this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
706 points (99.0% liked)
solarpunk memes
2918 readers
635 users here now
For when you need a laugh!
The definition of a "meme" here is intentionally pretty loose. Images, screenshots, and the like are welcome!
But, keep it lighthearted and/or within our server's ideals.
Posts and comments that are hateful, trolling, inciting, and/or overly negative will be removed at the moderators' discretion.
Please follow all slrpnk.net rules and community guidelines
Have fun!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Okay, I understand that. I'm also worried that the wrong corporations are going to profit from it, as they're currently doing. The "right corporations" however could play a big role in speeding up the changes we need so urgently. If that's going to happen is a question of incentives. And incentives are created by regulating markets so that they optimise for the benefit of society. Of course I don't see many politicians out there who get that or are eager to regulate markets whatsoever...
I try to stay out of the political aspect of it but personally I believe that capitalism incentivizes corporations to collude and prioritize profits over long term sustainability.
It is because of this that I believe that all corporations will eventually if given enough time turn into the worst examples of themselves. This is much more true for publicly traded corporations as they have a fiduciary obligation to provide maximum value to shareholders.
I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in the field this is just my opinion.
see, this rationality is the crux of the issue. Our systems should be robust enough it shouldn't have to rely on the "right corporations" being the driver, just as we shouldn't rely on charity from the wealthy to help the poor. The system should have checks and balances to assert that you should be a victim of your success (something like a severe drag coefficient) to balance capitalistic tendencies to always have line go up if its a detriment to the markets they participate in.
The system in most cases are the governments and worker unions which should counterbalance, but late stage capitalism has co-opted the former via lobbying to use globalism to weaken the latter, and those poor countries which haven't the educated population and corrupt government to develop their union base are never going to because civil disobedience organization nowadays is super transparent, so they can be easily squashed.
I agree it is a question of incentives. But the status quo has made it so that the people capable of changing the incentives themselves have no incentive to do so.