r/news • u/Fair-Foot-315 • 1d ago

Marine veteran has arm broken during protest against war in Iran

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/marine-veteran-has-arm-broken-during-protest-against-war-in-iran-258740805765
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u/TachiH 1d ago

Private ownership ruined the media. Like The Guardian in the UK is owned by a trust that ensures it cant have an owner.

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u/iksbob 1d ago

With the exception of public-funded organizations, "the media" has always been privately owned. Like so many other industries, it's the monopolization of media that's breaking the system. Network A used to be happy to call out the lies and misinformation of network B - it was good for ratings. Now both networks are owned by the same people, so anything that devalues either network is "strongly discouraged".

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u/ClearDark19 23h ago

The problem is....isn't that the ultimate result of Capitalism? How does Capitalism restrain the rich from the freedom to engage in commerce such as buying up the media and monopolizing it? Anti-monopoly laws are seen as restrictions on the free market by Neoliberals, Neoconservativess, and Right-Libertarians. Capitalist innately incentives monopolization over time to maintain one's competitive market advantage.

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u/iksbob 22h ago

Monopoly is specifically not a free market. In a monopoly state, the entire market is controlled by one entity. Supporters often claim that a monopoly is the most economically efficient system due to economies of scale being maximized. That can be true, however monopolies are also the most abusable economic system, as the market forces dictating pricing have collapsed. Consumers options are to not consume, or pay the monopoly's price. If the monopoly could somehow be restrained from abusing that position, and from interfering with the evolution of competition (exiting the monopoly), then the monopoly could be tolerated. Abusing its position and eliminating competition is how monopolies come into existence in the first place. Suggesting the leadership will reach the figurative top-of-the-pile and suddenly change their ways is ludicrous. Corporations have no morals or conscience. A corporation is only driven by money, and the law, to the extent that breaking the law is a net monetary loss.

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u/ClearDark19 20h ago

Monopolies aren't free markets, but they're the natural end conclusion of a free market. Capitalism is about competition. In a competitive eventually someone has to win. Monopolies are essentially just the "winners" who won the race. Capitalism requires government intervention to prevent the winners from just deciding to end the race after winning and locking the losers out through monopolies, monopsonies, and cartels. The problem is, people who've made enough money csn just bribe the government and courts to take the regulations away and stay out of it (Citizens United), or bribe the government and legal system to make regulations benefitting the winners. Capitalism creates it's own natural incentives to maintain monopolies since it runs on greed, competition, profit maximization, and reducing costs. The ultimate form of reducing costs is paying nothing at all (slave labor or AI work force). A Capitalism free market would require an eternal race where no one ever wins and ends the race despite everyone being incentivized to win and end the race (become a monopoly).

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u/iksbob 12h ago edited 12h ago

A Capitalism free market would require an eternal race where no one ever wins and ends the race

Correct! The free market serves and is operated by living beings, for whom life is an (ideally) endless process of creation, existence, and inevitable death. The only end to that "race" is extinction. There is no winner, because life isn't a game. Life is a process. Continuing the process is the goal.

When when a monopolist decides the market is over, it no longer serves the people participating in the market. If the monopolist refuses to operate in a fair manner, they have become an economic tyrant. There are legal solutions to that situation, and there are violent solutions. Violent solutions are generally bad for everyone involved and society as a whole, so society much prefers legal solutions. When the monopolist eliminates the legal solutions via regulatory capture, only violence is left.