Hacker News Reader

Comment by bmitc | Hacker News Reader

Why?

I'm pretty sick of this stuff. As if a multi-conglomerate will have no want to abuse the access to new data and push medical access in directions it shouldn't be going. Amazon just bought iRobot. So now they have microphones and cameras in your home, they know what you eat, buy, and watch, and now they get your medical information.

I honestly don't have any hopes anymore. The U.S.'s democratic process and regulation entities are corporate captured. We're owned and controlled by institutional corporate shareholders.

View on HN

> We're owned and controlled by institutional corporate shareholders.

Government is still in charge.

It just chooses to be captured, even though its first job - which it gets paid for by extracting money by force - is to not be captured.

Are you saying that a captured government is still in charge?

That’s … not how capture works.

> Are you saying that a captured government is still in charge?

I'm saying that people in government has to decide to be captured, when it extracts free money from its populace with the promise that it will remain impartial.

> That’s … not how capture works.

This is never a useful thing to say in terms of furthering the conversation. I appreciate it may have felt good, though.

It felt like I as having to explain things to someone who was being thick for the simple purpose of being thick.

Corporations have purchased our government and therefore the government is, in my opinion, not in charge. Sure they enact violence as all nation states do- often on behalf of those corporations.

Neither of those two actors are good for the people, for the working class.

The perception of a singular power of "Government" is an illusion. Government in reality should be seen as more of an ecosystem, with numerous centers of power of various sizes and areas of influence. When a part of government is captured it means that individuals with power within that substructure have little ability to push back against larger external forces acting upon the structure itself. To override that would involve large numbers of people within the structure coordinating against their individual interest, or power from outside that substructure with the ability to apply a countervailing force.

People forget that "the government" is just us.

Geez, if this is your biggest problem you life, you are indeed leading a very privileged life.

Count your blessings

I didn't say anything remotely close to that. Not sure what you're referring to.

If you can’t see how big this problem actually is - start by reading “The Jungle” and realizing nothing has changed for the better for us workers, in a very long time.

Blessings not from corporate kindness, by the way.

The only thing a corporation can do, especially at Amazon’s size, is evil for the worker and community. They are built to expand into infinity, consuming all for shareholder profit.

I know it's easier said than done, but if this is something you're passionate about, why not start your own "whatever you think sucks as a public company" as a not for profit ?

I mean if you're passionate about it.

Paraphrasing a little bit, but

> Why don't you start X to compete with a trillion dollar behemoth Y?

Because if they think they can make a profit, they have a trillion dollar that they will freely leverage to strangle the living air out of your company. Weak US anti-trust laws won't do anything until there is a "significant, provable harm to the consumer".

The general lesson here is more capitalism won't solve the issues of unchecked capitalism, you will have to get the legislative system to intervene to make sure you can have fair competition in the market.

If enough people are passionate about the same cause they'd donate, get involved etc. Judging by the comments, it's a lot of people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com