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1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 09:54:17 JST Paul Cantrell

   Social welfare programs are Good for Business, actually

   https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/06/20/lack-of-child-care-is-preventing-small-businesses-from-growing-survey-finds/

   • Embed this notice
     Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. (boydstephensmithjr@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 10:08:23 JST Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

     in reply to

     @inthehands Every social program is a way for business to externalize costs, duh. ;)

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 10:34:54 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

     @BoydStephenSmithJr
     Counterpoint: every social program is (well, should be) a way for society to externalize the costs of basic human well-being, which we •want• to be externalized.

   • Embed this notice
     Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. (boydstephensmithjr@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 10:53:43 JST Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

     in reply to

     @inthehands I don't think society can _externalize_ something to a part of it, but I also get your point that social programs are how we rebuild the commons that capitalism stole from us.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 11:09:08 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Janis

     @janisf
     Thanks to the Reformer for reporting it!

   • Embed this notice
     Janis (janisf@mstdn.social)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 11:09:09 JST Janis

     in reply to

     @inthehands Recipients have been trying to say this for decades.

     Thank you posting this.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 11:18:28 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

     @BoydStephenSmithJr
     Hmm, I suppose if we imagine society as a single entity, then no, it can’t externalize things from itself? But surely (except for hard-core Chicago School believers who think externalities don’t actually exist) societal forces can externalize some costs (i.e. separate the entity that decides to incur the cost from the entity that incurs it), and that includes the costs of human well-being.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 11:19:57 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

     @BoydStephenSmithJr
     The thought I’m getting at is that a market will naturally tend to price everything, including individual human beings, deciding that (for example) a human who requires health care to stay alive / function has less net value — and we thus want to externalize those costs because pricing human lives is morally abhorrent.

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     Boyd Stephen Smith Jr. (boydstephensmithjr@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 21-Jun-2024 22:15:51 JST Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

     in reply to

     @inthehands We can shift where/who and when costs are resolved, but it is incorrect to use the word "externalize" for all such shifts.