#capitalism

[politijohn]

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[profeminist]

“Again we have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that Capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor – both black and white, both here and abroad.”

—  MLK, “The three evils of society,” 1967

[suicidal-socialist]

You know it's the best system ever when new tech doesn't mean shorter work hours, or better salaries/quality of life, or better goods - only unemployment for the poor and gold yachts for the rich, AI being an example of that...

And of old fucks in suits with no idea what the fuck is going on being given supreme control instead of the professionals or literally anybody else. Like, have you seen those "AI to the core" LG ads?! They have NOTHING to them besides the slogan, no actual description of how anything works, or what it does, not even some bullshit imagery like "you're gonna be so cool and popular at school when everyone learns your fridge is smarter than you", JUST. THE FUCKING. SLOGAN.

AND IT'S THE DUMBEST SLOGAN, IT'S NOT EVEN THAT IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING, IT MEANS A *NEGATIVE* AMOUNT, IT MAKES YOU SO CONFUSED WITH EXISTENTIAL DREAD BECAUSE SOMEBODY CAME UP WITH IT AND APPROVED IT AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT, AND IT ALSO HAS NO SUBSTANCE OF ANY SORT, IT ACTIVELY MAKES UNDERSTANDING THE WORLD MUCH HARDER. EVEN ASSUMING THIS AI TO THE CORE ACTUALLY MEANT SOMWTHING, *WHY THE FUCK WOULD I WANT IT IN A BLOODY MOTHER FUCKING FRIDGE* FOR FUCK'S SAKE

AI under capitalism

[politijohn]

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Take down all the corporate landlords

[odinsblog]

UnitedHealth Group is charging patients a markup for key life-saving drugs that could easily exceed their cost by a factor of ten or more, according to findings from the Federal Trade Commission.

The report, which levels the same allegations at CVS and Cigna, is the latest indictment of America’s broken healthcare system and comes on the heels of last month’s shocking murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The U.S. is notorious for incurring the highest costs per capita of any wealthy nation, yet failing to achieve an even remotely equivalent improvement in patient outcomes versus Europe’s social market-based economies.

Critics argue that is due largely to the highly opaque manner in which needless markups are hidden to conceal inefficiencies that serve various vested interests. These include, but are not limited to, the big three drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

According to the FTC report, UnitedHealth’s OptumRx, along with Cigna’s Express Scripts and CVS Caremark Rx, were able to collectively pocket $7.3 billion in added revenue above cost during the five year period of the study through 2022.

“The Big 3 PBMs marked up numerous specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by thousands of percent, and many others by hundreds of percent,” it concluded.

A thousand percent increase in the price of a drug that costs $10 wholesale would result in a retail price of $110.

This markup rate applied to 22% of the specialty therapies examined, including Imatinib, a generic used to treat leukemia, or non-oncological Tadalafil for pulmonary hypertension. Others such as Lamivudine needed by HIV-positive patients were nearly quadruple the price of their acquisition cost.

Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has been conducting Congressional hearings in an attempt to shed light on the problems posed by these drug middlemen as well as drugmakers themselves.

(continue reading)

[unitedfrontvarietyhour]

China really did hit us with a cultural revolution by doing literally nothing. Seeing regular people from two geopolitical rivals do something as unprecedented as simply talk to each other is one of the few things giving me hope right now.

[suicidal-socialist]

Kickstarting the Next International by 2025 plan, aren't we? Amazing things happen whenever the dictatorship of the ruling class slips up

The only funnier case of such historical irony I can think of is Das Kapital being published in the Russian Empire because the censors thought "Almost nobody in Russia will read this book, and even fewer will understand it"

Love to see it!

Really interesting thing I glimpsed on rednote today

I think We- we’re developing international class consciousness 

[typhlonectes]

[politijohn]

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[thashining]

"if our family dies and leaves us money that they've already paid taxes on, we then have to pay taxes on what they left us, we pay taxes on our retirement, etc. We are taxed to death!"

"hold on hold on; in the US, even if you've PAID OFF YOUR MORTGAGE & OWN THE DEEDS, you still have to pay an annual tax to continue living in the house that you own outright? this is madness!"

"China Government owns strategic companies, those companies put back profits into the Chinese Treasury and money is put back to serve people. In US & SA 🇿🇦 Billionaires own companies and buy yachts"

Men 60 Women 55

[foenebsb]

My mom went to ONE of my sporting events when I was a kid. I played all four years of high school.

[unitedfrontvarietyhour]

Wonder how long it's gonna take for Xiahongshu to get banned. Go talk to your Chinese comrades while you can...

[mysharona1987]

“I voted for Trump to shake up the system.”

[molten222]

[supeskenobi]

The Macbookification of Laptops and the overall Applefication of technology will never not piss me off. Remember when phones all had their own unique design quirks? Technology has become so fucking unified in its design work that it has become boring to look at. And it's not just the devices themselves. Literally all social media sites look and feel the same. There's no uniqueness anymore. Literally the only technology that still has some semblance of uniqueness in its design work, are video game consoles. The PS5 may be the size and weight of Paddington Bear, but thank merciful fuck that it looks nothing like the XBOX Series X/S or it's predecessor.

And don't get me started on SMART technology. Fuck off.

u used to be able to put a dvd in your computer. and then u could watch it