Comment on One of capitalisms biggest tragedies
zerog_bandit@lemmy.world 8 months agoRent seeking is just the latest in a long line of buzz words invented by MBAs to define their profit-seeking practices.
Capitalism rewards the extraction of profit from assets. All the fancy words above dress up the process but in essence remains the same across all industries.
You seem to not like this. I would recommend putting down the phone that are using to browse this website, since it exists due to the aforementioned capitalistic system. Then, go outside, and quite literally touch some grass.
Otherwise, you should probably make peace with your existence within this system, because every human on this Earth is already partaking in it to some degree.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Its definitely a term that’s been co-opted by MBAs, but the process of enclosure is centuries old and foundational to the process of capitalist profit-taking.
I’m not a huge fan of negative externalities in business. And profiteering generates enormous externalities.
Oh no, buddy. I’ve got some terrible news for you. Cellular mobile telephones are a soviet technology. And the entire backbone of the modern domestic telecommunications service was created with public lands, materials, and labor.
The modern cell carriers are simply gatekeepers, charging exorbitant fees to access public works. When the western states copied the USSR’s homework back in the 70s and 80s, no single private business could afford to front the enormous costs associated with the infrastructure. So the Federal Government issued block grants and unleashed (literal) armies of engineers, surveyors, and construction teams to lay the original main arteries. They then tasked a handful of private companies to operate as retail brokers for consumer access and use.
The bulk of international digital infrastructure is public works. Always has been. And the cost of accessing these public works varies enormously by state, entirely due to who is tasked with gatekeeping access to the service. US telecomm costs are astronomical, compared to Mexico or Germany or India or South Africa, entirely because the American domestic retailers charge a higher toll.
Incidentally, that’s also why we have some of the slowest and least reliable networks in the post-industrial world. Once we gave up investing in public broadband, public wifi, and public satellite services, the gatekeeping private telecom firms failed to maintain pace with peer nations like Japan and Germany and China and India. Now you can buy a cell phone off the street in New Delhi with a plan that charges pennies and get higher speeds and better coverage than anything T-mobile or AT&T can provide stateside for $100/mo.
zerog_bandit@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Lol, I would say that you’re taking a lot of gibberish with no real solutions, but the hilariously fake Soviet propaganda helped me see that you are clearly beyond saving. My best of luck in your crusade!
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You’re citing the first retail model sold in a western market, built on technology from 20 years prior.
zerog_bandit@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Technically the transistor was invented at Bell labs in 1947, so it’s still a US invention. Or do you need to go back further to appease your sowiet masters?