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NewsMicrosoft makes a library of free illustrations and icons available to Visio users Pin
Kent Sharkey7-Feb-21 12:01
staffKent Sharkey7-Feb-21 12:01 
GeneralRe: Microsoft makes a library of free illustrations and icons available to Visio users Pin
Nelek7-Feb-21 21:10
protectorNelek7-Feb-21 21:10 
NewsNevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
Kent Sharkey7-Feb-21 12:01
staffKent Sharkey7-Feb-21 12:01 
GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
Nelek7-Feb-21 21:09
protectorNelek7-Feb-21 21:09 
GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
Sander Rossel7-Feb-21 23:29
professionalSander Rossel7-Feb-21 23:29 
GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
honey the codewitch9-Feb-21 5:19
mvahoney the codewitch9-Feb-21 5:19 
GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
markrlondon9-Feb-21 5:28
markrlondon9-Feb-21 5:28 
GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
honey the codewitch9-Feb-21 5:52
mvahoney the codewitch9-Feb-21 5:52 
markrlondon wrote:
Surely the point of privatisation is to remove from the government those functions that no government should be involved in.


That's the official line. I hardly think it's the point. The point is to give unelected people with too much power and money already, even more control over us.

Either you believe your democratic government is best positioned to represent society collectively, or you believe that the wealthy powerful people are. If you think there's a third position, you wouldn't be wrong exactly - the third position is fooling yourself.

So who at the end of the day do I want handling the police? Who do I want deciding who can be licensed to drive a vehicle, and who can dump what into the water we share or pull what out of the water table we share?

An unelected rich {elephant} who has a vested interest in raiding our collective wealth for their own personal benefit or an elected rich {elephant} who along with the aforementioned greed, is at least in theory accountable to voters?

Neither option is great, and yet still the difference is clear.

So as far as this:

markrlondon wrote:
Capitalism is the worst system there... except for all the others.


I'd offer you this: Democracy is the worst system out there, except for all of the others.

And I'd also argue they haven't all been tried. We aren't capable of achieving a post-scarcity economy today, but it doesn't mean we won't ever get there. We also haven't tried things like RBE.

Capitalism is easy because it's what we already do. Indeed it was not so much invented as it was articulated based on observing how societies dealt with wealth.

So it's robust, but not always healthy. Like most of what humans get up to individually and collectively.

To say it's as good as it gets is self defeating. At one point living in the trees and smearing ourselves with dung was as good as it got. At one point, 640kB of RAM was as good as it got.

I'd argue further that what you said about capitalism could have been argued about feudalism in its time and place. It was the "best" system because there wasn't anything better at the time and place. It was what people could conceive and maintain. It had that going for it. But so what?
Real programmers use butterflies

GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
Nelek9-Feb-21 8:14
protectorNelek9-Feb-21 8:14 
GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
markrlondon9-Feb-21 8:31
markrlondon9-Feb-21 8:31 
GeneralRe: Nevada governor wants to allow tech companies to create local governments Pin
markrlondon9-Feb-21 8:25
markrlondon9-Feb-21 8:25 
NewsChromium cleans up its act – and daily DNS root server queries drop by 60 billion Pin
Kent Sharkey7-Feb-21 12:01
staffKent Sharkey7-Feb-21 12:01 
GeneralRe: Chromium cleans up its act – and daily DNS root server queries drop by 60 billion Pin
Nelek7-Feb-21 21:03
protectorNelek7-Feb-21 21:03 
GeneralRe: Chromium cleans up its act – and daily DNS root server queries drop by 60 billion Pin
honey the codewitch9-Feb-21 5:23
mvahoney the codewitch9-Feb-21 5:23 
Newshuman stem cells to brain cells to AI chips ? Pin
BillWoodruff6-Feb-21 13:53
professionalBillWoodruff6-Feb-21 13:53 
NewsSome product ideas Pin
Marc Clifton5-Feb-21 11:55
mvaMarc Clifton5-Feb-21 11:55 
GeneralRe: Some product ideas Pin
John R. Shaw5-Feb-21 15:35
John R. Shaw5-Feb-21 15:35 
GeneralRe: Some product ideas Pin
Daniel Pfeffer6-Feb-21 5:45
professionalDaniel Pfeffer6-Feb-21 5:45 
GeneralRe: Some product ideas Pin
trønderen6-Feb-21 7:45
trønderen6-Feb-21 7:45 
GeneralRe: Some product ideas Pin
Bernhard Hiller7-Feb-21 20:50
Bernhard Hiller7-Feb-21 20:50 
NewsDevelopers feel they should be paid for open source contributions Pin
Kent Sharkey4-Feb-21 12:16
staffKent Sharkey4-Feb-21 12:16 
GeneralRe: Developers feel they should be paid for open source contributions Pin
markrlondon4-Feb-21 12:54
markrlondon4-Feb-21 12:54 
GeneralRe: Developers feel they should be paid for open source contributions Pin
Marc Clifton5-Feb-21 11:58
mvaMarc Clifton5-Feb-21 11:58 
GeneralRe: Developers feel they should be paid for open source contributions Pin
Amarnath S5-Feb-21 14:07
professionalAmarnath S5-Feb-21 14:07 
GeneralRe: Developers feel they should be paid for open source contributions Pin
Richard Deeming7-Feb-21 22:40
mveRichard Deeming7-Feb-21 22:40 

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