this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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Capitalism is criticized a lot on here (especially by American users, it seems to me). Most of that seems well-founded, but I also have the feeling that most of these complaints are simply venting and not the first step to improvement.

So I would like to know what specific changes you (especially Americans) want to see from lawmakers.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're coming off fairly condescending. Leftists of many stripes not only have thorough critiques of Capitalism, but offer a wide range of solutions, both legislative and grass-roots.

There may be a lot of ranting, but most of it is based within robust theory and legislative efforts.

Strengthening unions and workers rights laws is almost always advocated for. Weakening the ability for corporations to exploit their workers and the general population/environment is another.

I'm an Agorist, that means I advocate fighting Capitalism from the ground up using grey and black markets to subvert existing Capitalist structures.

So acquiring and distributing pirated materials like college textbooks and otherwise expensive software is one example. Helping people jailbreak/hack their devices to run unofficial software that the corporations don't approve of is another.

There's lots of information out there, don't mistake memes and ranting for empty idealism.

[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So acquiring and distributing pirated materials like college textbooks and otherwise expensive software is one example.

That's an interesting example, because in threads on AI lawsuits there are many calls for expanding intellectual property, without any consideration for public benefit. It's such an outright doubling down on all the pathological aspects of capitalism. It made me look whether there are any equally concrete demands going the other way and eventually make this post.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for your reply, sorry if I came off aggressive in my initial response.

For me I'm as hardcore anti-intellectual property as it gets. I think the very concept of IP is nonsense. And I don't mean nonsense like it is stupid or silly or I don't agree with the laws, I mean literally logically contradictory.

I view laws against copyright/IP infringement the same way I would view a law against poaching unicorns.

Despite the propaganda, IP law almost always protects giant corporations, not the "little guy." It's used to create and maintain multi-billion dollar IP portfolio monopolies. It supresses creativity and literally kills people in the case of pharma companies and their ridiculous drug patents.

I would love at a minimum for copyright to have a hard limit no matter the conditions. Like for all creative works, 20 year hard limit. After that, no matter what, it enters public domain forever. There are a million issues to work out, but not being able to hold IP for literally a century in some cases would be something.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Copyright should probably not be given to the publisher unless the publisher is the artist.