[Tainari88]

@late, I'm going to backup @QatzelOk here.

While what you say is true, that Amazon is basically the modern day Sears, and the sort of "business revolution" Amazon ushers, is of the same cloth as what Sears did in the 1800s. It is still true that Sears and Amazon manipulated the system/government to gain favor.

We are slowly moving towards a corporate state. That is, corporations will be what we answer to, while the government is simply the administrator of corporate will.

We should be against corporations getting more power and money globally.

This has already been discussed with this video of Citizens United and the story of stuff.

So the corporations are on the march.

That is old news.

The issue becomes how to get those powerful corporations out of the government?

[Dr House]

I'm currently reading Technofeudalism by Yannis Varoufakis in which the author argues that the economy is increasing dominated by digital fiefdoms that extract rents from their users in exchange for access to their services. He states that Amazon isn't a market place despite hosting huge volumes of buying and selling. All interactions are governed by algorithms that deny space for market transactions to occur. Other examples include Android OS, which mobile phone manufacturers must use to gain access to a large userbase of app developers and end users, the app store, which charges developers 30% of total revenue in exchange for access to Apple users, and Youtube, which splits advertising revenue between itself and the producers of videos hosted there.

He also discussed Chinese tech giants that are even more successful than their US counterparts in many ways although they are more vulnerable to regulation due to the CPP's ability and willingness to control capital.

What is Technofedalism?
Interview by The Guardian

I actually agree with this, which is why antitrust regulators have aggressively (and imo justifiably) pursued tech giants, going all the way back to Microsoft in the 90s.

[SpecialOlympian]

Your money was here long before you and will be here long after you die. Amen

[QatzelOk]

...Once we are bound again to the land and only allowed to travel for pilgrimages to venerate the shrines of saints like Bezos, Musk, and Buffett we will finally be free to dedicate our time to spiritual pursuits so that we may hone our souls for the afterlife.

"But this new type of life that the peasants will be forced to adapt... it sucks! They will be miserable." - Elite One

"Then we'll promise them the perfect after-lifeTM. And they will be forced to believe this... by law!" - Elite Two
.

[SpecialOlympian]

I don't believe in a perfect afterlife. But I dream of a day when children and the elderly can walk freely down the street without fear of being crushed under the wheels of an arrogant double unicyclist.

[Potemkin]

I don't believe in a perfect afterlife. But I dream of a day when children and the elderly can walk freely down the street without fear of being crushed under the wheels of an arrogant double unicyclist.

If we want it badly enough, the dream can come true, @SpecialOlympian. A better world can be born….

Most cyclists are Dutch. Did you know that, @SpecialOlympian? Somehow, it doesn’t surprise me.

[Skynet]

Thanks @late, I think Yanis agrees with Stiglitz's position that top down regulation is futile and he advocates a form of market socialism in which each employee of an establishment will be granted 1 share with which they vote on decisions the company makes including who gets a bonus and how big it is (everyone earns the same wage/ salary). Shares cannot be bought, sold or traded. He also proposes creating digital currencies issued by central banks so that private banks are no longer needed to complete transactions.

A similar system had Yugoslavia it was also called "market socialism"... It was the richest socialist country and produced a lot more stuff then today...