Biden slams Big Tech's worst practices in State of the Union address

[WhoCaresAnymore]

As far as Biden's address. He hasn't told the truth about much of anything since he's been in politics. To follow a politician blindly and accept their word? PASS.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Of course not. People who parrot lies like that are either implicit in the lies themselves or they're of such low intelligence that they're easily fooled by liars like Ben Shapiro or Alex Jones. One cannot prove a lie, one can only try to back it up with more lies.

The anti-vaxxers ended up being the smart ones with COVID. I got the jab and developed AFIB. Even my own doc told me don't get any more COVID vaccines or boosters, natural immunity ended up best on this one.

I've had five COVID shots without any issues whatsoever. Just because it happened at the similar times doesn't prove causation.

To call someone who questions big pharma and gov't "unintelligent" is nothing but a sheep.

I have no problem with people who question governments and big business because I do the same on the daily. That's not the same thing as believing false rhetoric from a different source. I didn't reply to someone questioning the government, I was replying to someone who was posting something patently false. I completely agree with you that governments should be called out.

Hell, I was the one who said that "Lip service is easy. I'd be shocked if they actually do something about it!" because I knew very well that governments have become puppets of the evil rich. I'm completely with you on that one.

Question everything. If you don't, you are uninformed. Look at things from ALL angles. that's called deductive reasoning, research and intelligent decision making.

I completely agree with you. I was responding to someone who was towing the right-wing lie that "over-regulation" (whatever that means) creates monopolies. I was pointing out that what creates monopolies is capitalism itself. Without state intervention, under capitalism, monopolies are inevitable.

Under capitalism, there can only be one winner and that one winner is the only one that continues to exist. How many once-successful businesses no longer exist? This is compounded by the problem that you can't just start-up in an established industry and hope to survive.If new players can't enter a market to replace those that have left or fallen, something that is all too common in most markets, the end result is always monopoly or a small oligopoly (duopoly or triopoly) to give the appearance of choice. (like Matrox, 3dfx, Orchid, Diamond, S3, etc.)

Let's use the GPU sector because we're all intimately familiar with it. There used to be a large number of video card producers with names like Matrox, 3dfx, Orchid, Diamond, S3 and Oak Technology along with the more familiar ATi and nVidia. This means that we had six options when it came to video cards. That sector contracted by 66% to only two video card makers, ATi and nVidia. Corporate consolidation eliminated 3fdx and ATi as players in the market with nVidia and AMD buying them outright. We had an effective duopoly for over a decade but there's no question that nVidia became overwhelmingly dominant to the point that they almost have a monopoly and they have behaved as such.

Like most markets these days, new companies entering and competing is almost literally impossible. This has been proven by Intel's attempt at making video cards. Technically, Intel has made more GPUs than either AMD or nVidia over the past 20 years with their IGPs. Now just look at how horrifically difficult and expensive it has been for them to produce even budget gaming cards. We're not talking about some new start-up maverick company here. We're talking about Intel, a company with nearly limitless financial means, chip-making expertise and connections with AIBs through their motherboard platforms. If INTEL has that kind of difficulty, anyone else would have failed before they even began!

Allowing markets to become like this is why NeoLiberal (aka Laissez-faire) Capitalism inevitably ends in monopoly if left to its own devices. This has essentially been what's happening as government competition bureaus haven't been doing their jobs and just allowing the mergers of any two corporations who ask regardless of the impact on consumers.

This is happening everywhere though and has been happening for a long time with consumer choice getting smaller by the day. How many major airlines in Canada and the USA no longer exist? Names like TWA, Canadian Airlines, Pan-Am, Wardair, Eastern and Pacific-Western come to mind. Business Insider released an article four years ago that spoke about this "phenomenon". Air travel is one of the few industries where new startups aren't immediately doomed. Still, the costs involved are prohibitive to most because of how expensive aircraft are to purchase and maintain.

I use air travel because that market itself is a victim of the aircraft industry being allowed to be boiled down to an effective duopoly. It used to be that if you wanted to start-up an airline, you could buy planes from BAe, Boeing, Bombardier/Canadair, de Havilland, Embraer, Lockheed, or North American. Now the only ones left are Boeing and Airbus in the intercontinental category and Embraer in the regional category. When Bombardier tried to enter the intercontinental market, Boeing and the US government reacted by breaking their own rules and now Bombardier doesn't make planes anymore.

I see the long-term damage that NeoLiberal Capitalism has done and as a consumer I try to do as much as I can to fight against it (which isn't much but there are ways). The desire to not have a monopoly is what drives me away from nVidia and Intel. Unlike others who only pay lip service to the idea that monopolies are bad, I literally put my money where my mouth is. Nobody who chose to buy an Intel CPU or nVidia GPU is in any position to speak out against monopolies as far as I'm concerned because they're only helping to perpetuate them.

Sooner or later, capitalism will collapse and post-capitalist socialism will inevitably win. The longer that we hold on to what doesn't work, the worse that things will be when the change finally occurs. People used to think that feudalism was the only thing that worked but it was replaced by Liberal Capitalism. When that was shown to be ineffective, Keysian Economic Capitalism became common (and still is in most of the world) but the rise of NeoLiberal Capitalism has guaranteed capitalism's eventual demise because it's not the least bit sustainable. What makes it unsustainable? The integral lack of regulation.

I will never stop calling out people and referring to them as liars or sheep as long as they keep perpetuating the idea that this unsustainable system that could end in our extinction is "the best that we can do" and that anything else we try will is evil or won't help. People like that used to have a different moniker, serfs.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

I completely agree with you. I was responding to someone who was towing the right-wing lie that "over-regulation" (whatever that means) creates monopolies. I was pointing out that what creates monopolies is capitalism itself. Without state intervention, under capitalism, monopolies are inevitable.

I mostly agree with you here. Without some oversight, we would be eating insecticides and lead (just an over-example). I do believe in some regulation, but not all. I don't trust businesses to do what's best for us (for the most part). It's all about money.

Socialism is absolutely the worst thing that could happen. It stifles freedom, free speech, innovation. You pretty much HAVE to follow a single source. F'that.

 

[scavengerspc]

Socialism is absolutely the worst thing that could happen. It stifles freedom, free speech, innovation. You pretty much HAVE to follow a single source. F'that.

I would argue that fascism is the bigger threat, with socialism coming in a strong second.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

I would argue that fascism is the bigger threat, with socialism coming in a strong second.

Point taken. Both are bad news.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

I would argue that fascism is the bigger threat, with socialism coming in a strong second.

Socialism is responsible for more deaths than anything else on this planet including the plague.

 

[Ultraman1966]

The anti-vaxxers ended up being the smart ones with COVID. I got the jab and developed AFIB. Even my own doc told me don't get any more COVID vaccines or boosters, natural immunity ended up best on this one.

To call someone who questions big pharma and gov't "unintelligent" is nothing but a sheep. Question everything. If you don't, you are uninformed. Look at things from ALL angles. that's called deductive reasoning, research and intelligent decision making.

Firstly, any and all medicines can have side effects or adverse reactions. Nothing is ever perfect, however, the vaccines against SARS Cov-2 saved a lot of lives and has prevented millions of hospitalisations. Even as a fit person in their 30s, I was hit hard last year when I got covid for the first time. I dread to think if I hadn't been vaccinated at least once, I may not have died but I would have been laid out for more than a week to recover.
I work in early stage drug discovery, vaccines are the most cost effective and efficacious way to tackle disease. If you don't like it then that's fine but don't expect society to be so understanding. You say that people should look at all angles and use critical thinking etc, how often have you encountered that in the general public? If it is that simple to study and understand epidemiology or virology, why do people spend years earning degrees and PhDs? You are basically saying everyone can should be an expert on public health, it would be great in theory but in practice is unobtainable.

 

[scavengerspc]

Socialism is responsible for more deaths than anything else on this planet including the plague.

Actually, if deaths are the historical measuring stick worldwide, I don't believe anything tops racism. /s

I have many, many reasons to hate Socialism, but causing deaths is at the bottom of the list.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

I have many, many reasons to hate Socialism, but causing deaths is at the bottom of the list.

ok