We live in a capitalist dystopia

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I'm willing to be the product. If anyone can find anything real in the data they're getting from me, they've genuinely earned it.
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Watch it just get bought by Elon Musk or someone equally horrible.
 

Ungnome

Grand Empress of the Empire of One Square Foot.
Citizen
Well, during the IE thing the internet wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as it is now and Netscape was still doing OK. Now, Mozilla is slowly dying and pretty much EVERY other browser uses Chromium as its base.(not counting Safari since that's pretty much limited to Apple's ecosystem). It's the right decision and frankly it should have happened a decade ago. Granted I think your right, Dekafox, Google just didn't praise Trump to the level the other tech giants did, so he let the case continue.
 

Dekafox

Fabulously Foxy Dragon
Citizen

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KidTDragon

Now with hi-res avatar!
Citizen
Remember this?


Well, guess who just won a Pulitzer.

 

Dekafox

Fabulously Foxy Dragon
Citizen
Could kind of fit in the AI thread too:

I think one of the darkest omens so far about what the future holds for the US workforce can be found in some recent 10k filings, where firms outline potential material risks/events that could impact stock price.
Companies have started filing them about their use of AI, openly acknowledging that these systems will make mistakes and there will be damages that can't be guessed, but the savings on staff outweigh the expected risks. Which is to say, corporate America is going full steam ahead on staff replacement and guessing at the risks, so we're in that fun phase where we see what firm becomes synonymous with catastrophic failure, leading to regulation. What fun!

 

Rhinox

too old for this
Citizen
I really think we need to move away from the 'shareholder supremacy' doctrine. We've seen for some time now the issues with pursuing profits at all cost. In case no one has read, there's a shareholder lawsuit against United Healthcare for walking back on certain business decisions after their CEO was murked. The lawsuit claims that the threat to the lives of management is an insufficient impetus to move away from the policies that would result in further profit.
This shareholder supremacy doctrine has been previously upheld in courts and while corporations currently do have personhood, due to these rulings, everything done must be in service to further profits.
This has to change. We are now at a point where corporations are obligated to not only let people die, but actively put them in danger from outside sources.

Obviously nothing will happen with the Orange jive Stain holds office but something to consider if and when America ditches the Marshmallow Fluff Reich.
 

KidTDragon

Now with hi-res avatar!
Citizen
The lawsuit claims that the threat to the lives of management is an insufficient impetus to move away from the policies that would result in further profit.
Strangely, I feel a little better knowing that their sociopathy doesn't exempt their own.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Shareholder supremacy is the real rot in the system. We could replace the entire current crop of executives with a bunch of well meaning reformers, and it wouldn't make a difference because the system requires them to do what today's executives are already doing. Any reformer will get sued into oblivion. And the lawsuits won't come from some greedy bastard. They'll come from some firefighter pension fund or something.

It's no wonder executives are enamored with AI. There is already no human decision making in their whole world.
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
I really think we need to move away from the 'shareholder supremacy' doctrine.
Do you think reversing Dodge v Ford would be enough to fix the issue? Because even if they couldn't sue a company for not doing what they want, shareholders still have the power to vote executives out of office, or to sell off their stock and take their business elsewhere. I wish the stock market just plain didn't exist, but at the same time I'm aware that companies need investment capital to get off the ground.
 

Rhinox

too old for this
Citizen
I think we need to completely redo corporations here in America. We've granted them this quasi personhood that has somehow given them more rights than actual humans.
Stockholders do and will always have the power to vote out executives, but I think that if Dodge v Ford were reversed, we would be able to see some positive changes. In order to vote execs out, stockholders have to have the votes. Let them go and try to get them.
 

NovaSaber

Well-known member
Citizen
Oh hey, look at this:

Investors are accusing UnitedHealthcare's parent group of conning the public to boost profits — and, ultimately, contributing to the murder of CEO Brian Thompson.

In a proposed class action lawsuit filed earlier this week in New York, UnitedHealth Group investor Roberto Faller claims that the insurer profited from a series of "aggressive, anti-consumer tactics" that harmed clients and investors alike.
 


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