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   HeavenlyPossum (heavenlypossum@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:38 JST HeavenlyPossum

   Capitalism must always grow. It can never stop.

   Capitalists must always seek to maximize differential profits—they have to collect *more* profits than their competitors.

   Because you can reinvest those profits in buying up more revenue generating assets, you can expand your business and grab more market share. Or, like when Microsoft bought Nokia to grab the patents Nokia held, you can invest in blocking your competitors from expanding.

   If your share of the market falls so far that you can’t make payroll or pay your creditors, you go out of business. Your capital is seized and sold off, and you become just another worker, subject to the whims and commands of capital owners.

   So capital owners in competitive markets must always try to grow at a rate faster than their competitors. If they stop, if they take a break, if the global ecosystem collapses, then so does capitalism.

   • Embed this notice
     Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:26 JST Pyperkub

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • RD

     @RD4Anarchy @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic And here's a starter on Monopolies - and realize that those excess profits are being invested, not in better products, but to create more monopolistic advantages: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042215/how-does-monopoly-contribute-market-failure.asp

   • Embed this notice
     HeavenlyPossum (heavenlypossum@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:26 JST HeavenlyPossum

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • RD
     • Pyperkub

     @pluralistic @RD4Anarchy @pyperkub

     All capitalist property is a monopoly.

     pettter repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     HeavenlyPossum (heavenlypossum@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:26 JST HeavenlyPossum

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • RD
     • Pyperkub

     @pyperkub @pluralistic @RD4Anarchy

     It’s important to understand “enshitification” in the broader context of capitalist critique. Thorstein Veblen observer a century ago that “business” (ie, capitalists) were often at odds with “industry” (ie, the people who work to materially supply society), and would often deliberately slow or “sabotage” production to maintain artificial scarcity and thus profits.

     We see this more expansively today, from copyrights and trademarks to planned obsolescence to product crippling to the deliberate destruction of oversupply. Industry works to supply us; capital restricts to profit. You cannot profit from something that is not scarce, but many things we experience as “scarce” are not organically so, like access to social media. There is no shortage of tweets.

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     RD (rd4anarchy@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:27 JST RD

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Pyperkub

     @pyperkub @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic

     It's quite simple really: if it involves a state, it's not socialism or communism.

     If it involves a state existing from, let's say around 1900 or so on, it's either a private capitalist state (like the US, or even "Nordic Socialist" states) or state capitalism (like USSR, China, Cuba, DPRK, Vietnam, etc).

     Hope this is helpful.

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     Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:27 JST Pyperkub

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • RD

     @RD4Anarchy @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic From Britannica - you are still conflating "monopoly/oligopoly" with "capitalism". The point being that what we have is NOT a free market based economy (Defn of Capitalism here), based on market principles, but rather an oligopoly based on monopolistic principles. That is what #enshittification is all about - Rent Seeking through Monopoly.

   • Embed this notice
     HeavenlyPossum (heavenlypossum@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:28 JST HeavenlyPossum

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Pyperkub

     @pyperkub @pluralistic

     Capitalism *is* the result of rules—it is inescapably the product of state violence and cannot exist without massive state interference. This *is* capitalism acting according to the rules; there is no “good” capitalism but only degrees of violence and exploitation.

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     Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:28 JST Pyperkub

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow

     @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic and socialism/communism isn't?

     Hmmm... might need to come up with some way to differentiate here...

   • Embed this notice
     HeavenlyPossum (heavenlypossum@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:29 JST HeavenlyPossum

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Pyperkub

     @pluralistic @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis@dice.camp @pyperkub

     Why would the existence of “scams” be antithetical to profit-seeking in competitive markets by capital owners?

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     Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:29 JST Pyperkub

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow

     @HeavenlyPossum @pluralistic See above- "Capitalism with good rules and referees is what's needed"

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     Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:30 JST Pyperkub

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     @HeavenlyPossum @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis @pluralistic And then realize even **THAT** scam isn't enough, and needs more scams: https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/20/continuation-fraud/

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     HeavenlyPossum (heavenlypossum@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:31 JST HeavenlyPossum

     in reply to

     • Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     I’m trying and failing to figure out what it is you’re trying to accomplish here

   • Embed this notice
     Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:31 JST Pyperkub

     in reply to

     • Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     @HeavenlyPossum @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis IMHO. mostly that you are conflating monopolists with capitalists and what passes for capitalism today is NOT capitalism, it is the opposite of what Adam Smith meant by free markets in capital and labor, and most your issues appear to be with what monopolists are doing to corrupt free markets and perform rent-seeking. Capitalism with good rules and referees is what's needed, but both have been corrupted by monopolists (and not for the first time).

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     Pyperkub (pyperkub@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:31 JST Pyperkub

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow
     • Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     @HeavenlyPossum @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis See @pluralistic 's examination of Private Equity and the Carried Interest Loophole: https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/29/writers-must-be-paid/#carried-interest

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     Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis (alexander_anotherskip_davis@dice.camp)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:36 JST Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     in reply to

     @HeavenlyPossum Sure, i mean if you can cite research to prove your point I'll look at it but really. its a pretty poor theory that only has minimal observational support. If you can prove it I'll happily use it to smush other tweets I have seen in my thread today so win-win.

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     HeavenlyPossum (heavenlypossum@kolektiva.social)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:37 JST HeavenlyPossum

     in reply to

     • Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     @Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     Wow thanks

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     Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis (alexander_anotherskip_davis@dice.camp)'s status on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2023 18:19:38 JST Alexander_Anotherskip_Davis

     in reply to

     @HeavenlyPossum Cute, but no.