If our republic is to be successful and Americans are to have decent lives, we must stop the commodification of America’s commons and turn power over life’s essentials to We The People
Another concern today is the internet, whether it should be considered part of the commons or not. Corporations have now rigged society so that we need the internet, yet government seems to have hardly any control over this essential service to date. With recent advancements in AI, corporations no longer need as many workers, so providing commons for an increasing number of useless eaters loses its significance. Once again your article has touched a nerve that exposes the weakness in our society -- greed and egoism may be the downfall of the American experiment.
Definitely part of the commons, but that makes no difference, because corporations have lied and bribed cities, states and even the federal government, to privatized the commons.
Water, utilities, sewage, garbage, roads, police, fire department, emergency services, medical centers. Corporations, including foreign corporations, suck out profits, reduce variable costs (people and maintenance) until the concern is no longer viable, then walk away or sell it back to the coverning body, who then has to raise rates and taxes to make repairs.
The same thing has happened to the internet. It has been privatized down to the local ISP.
I live on an island with about 10,000 people, and it is either satellite internet, which has its problems and is costly, or the local ISP, which offers fiber optic if you live where a cable is laid (the town) or wireless and they are freaking ridiculous $80 a month.
Before I moved to the Island I had Verizon, because it was the only provider that serviced the area, and they were even more restrictive, and limited your data and download, unless you paid $15 a gig over your allowance.
It is all a rip off, but being the eternal pessimist ,considering that our elected representatives should wear sponsor patches like NASCAR drivers (both parties) I don't hold out any hope for change. Out country has been progressing towards a neo feudalist, or if you will a fascist society for aeons, one step forward, two steps backwards.
Needed is the same vigor on the left as there is on the right, however since the media is by and large corporate, and corporations have the most to fear from social equity and control, then any attempt to really democratize our country, from sewage disposal to the internet, will be met with a hail of bullets in the form of slander, slurs, fear, and corruption paid for by think tanks and the media.
This is a great article about a huge all encompassing ailment in our quality of life. Privatization is being perpetrated by evil . Greed runs the show . We’ve had an awful taste of it so far but its destined to become even worse.
The more we tolerate this greed resulting in the wealthy owning and running our country, the uglier it gets .
We have to renovate the damage done starting w activation at the polls and protesting loudly before it becomes a criminal matter to protest .
Just as it is in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama , Mississippi etc where Republicans retain power.
Thom mentions that "Ronald Reagan’s 1983 order to the DOJ, FTC, and SEC to stop enforcing our nation’s antitrust laws". Since it was (I assume) an executive order, why would it not simply be reversed? anyone?
What you are describing, what Rand is asking for, is a neo-Feudalism, where a wealthy few (royalty) own and control everything, and the rest of us (vassals) rent and submit to their rule.
The avatar of the process is the Irish Potato Famine. There are a number of books about it, but my heart was broken many years ago by "The Great Hunger," Woodham-Smith, 1962. When an Irishman says "The Fookin' Brits" it's not without cause. I travelled in Ireland with my parents at age 10, and we began to notice the frequency of crossroads where there was a stone cross, engraved : "Paddy (so-and-so) and Michael (so-and-so)" etc. "Murdered by the English, (date)." And that was just the ones felled in battle. The English destroyed the subsistence farming "commons" to establish great "estates" for the aristocracy, and the only thing left that grew enough to keep body and soul together was potatoes. Until the potatoes failed.
You have articulated this so well Thom. If ok with you I will be sharing this with my republican family members with the hope of getting through to them.
This was partially successful Carla. One of them read it and was open to discussion, even acknowledging that Thom made some good points. The other refused to read what he termed “left wing propaganda”. So there you go. At least one was open to listen and discuss.
Thanks Karen! Yes. I have experienced the “left wing propaganda (lies)” problem several times. It seems there’s no safe way for me to approach them. But I’m happy to hear of your semi success!! It gives me hope that some of them still possess functional capacities to think about it!
It is definitely a challenge Carla. Eggshell walking is not fun at a family gathering. I hope i got through even a little. The frustrating thing is they think I’m as wrong and crazy as I think they are. That makes for much difficulty to come together for discussion and exchange of ideas
The codification of humanity is as old as slavery. It had it's enshrinement in custom and law as serfdom,
We got a temporary respite with the advent of workers rights and unionization, but we lost it when we accepted the idea of human resources.
A resource is something that is consumed in production, like coal, iron ore, fuel, oil, add to that now humans.
Think of that next time someone mentions HR department. You are nothing more than just another resource to be consumed in production.
When researching a paper on finance, for my Masters, I dug through the attic of my universities library, and came up a 1922 issue of Fortnightly. To my surprise I learned that the Soviet Union was actually a combine of seven trusts each formed along lines of resources and production. There was a trust for agriculture, a trust for timber, a trust for heavy industry, etc and each trust had it's own bank.
Trusts cleared debts with each other, first by barter, then by rubles, the clearing authority was the GoSBank, their central bank.
The incorporating charters were held in Sweden, which explains its neutrality during that period and WWII.
The trust for human resources was the KGB, it supplied human resources to mining, timber, farming, industry, construction.
Also the USSR was on a 100% gold standard, where a ruble was defined as .91853 grams fine gold.
If the gold stock went down, so did the supply of rubles, thus there was a perpetual shortage of rubles, which created a permanent depression, very few consumer goods, including bread and meat.
Producing long queues. The whole affair was conveniently excused as exigencies of the cold war, and in America as a consequence of collectivization, though collectivization of farms certainly did impact the grain supply, that and Stalins holdomor, the starvation of the Ukraine to force them to accept Bolshevism.
The USSR's need for gold was so intense that anyone caught smuggling rubles out of the Soviet Union, was subject to capital punishment.
While the average Russian could not turn in a ruble and demand gold at the GosBank, foreigners could at the NordBank in Paris. The NordBank was the Soviet Unions door to the west, it was through the NordBank, that debts were settled.
The Soviet Union settled trade debts, internally and externally, first through barter, then through rubles and failing that then, very reluctantly through gold.
Re: the health commons: let us add that the citizens of those countries are proud of their mutual care and perfectly OK with pitching in more TAXES for it!
Re: Texas grid fail, 2021: I wish "the media" had picked up on the SHAME that Americans were fleeing for their survival to (despised) Mexico. The freeze did not stop at the border, but the power outage did.
Re: education: If cost is limiting access, when do more get it that the greatness of America's future is being stifled? Who knows what talent is discouraged?
Most people have a lot in common whether they are on the right or left. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and get our food from the same land. Some persons pollute the air, water, and land and don’t eat, drink, and make merry. Those persons shouldn’t have the same rights as us.
Other countries have figured out how to keep health care costs down while covering their whole population. Is that because they are smarter, more compassionate, and more innovative than the United States? We need to hammer home that question, because we all know at our core they are NOT!
If it were not for Republican out-dated ideas, we would have led the way in health care. We have done so much for this world in this field. Isn't it ludicrous that money issues emanating from the right are holding us in last place on outcomes, when we are first place in spending. Proof positive they do not know what the hell they are doing!
THE COMMONS IS NOT RECOGNIZED AS AN ESSENTIAL CONCEPT IN THE US AFTER CENTURIES BECAUSE OTHER IDEAS & CONCEPTIONS HAVE BEEN GIVEN PREDOMINANCE IN THE CULTURE, IN LAW, IN INDUSTRY, & IN SCHOOLS. WE ARE HAVING THIS CRISIS NOW BECAUSE THE PEOPLE IN THE AGGREGATE ARE UNABLE TO EVEN THINK IN TERMS OF THE COMMON GOOD. THIS WAS THE CASE GENERATIONS BEFORE BILL BENNETT & REAGAN FOUND AN OPEN DOOR FOR THEIR MISCHIEF.
PRIVATIZATION IS A PROFOUND AND URGENT THREAT. GOVERNMENT MUST REGULATE AND OVERSEE EACH OF THE THINGS DELINEATED. SCHOOLING IS AT LEAST AS IMPOTANT AS ANY OF THE OTHER THINGS MENTIONED. PRIVATIZING SCHOOLS IS THE DEATH KNELL FOR DEMOCRACY.
HOWEVER, PRETENDING THAT TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS HAVE NOT FAILED IN THEIR OWN MISSION & IN ADVANCING AUTHENTIC EDUCATION, REFUSING TO ADMIT THAT TURNING THEIR CURRICULA OVER TO STATE CONTROL AND OFFICIAL DESIGN, & THAT REQUIRING ATTENDANCE BY LAW HAS UNDERMINED THEIR PURPOSE, IS INSANE. I REPEAT, INSANE. GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT ADMINISTER SCHOOLING BECAUSE SCHOOLS MUST NOT PROMOTE GOVERNMENT OR RISK BECOMING THE PROPAGANDA ARM OF GOVERNMENT.
THE BILLIONAIRES & THE FASCISTS CAN SELL PRIVATIZATION AS THE CURE FOR DISEASE IN EDUCATION SOLELY BECAUSE THERE IS INDEED A DISEASE IN EDUCATION. IRONICALLY, THAT DISEASE IS ARBITRARY AUTHORITY & THE AUTHORITARIANISM WHICH IT INESCAPABLY ENGENDERS. THE MESSAGES INHERENT IN TRADITIONAL SCHOOLING UNDER COMPULSORY ATTENCDANCE ARE THAT ARBITRARY AUTHORITY IS NECESSARY, COMPLIANCE & CONFORMITY ARE THE ULTIMATE GOOD, CHANGE IS THREATENING AND BAD, & THAT KNOWLEDGE IS EXTERNALLY SOURCED.
COERCION IS ANTITHETICAL TO & DESTRUCTIVE OF EDUCATION. NOTHING WILL EVER NEGATE THAT TRUTH.
To restore more affordable housing there are several steps that are necessary regarding the ownership of single-family dwellings.
Ban corporations, or businesses in any form, from owning them
Limit individual ownership to three such properties.
Prohibit foreign ownership, as these are often drug lords, or wealthy tax evaders.
Tax speculators, especially the house flippers.
Another concern today is the internet, whether it should be considered part of the commons or not. Corporations have now rigged society so that we need the internet, yet government seems to have hardly any control over this essential service to date. With recent advancements in AI, corporations no longer need as many workers, so providing commons for an increasing number of useless eaters loses its significance. Once again your article has touched a nerve that exposes the weakness in our society -- greed and egoism may be the downfall of the American experiment.
Definitely part of the commons, but that makes no difference, because corporations have lied and bribed cities, states and even the federal government, to privatized the commons.
Water, utilities, sewage, garbage, roads, police, fire department, emergency services, medical centers. Corporations, including foreign corporations, suck out profits, reduce variable costs (people and maintenance) until the concern is no longer viable, then walk away or sell it back to the coverning body, who then has to raise rates and taxes to make repairs.
The same thing has happened to the internet. It has been privatized down to the local ISP.
I live on an island with about 10,000 people, and it is either satellite internet, which has its problems and is costly, or the local ISP, which offers fiber optic if you live where a cable is laid (the town) or wireless and they are freaking ridiculous $80 a month.
Before I moved to the Island I had Verizon, because it was the only provider that serviced the area, and they were even more restrictive, and limited your data and download, unless you paid $15 a gig over your allowance.
It is all a rip off, but being the eternal pessimist ,considering that our elected representatives should wear sponsor patches like NASCAR drivers (both parties) I don't hold out any hope for change. Out country has been progressing towards a neo feudalist, or if you will a fascist society for aeons, one step forward, two steps backwards.
Needed is the same vigor on the left as there is on the right, however since the media is by and large corporate, and corporations have the most to fear from social equity and control, then any attempt to really democratize our country, from sewage disposal to the internet, will be met with a hail of bullets in the form of slander, slurs, fear, and corruption paid for by think tanks and the media.
This is a great article about a huge all encompassing ailment in our quality of life. Privatization is being perpetrated by evil . Greed runs the show . We’ve had an awful taste of it so far but its destined to become even worse.
The more we tolerate this greed resulting in the wealthy owning and running our country, the uglier it gets .
We have to renovate the damage done starting w activation at the polls and protesting loudly before it becomes a criminal matter to protest .
Just as it is in Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama , Mississippi etc where Republicans retain power.
Great way to put it: "...huge, all encompassing ailment in our quality of life." This post is a classic of Jefe Hartmann putting it all together.
Thanks Thom.
Thom mentions that "Ronald Reagan’s 1983 order to the DOJ, FTC, and SEC to stop enforcing our nation’s antitrust laws". Since it was (I assume) an executive order, why would it not simply be reversed? anyone?
What you are describing, what Rand is asking for, is a neo-Feudalism, where a wealthy few (royalty) own and control everything, and the rest of us (vassals) rent and submit to their rule.
The avatar of the process is the Irish Potato Famine. There are a number of books about it, but my heart was broken many years ago by "The Great Hunger," Woodham-Smith, 1962. When an Irishman says "The Fookin' Brits" it's not without cause. I travelled in Ireland with my parents at age 10, and we began to notice the frequency of crossroads where there was a stone cross, engraved : "Paddy (so-and-so) and Michael (so-and-so)" etc. "Murdered by the English, (date)." And that was just the ones felled in battle. The English destroyed the subsistence farming "commons" to establish great "estates" for the aristocracy, and the only thing left that grew enough to keep body and soul together was potatoes. Until the potatoes failed.
You have articulated this so well Thom. If ok with you I will be sharing this with my republican family members with the hope of getting through to them.
Of course!
@Karen RN... pssst, Friend, could you please tell me how this goes? I have family that I’m teetering on the edge with 😬
This was partially successful Carla. One of them read it and was open to discussion, even acknowledging that Thom made some good points. The other refused to read what he termed “left wing propaganda”. So there you go. At least one was open to listen and discuss.
Thanks Karen! Yes. I have experienced the “left wing propaganda (lies)” problem several times. It seems there’s no safe way for me to approach them. But I’m happy to hear of your semi success!! It gives me hope that some of them still possess functional capacities to think about it!
It is definitely a challenge Carla. Eggshell walking is not fun at a family gathering. I hope i got through even a little. The frustrating thing is they think I’m as wrong and crazy as I think they are. That makes for much difficulty to come together for discussion and exchange of ideas
Exactly the same happening here and yes it’s trying.
I will keep you posted Carla. I’m hoping to get through.
I will keep you posted Carla. I’m hoping to get through.
The codification of humanity is as old as slavery. It had it's enshrinement in custom and law as serfdom,
We got a temporary respite with the advent of workers rights and unionization, but we lost it when we accepted the idea of human resources.
A resource is something that is consumed in production, like coal, iron ore, fuel, oil, add to that now humans.
Think of that next time someone mentions HR department. You are nothing more than just another resource to be consumed in production.
When researching a paper on finance, for my Masters, I dug through the attic of my universities library, and came up a 1922 issue of Fortnightly. To my surprise I learned that the Soviet Union was actually a combine of seven trusts each formed along lines of resources and production. There was a trust for agriculture, a trust for timber, a trust for heavy industry, etc and each trust had it's own bank.
Trusts cleared debts with each other, first by barter, then by rubles, the clearing authority was the GoSBank, their central bank.
The incorporating charters were held in Sweden, which explains its neutrality during that period and WWII.
The trust for human resources was the KGB, it supplied human resources to mining, timber, farming, industry, construction.
Also the USSR was on a 100% gold standard, where a ruble was defined as .91853 grams fine gold.
If the gold stock went down, so did the supply of rubles, thus there was a perpetual shortage of rubles, which created a permanent depression, very few consumer goods, including bread and meat.
Producing long queues. The whole affair was conveniently excused as exigencies of the cold war, and in America as a consequence of collectivization, though collectivization of farms certainly did impact the grain supply, that and Stalins holdomor, the starvation of the Ukraine to force them to accept Bolshevism.
The USSR's need for gold was so intense that anyone caught smuggling rubles out of the Soviet Union, was subject to capital punishment.
While the average Russian could not turn in a ruble and demand gold at the GosBank, foreigners could at the NordBank in Paris. The NordBank was the Soviet Unions door to the west, it was through the NordBank, that debts were settled.
The Soviet Union settled trade debts, internally and externally, first through barter, then through rubles and failing that then, very reluctantly through gold.
Re: the health commons: let us add that the citizens of those countries are proud of their mutual care and perfectly OK with pitching in more TAXES for it!
Re: Texas grid fail, 2021: I wish "the media" had picked up on the SHAME that Americans were fleeing for their survival to (despised) Mexico. The freeze did not stop at the border, but the power outage did.
Re: education: If cost is limiting access, when do more get it that the greatness of America's future is being stifled? Who knows what talent is discouraged?
"we must push back" -- How?
Isn't it ironic that the thing that finally penetrates complacency across a panorama of issues is one Supreme Court decision on abortion rights.
Most people have a lot in common whether they are on the right or left. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and get our food from the same land. Some persons pollute the air, water, and land and don’t eat, drink, and make merry. Those persons shouldn’t have the same rights as us.
The government is us. Corporations are not us.
Other countries have figured out how to keep health care costs down while covering their whole population. Is that because they are smarter, more compassionate, and more innovative than the United States? We need to hammer home that question, because we all know at our core they are NOT!
If it were not for Republican out-dated ideas, we would have led the way in health care. We have done so much for this world in this field. Isn't it ludicrous that money issues emanating from the right are holding us in last place on outcomes, when we are first place in spending. Proof positive they do not know what the hell they are doing!
THE COMMONS IS NOT RECOGNIZED AS AN ESSENTIAL CONCEPT IN THE US AFTER CENTURIES BECAUSE OTHER IDEAS & CONCEPTIONS HAVE BEEN GIVEN PREDOMINANCE IN THE CULTURE, IN LAW, IN INDUSTRY, & IN SCHOOLS. WE ARE HAVING THIS CRISIS NOW BECAUSE THE PEOPLE IN THE AGGREGATE ARE UNABLE TO EVEN THINK IN TERMS OF THE COMMON GOOD. THIS WAS THE CASE GENERATIONS BEFORE BILL BENNETT & REAGAN FOUND AN OPEN DOOR FOR THEIR MISCHIEF.
PRIVATIZATION IS A PROFOUND AND URGENT THREAT. GOVERNMENT MUST REGULATE AND OVERSEE EACH OF THE THINGS DELINEATED. SCHOOLING IS AT LEAST AS IMPOTANT AS ANY OF THE OTHER THINGS MENTIONED. PRIVATIZING SCHOOLS IS THE DEATH KNELL FOR DEMOCRACY.
HOWEVER, PRETENDING THAT TRADITIONAL SCHOOLS HAVE NOT FAILED IN THEIR OWN MISSION & IN ADVANCING AUTHENTIC EDUCATION, REFUSING TO ADMIT THAT TURNING THEIR CURRICULA OVER TO STATE CONTROL AND OFFICIAL DESIGN, & THAT REQUIRING ATTENDANCE BY LAW HAS UNDERMINED THEIR PURPOSE, IS INSANE. I REPEAT, INSANE. GOVERNMENT SHOULD NOT ADMINISTER SCHOOLING BECAUSE SCHOOLS MUST NOT PROMOTE GOVERNMENT OR RISK BECOMING THE PROPAGANDA ARM OF GOVERNMENT.
THE BILLIONAIRES & THE FASCISTS CAN SELL PRIVATIZATION AS THE CURE FOR DISEASE IN EDUCATION SOLELY BECAUSE THERE IS INDEED A DISEASE IN EDUCATION. IRONICALLY, THAT DISEASE IS ARBITRARY AUTHORITY & THE AUTHORITARIANISM WHICH IT INESCAPABLY ENGENDERS. THE MESSAGES INHERENT IN TRADITIONAL SCHOOLING UNDER COMPULSORY ATTENCDANCE ARE THAT ARBITRARY AUTHORITY IS NECESSARY, COMPLIANCE & CONFORMITY ARE THE ULTIMATE GOOD, CHANGE IS THREATENING AND BAD, & THAT KNOWLEDGE IS EXTERNALLY SOURCED.
COERCION IS ANTITHETICAL TO & DESTRUCTIVE OF EDUCATION. NOTHING WILL EVER NEGATE THAT TRUTH.