It just seems like this system is capitalism with extra steps, but the extra steps involve replacing the exchange of money with the peddling of influence. The capitalists are replaced by administrators, the hierarchy of wealth is replaced by rank in the decision-making apparatus. I get that it’s supposed to be democratic and protect the interests of the public, but so too is our regulated hybrid public-private system and we see how well that’s going. It also seems like, where our market system began as distributed and decentralized, which was a strength, and began to be ever more concentrated as businesses consolidated and corrupted government, this new system starts consolidated and married to government. A lot of people would say this is too much power in the hands of the state, and ripe for theft by an autocrat. I’m not saying it’s impossible for this to work, but the systems I have seen work best are those where the market does what it does and the government reigns in its worst tendencies when the motive of profit conflicts with the needs of people.

This all sounds philosophical. How does this system actually solve problems in a society where scarcity exists? Do people still have property rights? Who enforces those rights? Who makes the decisions on where scarce resources are allocated? Our current system has answers for all of these questions, it’s just contaminated by the influence of powerful scumbags. The thing is, the powerful scumbags are going to be scumbags in every system, and at least a decentralized market economy limits the ease with which they can exert control.

This is basically it. Classic liberalism is everything from Margaret Thatcher to Bernie Sanders. The MAGA movement has regressed to fascism–a form of corporate authoritatianism.

So are almost all progressives.

You can’t. He’s trying to use liberal as an epithet when he means neoliberal. If we’re being pedantic, liberal refers to the full gamut of people who think there should be an open and free society, which usually includes a market and certain property rights. The conservatives use liberal as an epithet to decry the left and now the left is using it to decry the middle.

It would be funny if it wasn’t being used to convince naive progressives to sit out elections and let fascists seize power because the center left “only” wants 85% of what they want. You’re seeing it really ramp up because the US is closing in on a big election, and convincing dipshits to sit out elections is easier than convincing anyone the right can govern.

They’ve really managed to enshittify the site beyond even what I expected back when the API changes went live. I guess it was expected. First Digg shot itself, now Reddit…

Are photovoltaics an option for you? I can buy a pallet of 32 of them for about $5k and from what I understand, this is despite hefty tariffs. They’re approaching impulse buy territory. That said, I’m capable of installing them myself, which is a big part of the cost for most installations.

I work at a factory that makes components for electric vehicles, and also sells some stuff to defense contractors on the side. Two years ago, the Trump Administration completely fucked over my company by threatening previously-guaranteed CHIPS money and magically deleting Inflation Reduction Act measures intended to encourage adoption of EVs. Our demand dropped like a rock, we laid off 80% of our workforce, raises got frozen, equity turned to dust, etc. Then the US did Israel’s bidding and started this asinine war with Iran. For a month there was nothing. Then the defense orders came trickling in. Then we couldn’t keep those tools running fast enough. Finally, two months later, the EV stuff showed up like a flash flood in the Grand Canyon. Insane we were almost bankrupted by his stupidity, then saved by it. For my part, I’m going to try to upgrade my gas furnace to a heat pump before it gets cold.