Alt text; An image showing a meme about open source software. The top part shows an elephant standing on a beach with text reading “The entire world’s IT infrastructure” superimposed on the elephant. Below this is a large, colorful beach ball being supported by tiny ants, with text reading “Unpaid open source devs.” The meme illustrates how the global IT ecosystem heavily relies on open source software that is often maintained by unpaid volunteer developers who carry a disproportionate burden despite their small numbers.
Yeah, that was always a bad argument. The truth is it will always fail in the transitional step where the state owns everything. People in power do not want to give up that power, so it inevitably leads to dictatorship followed by eventual collapse.
Capitalism is the gold standard in economic systems, but we’re living the end game where so much money has funneled up that the rich own us and our legislatures. Not sure how that trap can be avoided. How do we propose to tax the snot out of the very people and institutions that own our collective ass and write the tax laws?
I think they’d love it if all us poor’s died of preventable disease, violent crime, died in their wars, starved to death in food deserts, or willingly subjugated ourselves to become their servants and concubines. If only the rich are left, then essentially the game starts over again.
The enlightened poors want to remove the top 10% of the pyramid; the rich don’t care what happens to the bottom 90% as long as they get to keep growing their money, power, and control.
If we stop buying their products, stop working in their businesses, stop consuming their media, and start reappropriating their assets, the balance of power would shift very quickly.
Having said that, I’m a hypocrite who bought something off Amazon in the last 3 months, works for a megacorp, and continues to use big tech in many aspects of my life out of convenience. I’ve maybe made 20% of the changes I need to make to feel happy about my level of ideological purity and I have an advantage because I understand computers, philosophy, and politics better than most normies in my life.
LOL, no, they don’t want us dying, en masse anyway. They need workers to prop them up.
But yes, we need to stop consuming. When I say that on here, people have all the excuses in the world. OTOH, I find so much free shit on the side of the road. How hard up are we really?
I could go on all night, but just this last summer we scored 2 new bikes (one with the tags still on it!) for the kids, a new wine fridge, brand new toaster oven, and so on. LOL, I grabbed an old mattress, took 20-minutes with a box knife and made a sweet trellis for my ferns where nothing else would grow.
Fridge finally died beyond my ability to repair. Got the nicest one I’ve ever owned off FB, $200. Same deal with the clothes washer, FB, $200. Found a near-new flattop stove on the road, free, 1-hour to wipe it off, yank the old and install. I could show you around my house for an hour, easy, just showing off stuff I found and repaired for free or near enough.
And nothing wrong with the occasional Amazon purchase, I do that all the time. Saves money and time. Consider, if 100 people need a thing at Walmart, and those 100 people all get in their cars and trucks and make the 16-mile round trip, yikes! Versus one van driving the hood everyday. And not to mention, much of those goods are delivered by the mailman, who is coming by anyway!
Nothing wrong with working for a megacorp, we gotta do what we gotta do. I just quit Lowe’s because they were a pain, but not too bad overall, not for that kinda shit employer! My best gigs were for small companies, and that’s where most Americans work. Looking now. Need an IT guy?
As to consuming media, I’ll be blunt as fuck, I steal it. No way I’m paying a dime.
We should be friends.
The problem is the concentration of power. We need enough different groups in power that they’re too busy undermining each other to consolidate.
this is why i pray for benevolent alien and/or AI takeover