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jdmgto t1_ja3yxne wrote

Reply to comment by zartified in Shadows of Liberty (2012) - How media manipulation and censorship work. 90% plus of the media in the USA are controlled by five big for-profit-conglomerats, creating a media monopoly that manipulates our political, economical, and social world. [01:28:52] by Missing_Trillions

Problem is that once capitalists accumulate enough wealth it's just easier to buy the government.

They did exactly that, about 40 years ago.

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Astronopolis t1_ja7sre9 wrote

Right blameshift to the captalism boogeyman. Couldn’t be corrupt government officials that would do the same under any other monetary system

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jdmgto t1_ja7x4lw wrote

Wow, people can be corrupt in any system, shocking. So if they’re always going to be corrupt then it’s not blameshifting to talk about how the current system is allowing that corruption to flourish. The problem with unregulated Capitalism is that it concentrates fantastic wealth and power in the hands of a few unaccountable individuals and corporations. That’s not an error or a goof, that’s the entire design of the system. It allows the superwealthy and corporations to buy off the government at an industrial scale with no need to even be subtle about it.

I’m sorry, but capitalism will never love you, and white knighting it won’t make you rich. Stagnating wages while corporations report record profits, wealth concentrations that make feudal nobility look like a teenager with a piggy bank, a government solely concerned with keeping the rich rich and making them richer. This is unregulated capitalism working as intended.

We used to keep this shit in check, stopping mergers, breaking up monopolies, the super wealthy used to have a 90% tax bracket, etc. Problem is that around the time of the civil rights movement those in power, actual power, realized that they could use social issues to keep the people divided and rabidly tribalistic about their political parties while they robbed us blind. It worked. It’s not red vs blue, it’s green versus not, and you ain’t on the green side.

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Astronopolis t1_ja8w4hr wrote

Anything unregulated will get out of control, it’s just the constant lazy argument of “capitalism bad” is so easy and and unproductive. You’re never going to stop people from exchanging goods and services for capital, so quit the non-starter argument. The fact you and I are arguing over this rather than doing something effective is proof that it is a very effective distraction.

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