• BertramDitore@lemm.eeEnglish
      31·
      16 days ago

      Donziger’s story is heartbreaking and infuriating, and I’m continually disappointed that so few people are familiar with his story and what the courts did to him. It’s one of the clearest examples of judicial corruption and the power and benefits that are afforded to corporations and almost never extended to the people fighting for what’s right and just.

    • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
      14·
      16 days ago

      In June 2022, a federal appeals court affirmed Donziger’s criminal contempt conviction. In March 2023, the Supreme Court declined to hear further appeals.

      I’m shocked.

  • whaleross@lemmy.world
    69·
    16 days ago

    Here in Sweden we currently have the problem that hospitals are understaffed and keeping wages of nurses so low that a lot of nurses quit and leave the others with an even crazier workload so the hospitals buy nurses semi permanently from temp agencies that cost multiple times more and the rental nurses have better pay and agreements of overtime and such. We had a well functioning health care but then the privatisation of everything and selling out communally owned services to private profit making schemes since the 90s. Because our government has been dominated by right wing market liberals and “sossehöger” - social democrats that jump on right wing populism to stay in power when they can rather than being consistent in left wing ideals.

    Fucking end the market liberal experiment already. “The market solves all problems” - yeah, of it’s own interest which is how to squeeze out more profits regardless the how and how low it stoops.

      • whaleross@lemmy.world
        30·
        16 days ago

        It’s been the strategy of the right wing here since forever - get in power sell out as much they can (and for some unfathomable reason for discount prices), fuck things up in general, leave it to a left wing government to salvage what can be saved while blaming them for public service being garbage so they can motivate selling out more when they have power again. It’s a mix of blind idealists and profiteering scum that are in liaison with the right wing nationalist party with former nazi connections and obviously the Christian democrat leader that models the party according to the republicans is the most buddy-buddy with the fringe right.

        And the populist right wing of course romanticises about the good days when everyone had housing and was safe and provided and so on - that was built solely by the left and the right wing fought them every step of the way and that they have since then torn down. Blatant lies and disinformation all the way.

        But it is what people vote for. We get the societal break down we deserve.

        • Gbagginsthe3rd@aussie.zone
          5·
          15 days ago

          Whoa, I thought that just Australia was following American economics. The descent into privatisation on everything. I guess there are greedy and ignorant people everywhere. For some reason knowing Sweden is also going down the neoliberal toilet it makes me feel better and I dont know why. I guess its a feeling of inevitability.

          Reminds me of John Stewart stating that to combat vested interest takes energy and effort every single day.

          There are so many groups taking advantage of our overworked lives combined with the over abundance of useless information that distracts us from the real issues that impacts us. Its very difficult to know how and where to direct our energy. Of course thats my view as a social/environmental person. However, if you love the conservative/neoliberal view of the world. Then congratulations, things must seem pretty great right now.

        • im sorry i broke the code@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          14 days ago

          Same happens in Italy. It’s probable the govt will collapse before 2027 and they won’t campaign as much for the new elections, so the new govt will be blamed for all the problems these fuckers caused

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
      9·
      15 days ago

      EVERY instance of ‘public-private’ healthcare goes that route, touted as the wave of the future and a seamless melding of public interest and delicious capitalist pork, and then every single one of them gets drunk on the cash and goes toxic like this.

      It’s happening to Canada too. And France. And London.

    • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
      16·
      16 days ago

      To be fair, usury is much older plague than capitalism, but it’s been one of capitalism roots, and capitalism cranked it up incredibly.

    • Phineaz@feddit.org
      14·
      16 days ago

      I’d like to add that there are good versions of “microloans”! I learned that there used to be (or still are, didn’t check) non-profit " banks" in some parts of India (and South africa I think) that would give out small loans of a few dollars to a few hundred dollars (which can be quite a lot of money in India). There was no collateral and low interest, but a group of people had to apply for a loan together. Until the first loan was paid back, the rest of the group couldn’t apply again. It was meant to provide financial backing and capital to microbusinesses (e.g. fishers, farmers, peddlers) that would otherwise be excluded from the financial market due to a lack of collateral and otherwise be forced to take high-interest loans.

  • fart_pickle@lemmy.world
    36·
    16 days ago

    I cannot find the exact quote but it was something like “If you don’t grow, you’re dying”. This is the source of all enshittification. Companies are being forced by VCs to increase revenue every year to meet unreasonable revenue goals just to satisfy a handful of investors.

  • piyuv@lemmy.world
    396·
    16 days ago

    “Vote with your wallet” means more money gets you more votes.

    Some users leaving Reddit/instagram/twitter is not a problem, especially considering network effects, but some advertisers leaving is a crisis.

    • fart_pickle@lemmy.world
      194·
      16 days ago

      I think you misinterpreted the phrase. “Vote with your wallet” means that if you’re unhappy with a product/service, you stop using/paying for it.

      • piyuv@lemmy.world
        122·
        16 days ago

        So long as the capital markets were willing to continue funding loss-making future monopolists, your neighbors were going to make the choice to shop “the wrong way.” As small, local businesses lost those customers, the costs they had to charge to make up the difference would go up, making it harder and harder for you to afford to shop “the right way.”

        https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/12/give-me-convenience/

        Food for your thought.

        • fart_pickle@lemmy.world
          83·
          16 days ago

          Again, I think you are misinterpreting the phrase. The quote you provided proves it. If you’re not happy about the “right way” of buying things you can buy elsewhere, aka “vote with a wallet”. The phrase means that you pay for a product/service you are comfortable with. For example, if Amazon offers a great deal on something you’d like like to buy and the price is, let’s say, 30% lower than a regular retail price, voting with a wallet would mean that you ignore the Amazon’s deal and buy directly from a merchant.

          • InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
            2·
            16 days ago

            Are you purposefully missing the point? If the greater market is uninformed and buying inferior offering; soon that is all that will be available.

            • fart_pickle@lemmy.world
              44·
              16 days ago

              I have, but the moment I got to the Napster Wars part I realised that the article is nothing more than the “eat the rich” rant. I despise the music labels and all the crap that happened in late 90s but it’s not an excuse to go “over the law” just because you think the law is bad. I know, there were many implications of piracy that shaped the current landscape of music industry but still, just because you don’t agree with the existing law, it doesn’t mean you should “work” around it.

              Again, if you’re unhappy with record label, vote with your wallet and buy from the independent ones. The more people to vote with the wallet (in the way you misunderstood) the less power major companies will have.

              • Porcupine@lemmy.mlEnglish
                3·
                16 days ago

                it’s not an excuse to go “over the law” just because you think the law is bad… but still, just because you don’t agree with the existing law, it doesn’t mean you should “work” around it.

                Then what’s a good reason to go around the law? It’d be pointless to go around a law you do agree with.

      • Porcupine@lemmy.mlEnglish
        81·
        16 days ago

        “Vote with your wallet” means more money gets you more votes.

        This is the basic idea of capitalism. The more capital you have, the more say you have in directing the meas of production.

        Some people have so much capital, they can singlehandedly decide that thousands of people are going to work on some space launch company, for example.

    • im sorry i broke the code@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      14 days ago

      The users down here trying to teach you what it means while you know it better than them lmao.

      “Vote with your wallet” doesn’t mean “if you don’t like it don’t buy it” but if that you don’t like the new iteration of the product reason you shouldn’t buy it, thus letting the company know it wasn’t good enough and they should do better. This premise is flawed because it sounds like some democratic shit, but the only ones who can vote with their wallet are the whales that actually have % on that sweet company revenue: for the average user there is no vote because to matter it would have to scale with other consumers. Something so far unachievable because for a tiny, “loud” minority there is the clueless majority.

  • superkret@feddit.org
    312·
    16 days ago

    Today I heard Meta has laid off workers because they brought their own food for lunch instead of buying it from the company cafeteria.

    • beliquititious@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      9·
      15 days ago

      Well yes, but also no. Meta fired those folks because they were using their lunch stipend provided by meta for things other than lunch. Petty, given how much they were paying the employees, but almost certainly a breach of contract on the employee’s part.

      Meta is probably trying to do layoffs without paying layoff costs or taking the stock hit layoffs can cause. Which is still capitalist AF by any measure, lol. For fans of watching what kind of shit the oligarchy is trying now, Meta is definitely one to keep an eye on. Mark Zuckerberg has been moving very conservative very quickly lately.

  • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
    291·
    16 days ago

    A more recent example comes from the med-tech giant Abbott Labs, which used DMCA 1201 to suppress a tool that allowed people with diabetes to link their glucose monitors to their insulin pumps, in order to automatically calculate and administer doses of insulin in an “artificial pancreas.” -eff.org

    We joke about someday having to jailbreak our own organs, but we’re basically already there.

    An exoskeleton let a paralyzed man walk. Then its maker refused repairs.

    Doctors Remove Woman’s Brain Implant Against Her Will

  • PumpkinDrama@reddthat.comOP
    302·
    16 days ago

    I once read that there are some states in the U.S. where firefighters don’t put out fires in houses that don’t pay a monthly subscription.

    • LrdThndr@lemmy.world
      34·
      16 days ago

      I live in an area with a subscription fire service.

      It’s not expensive - around $200/year. And if you don’t have a subscription they still come and put out your fire or cut you out of the car or whatever needs to be done. You just get a bill for $3000/hr/apparatus that responds.

      But I still find it abhorrent. Just put it in my fucking taxes and be done with it. Jesus.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
        18·
        16 days ago

        I live in an area with a subscription fire service.

        I thought the earlier guy was doing a joke. I knew that those were a thing in the 1800’s or something, but even today?

        You just get a bill for $3000/hr/apparatus that responds.

        That’s pretty insane. So basically the firemen and ambulances are too expensive for the average citizen to use, and if you happen to be black, you probably don’t want to call the cops either.

        Great services.

        Ameeerica, fuck yeah!

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
        13·
        16 days ago

        No no. Not “since”, but “in”.

        It genuinely shocked me those still exist in the states. That’s fucking insane.

        We have a somewhat different mentality about public safety here in Finland.

  • fckreddit@lemmy.ml
    26·
    16 days ago

    My boss once said to a group of new joinees including me," Eventually you will be able to afford subscription to all the streaming services."

  • Crozekiel@lemmy.zipEnglish
    25·
    15 days ago

    Motorcycle airbag vests that will not work if you aren’t up-to-date on the subscription payments when you have a crash…

  • Meron35@lemmy.world
    23·
    15 days ago

    Hong Kong’s subway system offers fare discounts if you use the entrances/exits that require you to walk through a mall, as part of their monetisation of spaces required to access public services

  • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    21·
    16 days ago

    Some random company that sells fruits overthrowing another country’s government; it’s so ludicrous I’d say it’s too silly to be the plot of a serious movie and like no no, actually this ludicrous story is actually real.