this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
85 points (95.7% liked)

Technology

60033 readers
2817 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

"We need policies that keep middlemen weak."

stood out to me.

Many of my influences have railed against middle men, and I think that's unfair. I've worked with plenty of middle men that made everyone then better off.

I've also had the unique displeasure that at least half of all links shared with me in recent years have been to a site called "Instagram", where I am unable to access the content without an account (which I refuse to make because Zuckerberg is a creepy stalker.)

I find it deeply weird that such a locked ecosystem now controls so much attention.

I find Cory Doctorow's thoughts on the problem and potential solutions to be both hopeful and cathartic.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah. We desperately need anti-trust laws to actually be enforced. I think we've proven that nuanced and thoughtful rules don't cut it, so I'm in favor of some deeply restrictive new rules that are impossible to mis-interpret.

I also think we should create laws with immediate financial incentives for breaking up monopolies.

I'm essence, we need a law that I, as a random citizen, can just climb into any parked Amazon truck and take it home.

I think Amazon would be a lot more interested in splitting the company along appropriately legal lines if the alternative was the owned capital just getting declared public property on a random Tuesday next year.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So I was spitballing some ideas around this a while back, although I was more focused on income inequality at the time. I think the best idea I came up with was something like a progressive taxation system where a company's taxes were determined by the highest paid employee (including the value of benefits and things like stock grants) minus the lowest paid employee, divided by the company head count. If executives want to keep bringing in eye watering salaries they either need to pay all their employees significantly more, or hire a hell of a lot more of them at current rates. There's probably some flaws and things that could be tweaked there, but I think it's a start.