MerryJaneDoe

not only are large enterprises also inefficient in ways, but they must seek profit.

This deserves repeating.

A government job often requires highly skilled union workers, thus higher pay for the workers. A corporation can find the cheapest labor, but it’s not always the best. The savings are then pocketed as profit, essentially giving shareholders a free government check while labor is poorly compensated.

Government contracts out everything to the lowest builder.

This is not always the case. In reality, the bid often goes to the company with political connections.

They might also look at things like timeframe and job creation. So, supposing that all other things are equal: One company plans to use robotic labor, one is using human labor. There’s going to be a lot of pressure from unions to hire the human labor. Or one company is using imported materials and the other is using local materials.

That’s not to say that the system isn’t biased and flawed. It most definitely is. But this idea that the “lowest bidder” always gets the job is just not true.

In a country where military service is mandatory for everyone over 18, are there really any “civilians”?

Yes, the initiative failed. They have guns and all the money. We have memes. Game over.

There are plenty of leaders to follow, plenty of groups to join, plenty of events to attend.

This type of information isn’t broadcast on the local news. You have to go looking for like-minded people.

Gee, if only we’d tried that before.

Remember the “1%” protests against the billionaire class?

It didn’t matter, because every time people contribute to a 401k or go shopping at a chain box store, they add power to the 1%. People say they want to fight the ultra-rich, but they don’t really want to fight. Nobody wants to sacrifice their comfort or security. We know from history how this ends…

Giggle. We’ve been playing “wait and see” for a decade now.

Elections don’t solve this. We’ve seen that high-level Democrats are no different than high-level Republicans. Biden refused to investigate the Epstein files, he refused to prosecute Trump, and he refused to target gerrymandering/election interference.

There’s no version of this where the old America magically returns. That’s the same logic trap that ushered in this entire mess. There are plenty of MAGA who truly believe that they are shaking up the system and that just one more election will solve everything.

THIS. IS. THE. FUTURE.

We are living in it. The trajectory is set. We didn’t stop militarization of the police when they stepped on our rights. We didn’t stop data collection when we were warned. We didn’t stop gross financial mismanagement, corporate influence, gerrymandering and all the other things that make a democracy work.

We aren’t living in a fascist takeover. That happened years ago. We are living in its aftermath. We are frogs in a simmering pot, watching the bubbles float past us and wondering how to turn off the heat. It doesn’t matter now, the damage is done. The momentum takes control.

WWII changed everything about the USA. Everywhere else in the world, manufacturing was bombed to oblivion, the populace unable to rebuild without a coordinated effort from governments and NGOs.

The US became a hub of manufacturing. We exported our culture, and our products, all over the world. Our currency and our language became the standard in business.

Everything since then has been a slow walk backwards, so that the ultrawealthy could exert more control and line their pockets. A return to the “real” American values of exploitation.