A lot of governments already do. The credit card duopoly is the reason the US decided to come after Brazil’s solution
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stephen01king@piefed.zip 1 day agoDo you really think most governments will administer payment processes in a transparent and democratic manner?
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
stephen01king@piefed.zip 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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.
stephen01king@piefed.zip 1 day ago
So you admitted that people have succeeded in adding loopholes to the US government that makes all your argument no longer true, and you think they still should be allowed handle payment processing? To me it just sounds like you're arguing for transferring the power from one corruptible party (for-profit payment company) to another one (the government).
It would be easier for the government to actually regulate payment processors so they don't become so big that they can influence online stores that use them than preventing people in governments from turning corrupt and misusing the control over payment processes. Even then, the US government has failed to do the former, so how do we expect them to do the latter?
altima_neo@lemmy.zip 1 day 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 20 hours ago
What is stopping the government from just commandeering PayPal’s records?
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day ago
That’s literally what calling your government representatives is. You’re supposed to be able to pressure your representative to represent you.
MyDarkestTimeline01@ani.social 1 day ago
I agree with your statement, but we are currently seeing politicians actively ignore their constituents wishes on policy.
stephen01king@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Your government representative only has a voice in the government, but they don't control it. Calling for profit companies en masse pushes your message directly to the people in charge who are scared of losing profits over this.
Tell me, when has calling your representatives ever resulted in a change in government policy within a reasonable time span? How often does a government do a major change in policy without you needing to vote someone out first?
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 hours ago
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.
AnyOldName3@lemmy.world 1 day 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.
stephen01king@piefed.zip 1 day ago
The US goverment can't make porn illegal in another country. A US owned payment processor can force other stores in other countries that uses their service to save money to ban porn as well. You're just advocating for giving governments of wealthier countries more control over smaller ones. I say no thanks to that nightmare scenario.
Why don't you prove your government can do their job and prevent payment processors from being such massive monopolies and maybe I'd trust that they won't immediately abuse their power.