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American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

economist.com

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Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#311

Post by HDThoreaun »

strenholme wrote: post #218
VonGuard wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legislation and court rulings have shown that shareholders get everything they want, ever. They want Southwest to stop checking 2 free bags? It happens. Etc. Ad Nauseum. Somehow, we need legislation that says companies are beholden first to their employees, then to their customers, THEN to shareholders. I don't know how to do that. Co-ops are the only real answer maybe?

The Southwest thing is confirmed: https://archive.ph/20250311162848/https://www.cnbc.com/2025/... “Southwest has been under increasing pressure to raise revenue and improve returns after activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management took a stake in the airline last year and pushed for changes to the carrier’s business model.”

Elliot showed up because southwests entire computer system imploded over the holidays which cost them massive amounts of money and reputation. Changes were absolutely needed at southwest.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#312

Post by insane_dreamer »

andsoitis wrote: post #215
FpUser wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"If we take the top billionaires in western liberal democracies today, they do not extract wealth from the average worker (there’s no duress, for instance)" Yeah, right. Soviet level propaganda

If you can explain the mechanic, I’m all ears and open to change my point of view. > Soviet level propaganda I’d be careful not to conflate billionaires in Russia with those in western liberal democracies. Totally different.

> I’d be careful not to conflate billionaires in Russia with those in western liberal democracies. Totally different.

Actually, they're pretty much the same.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#314

Post by archagon »

totetsu wrote: post #113
beej71 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-bans-a...

didnt the archive owner only start doing this after Patokallio revealed his identity for no good reason. Given the legal liability involved in maintaining that service, there is a threat to what Patokallio is doing so it doesn't seem entirely unsympathetic to do something in retaliation..

Seems like a mistake to rely on an archiving site that runs malware and changes the text of archived pages.

However, there’s also not really anything better out there. The owner being some wily/sketchy Russian is even an advantage in some respects, since they can’t be pressured by copyright law or foreign politics.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#315

Post by crossbody »

srean wrote: post #301
crossbody wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, people are getting wealthier in real terms, including the poor. Especially if you quantify it the right way: absolute consumption/expenditures, not relative % from median income (relative count will always show there are poor people even if they would appear insanely "rich" to a poor person from 100 years ago or from Afghanistan). On lived experience: my lived experience tells me the Earth is flat.

> my lived experience tells me the Earth is flat. That ship has sailed, beyond the horizon. Hope you catch the reference.

Can't see that far... All seems flat to me

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#316

Post by crossbody »

srean wrote: post #306
crossbody wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much bending is actually happening vs just hypotheticals thought? Elon Musk donated a lot and then suddenly Big Beautiful Bill hit Tesla very hard. Doesn't sound like he got a favor paid back. Also, not that we should emulate Russia (not at all) but since 2000s there any oligarch trying to do anything political goes to jail or "falls out of their window". So possible in principle to remove the influence (I don't…

Not just HFT, options market, futures market are all zero sum. They are massive.

How massive relative to everything else in the economy that is not zero sum? 1%?

Also, disagree on options and futures market. They do provide important economoc function of price discovery and insurance against risk

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#317

Post by BurningFrog »

IndeanCondor wrote: post #69
BurningFrog wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French Revolution was an orgy in mass murder that led to the slaughter of millions in the Napoleon wars. It really need to be romantizied much less!

It was a coalition of monarchies, so terrified of the prospect of even a single popular republic rejecting the divine right to rule, that began the bloodshed and invaded France. Blaming the Revolution for the Coalition wars is just bad history. In case you didn't notice, the Revolution won. All contemporary republics fundamentally inherit from the French Revolution - you're surprised that the systems of govt honour a…

The Robespierre regime chopped off ~40,000 heads during the 10 months "Reign of Terror" 1793-1794.

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#318

Post by red-iron-pine »

305superuser wrote: post #183
j16sdiz wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People vote for old idiots . i think this is also a syndrome not a cause

Agree, coming from a 3rd country to US what I have personally perceived a lot is the generational loop at the later stage..."Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times." — G. Michael Hopf

yeah all those Good Times created by Hard Men like Mussolini and Stalin

or does this quote refer to Hard Men as in the men who rioted and fought and died for 8 hour work days and basic social services?

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#319

Post by dang »

sevenzero wrote: post #148
satvikpendem wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value is absolutely in how much you can sell it. Otherwise every startup that subscribes to the "build it and they will come" philosophy would've been successful, which is obviously not the case and is a common problem that YC specifically tells founders to look out for. There is no value in building anything if you cannot convince others it is valuable. The labor theory of value is not valid.

[flagged]

Yikes, posting like this will get you banned here regardless of how right you are or feel you are. I'm not going ban you for this because the account doesn't seem to have a history of it, plus everyone goes on tilt sometimes. Please don't do it again though.

Also, please avoid generic ideological battle on HN - it's tedious, predictable, and leads to flamewars like this. (That goes for all the commenters on both sides of this argument, of course.)

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: American capitalism has taken an apocalyptic turn

#320

Post by crossbody »

saulapremium wrote: post #307
crossbody wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much bending is actually happening vs just hypotheticals thought? Elon Musk donated a lot and then suddenly Big Beautiful Bill hit Tesla very hard. Doesn't sound like he got a favor paid back. Also, not that we should emulate Russia (not at all) but since 2000s there any oligarch trying to do anything political goes to jail or "falls out of their window". So possible in principle to remove the influence (I don't…

Elon Musk donated a lot of money and among many other things, his companies avoided investigations. The fact that neither Trump or Putin have any loyalty doesn't negate the fact that money buys you tremendous power.

It doesn't negate the influence gain, however the Putin and Trump examples show that this influence is often (very) limited and short lived, not "tremendous"
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