To me it’s insane that food also isn’t on that list. Anything that isn’t a luxury can’t be trusted to be handled by capitalism.
Comment on Itch.io apologise for "frustration and confusion" after delisting thousands of NSFW projects
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 2 days agoYeah, payment processing is among the many many many industries that ought to be nationalized so they can be administered in a transparent and democratic manner (see also, healthcare education housing electricity internet etc.)
There’s just too much opportunity to use it to manipulate markets and oppress minority viewpoints for it to remain in private hands imo
chunes@lemmy.world 1 day ago
HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 1 day ago
So you want Trump and MAGA politicians to be able to deny your payments instead?
The problem with “just let the government do it” is when the government is run by people like this.
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
So don’t let them.
Basically nothing works if no one cares about their community. One of the reasons Trump is in power right now is because of a deep American apathy for, like… everything.
Trump, et. al., are dismantling USPS, but I like USPS. It’s bad that they’re doing that.
HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How naive can you be? You think your vote matters here?
When every single district has been gerrymandered to death for 100 years, nobody’s vote really matters anymore.
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Your cynicism can’t defeat me, man. I am God’s holy warrior. I crush weak pessimism like yours beneath the weight of my iron will.
How is it you think private companies will be more easily coercible when Trump’s cronies are the private sector?
stephen01king@piefed.zip 2 days ago
Do you really think most governments will administer payment processes in a transparent and democratic manner?
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
They can do a really shit job of administering payment processes in a transparent and democratic manner before they end up being worse than the status quo where it’s entirely untransparent and undemocratic. Also, governments already have the power to make things they don’t like illegal, so there’s no reason to expect they’d block payments for things they’ve left legal, whereas payment processors currently block plenty of legal things.
stephen01king@piefed.zip 2 days ago
So you expect governments like the Trump administration or Saudi Arabia will less likely block porn games than for profit companies?
You do realise this happened because thousands of people called the payment processors to complain about it, which means with thousands of people, you can pressure these companies to change their mind again. Try doing that to your own government, let alone a foreign government.
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
That’s literally what calling your government representatives is. You’re supposed to be able to pressure your representative to represent you.
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
At the moment, they’re already at risk of being removed by the government, who can make them illegal, and simultaneously at risk of being removed by payment processors, who can prevent the stores from operating. It makes no difference to the government whether they’re also the payment processor. They could remove them anyway. Having two entities with unilateral power to remove something can’t be worse than just having one of them.
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
you can pressure these companies to change their mind again. Try doing that to your own government,
Jesus christ.
Okay, buddy, I’m giving you homework: you need to attend 10 city halls and 5 protests by the end of this year.
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
A lot of governments already do. The credit card duopoly is the reason the US decided to come after Brazil’s solution
stephen01king@piefed.zip 2 days ago
Because they can't make it illegal in another country. I'm sure plenty of countries would just use US or China owned payment processors rather than spending money to set up their own. This would just give them more control over other countries than they already have now.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I think it is possible to have a government that functions in this way on a long term basis. I don’t think the same can be said of for profit companies.
stephen01king@piefed.zip 2 days ago
A for profit company can be replaced with another and is more easily affected by boycotts. A goverment is neither easily replaced or influenced by people from other countries.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Until they monopolize their industry, which is something they’re always going to be trying to do by their very nature as for profits and which has already essentially happened here
A government can be influenced if it is transparent and democratic, which can be ensured if they’ve got good bylaws that are being scrupulously enforced. Like, if you have decisionmakers a) accountable to free and fair elections (whether they’re elected directly or appointed by elected people) holding b) regular and public meetings where c) outside organizations can raise disputes and get them decided under d) neutral procedures that are published in advance and that every party has equal opportunity to understand and take advantage of, and e) if those decisions and the reasoning behind them are also published and cited as precedent to be reinforced or overturned in subsequent decisions, then I really think the rest takes care of itself.
And I think we had a lot of this figured out when we got done fighting totalitarian regimes in the 1940s and turned around and passed the Administrative Procedure Act, but conservatives keep adding loopholes and trying to drag all of us back to feudalism and monarchies.
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
It’s end up line the shit we’ve got going on now with. ICE being given access to Medicaid and tax records in order to deport more people.
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
What is stopping the government from just commandeering PayPal’s records?
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Power finds a way, so I wouldn’t hope for nationalization itself to be anything good.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
power already did find a way, and thats called privatization.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Yes, because without one government that was helping them out, punishing their competition and funding them, also making regulations convenient for them, Alphabet, Meta and others would be even more powerful. /s
Signtist@bookwyr.me 2 days ago
...those are all corporations. Nationalization would make it a public service, rather than a corporate profit-driven service like how it is now.
You can bet that if libraries, for example, became privatized, we'd quickly see several different library companies pop up, each with their own paid book subscription service with exclusive partnerships with various popular artists, much like we have today with streaming platforms. Conversely, if we were to nationalize those streaming platforms, we'd likely see the service transformed to be more akin to our current library service.
It's why the rightmost parties generally want to defund many public services and move them to the private sector - it transforms services that we spend money on to benefit the people into services that the people spend money on to benefit corporations.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
its almost like their monopoly made them powerful and they used that power to control the state. 🤔
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Putting the ridicoulous idea that governments are fair and transparent aside, payment processors need to be international. Otherwise, most countries will not be able to access services because their local payment processor is not supported.
However, the payment processors should be regulated with something similar to net neutrality where they can discriminate. And EU could launch a government run competitor to dilute their duopoly.
Bubbey@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Really the only time they should be even allowed to discriminate on payment is when it is suspected to be part of a crime.
DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Well, yes. I just did not consider them to be the ones discriminating if it is against the law, but the government.