still would not register all because they never wanted to get called to be a juror. It’s a sorry excuse, but that’s exactly why they won’t do it.
I know there are far more important questions and implications brought up today, and I have no doubt we'll discuss & solve them all in this discussion and the world will become utopia as a result. But for me, the whole issue with Ticketmaster's website crashing puts me in mind of how the National Healthcare site crashed, and how the "capitalist sector" piled on about government ineptitude. (The big lie there being that anything the government does is >always< incompetent, and can >only< done better & cheaper in the free-market private sector.) At that time it was clear to me that the National Healthcare site crashed because of the nearly instantaneous crush of hits by simultaneous requests of millions of users just itchin' to sign-up for healthcare insurance. That's in the very nature of such a volume of internet traffic hitting a website! It looks to the server(s) like a "denial of service" attack in cyber-warfare.
Contrary to the polit-shit the "conservatives" would have us all believe, we see here a real-world demonstration that the private sector >really couldn't< do better, and >certainly< not cheaper - even as they've specialized in providing that "one-click" banditry for years and years! Just sayin'!
As usual, I agree with your points, Robert, but I am not feeling hopeful about the possibility of change.
As long as we worship the rich and set up our government and courts to protect corporations, our society will continue to be grossly unfair and unequal.
There isn’t the political will or courage to challenge the stranglehold of corporations and obscenely wealthy families.
There was one moment recently when I had hope for positive change in our county. That was when good people united to protest the death of George Floyd. That movement frightened
right wing politicians and their corporate sponsors, so they did what they always do. They lied, and used the force of government and guns to cheapen the moment, to cause fear and chaos.
Not even the little bit of corporate approved change will happen in the next two years because
people of ill will, wackos and power hungry dumb asses control the House.
Thank you for this important information!!! It is so important for the public to know how our politicians and lawmakers are letting their constituents down!!! Hopefully this information will get the publicity that it deserves, those involved are held responsible and these practices stopped!!!
What a world. If it wasn't for the climate emergency, racism in multiple forms, misogyny, then campaign finance reform would have to be number 1 on my list of things to tackle. Wait a minute. There is a common denominator here. Corporate entities are involved in all of these things. They lobby to preserve their right to pump greenhouse gases in the air, controlling all their employees while they do so. They are mostly all white men. (Though now that China and India are players there are a few more male people of color mimicking them.) Perhaps when you fight one you struggle against all? We face a interlinked set of problems that should not be seen in isolation. The centralization of power into the hands of a few, whether they lead pseudo-democracies, authoritarian states, or corporations, needs to end in order to solve the grand systemic problem faced by humanity and the planet. The occasional entity that collapses, or looks ridiculous like Ticketmaster, is just a symptom of the larger problem. Humans were meant to live in a diverse, decentralized and thriving garden, not a centralized, power and possession mad concrete jungle.
Medical facilities are now becoming very large businesses resulting in poor customer service. And hospitals are forming monopolies, two within the state I live in, pretty much dividing in two. Not good for patients or employees. With this happening, national health care is getting more and more appealing to me and to some doctors who are tired of dealing with insurance companies. Many PCP’s are not making enough money to compensate them for what they do Andy the cost of maintaining a private practice. Doctors have been forced to practice in these Monopoly hospitals and may be shifted around several locations, do on call for several locations. I believe this is contributing to the existing shortage of PCP’s. Bigger is not necessarily better, unless you are a CEO looking to make a profit. Add to this the fact that insurance companies have been ulimiting the amount of time doctors spend with patients. And doctors employed by hospitals and clinics also are forced to see more patients in as little time as possible. For all but the wealthy, healthcare here is not nearly as good as that of other developed countries, while costing more. I apologize for getting off topic. It is a topic that urgently needs more attention. And it is all about making a profit at the expense of consumers.
And sites such as this are the only place one hears of these atrocities. Not at election time. Not from the corrupted fourth estate. Not from the mouths of the pols reaping the filthy lucre from our totally corporately bought and sold system. Such are the basis for the notion that unfettered capitalism does not work. And it doesn't !
So these huge businesses will have their debt erased while the little man is squashed under college debt and medical debt and never getting ahead. Ain't American capitalism GRAND!!
Even before monopolies crash and burn we are all hurt. Competitors are put out of business and prices soar. Choices are limited. It all sucks without regulation.
This could mean that the ordinary people of the earth get Sick and Tired of the Rich who refuse to Share their wealth. Not only money but also their many assets. Of which they would not have without us! They need to start sharing soon or face the wrath of the many! There are many more of us then there are of them!
And of course, let's remember that every time some unregulated or insufficiently regulated sector forces their way into our lives, economies, pensions, etc., at no point do elected officials talk about how the people will be protected when things crash and burn or poison us.
Fracking, casinos and cryptomining will bring jobs!
Ok, but what about the destruction to our land, the increase in gambling addiction, the loss of disposable income, the health risks from contaminated water, or the fallout when the prices or the industries themselves crumble?
HEY! Just shut up with all those questions!! There will be some jobs and I will get the money I need to get elected this cycle and by the time you're all suffering, I'll either be so entrenched in this position I won't have to care what you think or you'll be so powerless I won't even have to hear it. But you're right, if something happens and the company or investors suffer, we will need to take more of your tax dollars to bail out the most important donors, but that is a price I'm willing to let you pay.
And that ladies and gentlemen....is what we call "capitalism."
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had several co-workers advise me to get in on crypto-currency Thank goodness I listened politely and ignored. Yes the government is largely to blame, but so are the idiotic, pie-in-the-sky. let's all get rich, gamers. As my Daddy always said "If it sounds to good to be true, it is". As to the ticket racket, the entertainment industry shares some of the blame. Why can't you buy tickets to a show from the theater where the entertainment is appearing. "Hey, Billy Bob, let us sell your tickets and you can fire most of your staff and keep the profits for yourself". My husband got bilked of $300,000 by his stock broker. We both sat in the office and I kept saying this doesn't sound legal and the broker kept assuring Jack it was. So then I changed to even if it is legal it doesn't sound ethical or moral. It's what the broker called selling short or some such thing. it amounted to using someone else's money to take a chance on buying stocks that were going to fail using only 10% of your own money and then selling at exactly the right second to score a win, Yes the planners and schemers should have all their assets taken from them, but why are people so damned gullible. So I won't die the richest old bitch in the cemetery, I'll still be dead, and I haven't stolen, conned or tricked anyone either.
A great question with a long and complicated answer and history. I know some attorneys who work only on antitrust lawsuits. And according to various sites on the internet (also belonging to this problem) its historic. But I instantly thought about Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s when the auto and oil industries destroyed the street car transportation system. Think of all that resulted: traffic, freeways, smog, loss of affordable transportation, neighborhoods destroyed for freeways, a social structure of neighborhoods and local shops, businesses, schools and freedom of movement for people who couldn’t or didn’t want to drive. And often shopping was concentrated in malls people had to drive to. Suburbs were built up and connected to the automobile and loss of social contact. Sprawl became the emblem of life. Remember Roger Rabbit? He tells the story. https://www.investopedia.com/insights/history-of-us-monopolies/
Anything we do to reduce the partisan role of money in politics will be tempered by people finding the next way around it. This doesn’t mean that we should not move in that direction. Rather it underscores how important it is for us to move aggressively in that direction, and expect it to be a multi-move game. We must approach this as one approaches fighting high profile crime, relentlessly. We attack, they parry. We attack again, and again.
I have to thank you for always keeping up with what’s going on around us that most people are not aware of. It’s like being in a classroom with you on a daily basis, and I love how you put it simply so that anyone can understand. The truth is everyone should be reading what you write so that they do understand and aren’t living in some La La Land. I’ve noticed a lot of young people prefer to live in that land and don’t care what’s going on around them and that’s a shame. I try my best to get many young people registered to vote and explained the importance of these midterm elections. No matter what I said, or how I said it, including how it would affect them more than it would ever affect me, they still would not register all because they never wanted to get called to be a juror. It’s a sorry excuse, but that’s exactly why they won’t do it.
I know there are far more important questions and implications brought up today, and I have no doubt we'll discuss & solve them all in this discussion and the world will become utopia as a result. But for me, the whole issue with Ticketmaster's website crashing puts me in mind of how the National Healthcare site crashed, and how the "capitalist sector" piled on about government ineptitude. (The big lie there being that anything the government does is >always< incompetent, and can >only< done better & cheaper in the free-market private sector.) At that time it was clear to me that the National Healthcare site crashed because of the nearly instantaneous crush of hits by simultaneous requests of millions of users just itchin' to sign-up for healthcare insurance. That's in the very nature of such a volume of internet traffic hitting a website! It looks to the server(s) like a "denial of service" attack in cyber-warfare.
Contrary to the polit-shit the "conservatives" would have us all believe, we see here a real-world demonstration that the private sector >really couldn't< do better, and >certainly< not cheaper - even as they've specialized in providing that "one-click" banditry for years and years! Just sayin'!
Didn’t we learn this lesson long ago? This is why there are anti trust laws but no one upholds them! It Is all about greed!!
As usual, I agree with your points, Robert, but I am not feeling hopeful about the possibility of change.
As long as we worship the rich and set up our government and courts to protect corporations, our society will continue to be grossly unfair and unequal.
There isn’t the political will or courage to challenge the stranglehold of corporations and obscenely wealthy families.
There was one moment recently when I had hope for positive change in our county. That was when good people united to protest the death of George Floyd. That movement frightened
right wing politicians and their corporate sponsors, so they did what they always do. They lied, and used the force of government and guns to cheapen the moment, to cause fear and chaos.
Not even the little bit of corporate approved change will happen in the next two years because
people of ill will, wackos and power hungry dumb asses control the House.
Thank you for this important information!!! It is so important for the public to know how our politicians and lawmakers are letting their constituents down!!! Hopefully this information will get the publicity that it deserves, those involved are held responsible and these practices stopped!!!
What a world. If it wasn't for the climate emergency, racism in multiple forms, misogyny, then campaign finance reform would have to be number 1 on my list of things to tackle. Wait a minute. There is a common denominator here. Corporate entities are involved in all of these things. They lobby to preserve their right to pump greenhouse gases in the air, controlling all their employees while they do so. They are mostly all white men. (Though now that China and India are players there are a few more male people of color mimicking them.) Perhaps when you fight one you struggle against all? We face a interlinked set of problems that should not be seen in isolation. The centralization of power into the hands of a few, whether they lead pseudo-democracies, authoritarian states, or corporations, needs to end in order to solve the grand systemic problem faced by humanity and the planet. The occasional entity that collapses, or looks ridiculous like Ticketmaster, is just a symptom of the larger problem. Humans were meant to live in a diverse, decentralized and thriving garden, not a centralized, power and possession mad concrete jungle.
Get-money-out-of-politics!
Medical facilities are now becoming very large businesses resulting in poor customer service. And hospitals are forming monopolies, two within the state I live in, pretty much dividing in two. Not good for patients or employees. With this happening, national health care is getting more and more appealing to me and to some doctors who are tired of dealing with insurance companies. Many PCP’s are not making enough money to compensate them for what they do Andy the cost of maintaining a private practice. Doctors have been forced to practice in these Monopoly hospitals and may be shifted around several locations, do on call for several locations. I believe this is contributing to the existing shortage of PCP’s. Bigger is not necessarily better, unless you are a CEO looking to make a profit. Add to this the fact that insurance companies have been ulimiting the amount of time doctors spend with patients. And doctors employed by hospitals and clinics also are forced to see more patients in as little time as possible. For all but the wealthy, healthcare here is not nearly as good as that of other developed countries, while costing more. I apologize for getting off topic. It is a topic that urgently needs more attention. And it is all about making a profit at the expense of consumers.
And sites such as this are the only place one hears of these atrocities. Not at election time. Not from the corrupted fourth estate. Not from the mouths of the pols reaping the filthy lucre from our totally corporately bought and sold system. Such are the basis for the notion that unfettered capitalism does not work. And it doesn't !
So these huge businesses will have their debt erased while the little man is squashed under college debt and medical debt and never getting ahead. Ain't American capitalism GRAND!!
Even before monopolies crash and burn we are all hurt. Competitors are put out of business and prices soar. Choices are limited. It all sucks without regulation.
The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth(Mathew 5:5)
This could mean that the ordinary people of the earth get Sick and Tired of the Rich who refuse to Share their wealth. Not only money but also their many assets. Of which they would not have without us! They need to start sharing soon or face the wrath of the many! There are many more of us then there are of them!