this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2024
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Antiwork

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336
To fight inequality, we must strip billionaires of their monopoly power (jairajdevadiga.com)
submitted 5 days ago by JairajDevadiga to c/antiwork
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

A couple of slices:

Extreme wealth disparity is not due to a lack of taxes, but rather a lack of competition. In a competitive market, profit margins are quite low. If any one company tries to set its prices much higher than the cost of production, rivals quickly undercut it. Unfortunately, large parts of our economy are blocked off from competition by laws and regulations. This allows monopolistic corporations to charge exorbitant prices.

...

Therefore, it is important to understand how billionaires create and maintain these monopolies that allow them to amass such unfathomable riches.

And:

A lack of competition allows billionaires and their corporations to not make, but take wealth from everyone else. It is not enough to merely tax them on their ill-gotten gains. We need reforms to ensure that they can’t exploit and fleece everyone in the first place.

Do read the whole thing.

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[–] [email protected] 60 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Unfortunately, large parts of our economy are blocked off from competition by laws and regulations. This allows monopolistic corporations to charge exorbitant prices.

No, no, no, no. No. This is libertarian bullshit. Laws and regulations ideally force a fair playing field, and ensure consumer safety. Take away regulation, and "whoever is most unethical" scoops up mad profits until and if consumers catch on to the scam.

But even regulation can't make a fair playing field when the market is dominated by megacorporations who have the economic power to prevent any new competition from challenging them, unless that new competition already has huge economic power itself.

The problem isn't the lack of competition. The problem is capitalism.

[–] Doomsider 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Read the article again. The author was pointing out intellectual property allows corporations to extract monopoly rent from society.

These laws like patents, trademarks, and copyrights have allowed big business to dominate our economic system.

Worse than this they use intellectual property to lockup and control our very culture that they have created through exploiting workers.

It is an extreme imbalance and perversion of the way science and arts have existed for thousands of years.

[–] bouh 2 points 3 days ago

The article advocate for a libertarian world. Getting rid of parents and copyright is good, imagining that competition will bring a better world is plain stupid though. It is precisely the libertarian ideal. And it only lead to neo-feudalism.

[–] JairajDevadiga 1 points 3 days ago

Read the article again.

I don't think they read it even the first time around.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Is it possible they imply the WRONG laws and regulations are being made? We obviously still need law but when these rules make it impossible to stop monopolistic behavior, they need to be changed. Laws and regulations can instead be used to encourage competition and smaller businesses. Personally, I believe it should be much harder to maintain a huge corporation than a smaller company.

[–] JairajDevadiga 1 points 3 days ago

Yes. Nobody is saying that there should be no laws and regulations (not even the libertarians). What I am saying is that the current laws enable the rich to create and maintain monopolies and line their pockets at the expense of everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

I’m not putting words in anyone’s mouth.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

No, no, no, no. No. This is libertarian bullshit

It isn't bullshit, but there's a lot of nuance missing. Majority of the economy works efficiently (aka low margins) based on this principle, but there are corner cases - particularly services with strong network effects that cause single provider to dominate the market

[–] bouh 4 points 3 days ago

While I agree patent and copyright are cancer, this article reads like libertarian bullshit.

[–] DaddleDew 15 points 5 days ago

The income imbalance is only a side effect of power imbalance.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago

Rather than breaking up monopolies that will only ever reform themselves eventually, it makes more sense to fold them into the Public Sector, whereby their existing planning infrastructure can be better put to use in a more efficient manner. We need to move the clock forwards, not keep setting it back.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Billionaires and corporations should be taxed at 93% or more.

[–] IndiBrony 3 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Tax as it stands wouldn't do shit, sadly. Billionaires already know how to dodge taxes to begin with. We need to close loopholes to force them to pay the tax they're supposed to pay in the first place. That in itself would go a long way.

[–] bouh 2 points 3 days ago

You can make taxes they can't avoid. And should they leave, the better a country doesn't thrive because of its billionaires but despite them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

We can do both.

[–] rdca 3 points 4 days ago

Loopholes aren’t bugs but features! In a capitalist society, the laws are made by the wealthy and the ones they sponsor to be representatives!

[–] stq9 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I agree with the sentiment and the message but the numbers in the article are off.

It states:
"The five richest people alone more than doubled their wealth from $405 billion to $869 billion since 2020."

The five richest people are now collectively worth 1,289 billion or 1.289 trillion

[–] JairajDevadiga 1 points 3 days ago

Thanks. I was working off old data. I have updated it.

[–] TankovayaDiviziya 2 points 3 days ago

I hate authoritarianism of China, but they are on to something being so unhesitant to imprison and even execute billionaires.

I don't know how authoritarian Vietnam is, but they also do not hesitate to prosecute billionaires.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (3 children)

When someone wins at monopoly we pack away the pieces.

it is in their best interest to continue playing a game they have already won but we don't have to keep playing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Hear me out - Monopoly variant with combat mechanics.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

This is already a PvP server

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Did you know Monopoly was invented to show the evils of capitalism?

[–] motor_spirit 1 points 4 days ago

👏

[–] Mango 3 points 4 days ago

Killing them seems to do that, and it's very cost effective. It's affordable and achievable for everyone.