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Avocado Toast

@katco @aral we've wrestled with this problem before in this country. I think only the war profiteering is new because prior to WW1 and WW2 we weren't a superpower with a fully realized military-industrial complex.

But the robber barons and their influence over governmental policy looks a lot like the late 1800s. We're (IMO) living through a second gilded age.

19 Jul 2023 at 16:07 | Wall-to-wall | Open on mstdn.social
3 comments
Katherine Cox-Buday

@avocado_toast @aral this is all true. Go one step beyond the analysis: what's the solution? How would one affect change?

I'm convinced that at the bottom of it is what I've said: we need lots of people to understand these things and people are being denied the resources to do so.

19 Jul 2023 at 16:11 | Open on mstdn.social
Avocado Toast

@katco @aral I don't think it is possible for one (ordinary) person to affect change. However, collectively we can.

I think there are people out there doing their best to affect change. I think labor leaders are good examples of that.

People were spread thin and hurting during the last gilded age as well. It was only through their perseverance that we had the labor movement and obtained things like social security and the minimum wage.

19 Jul 2023 at 16:20 | Open on mstdn.social
Boud

@avocado_toast @katco @aral

Cooperatives are legally defined and successful in many countries [1], especially Spain, such as #Mondragon. (We actually bought our kitchen cooker from a Mondragon sub-company without realising it!)

Surely these cooperatives need *some* geeks and web services?

And specifically for geeks, there's even a specific name, "platform cooperatives" [2].

Support cooperatives and they'll continue growing.

[1] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperat

[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform

@avocado_toast @katco @aral

Cooperatives are legally defined and successful in many countries [1], especially Spain, such as #Mondragon. (We actually bought our kitchen cooker from a Mondragon sub-company without realising it!)

Surely these cooperatives need *some* geeks and web services?

And specifically for geeks, there's even a specific name, "platform cooperatives" [2].

19 Jul 2023 at 16:53 | Open on framapiaf.org
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