A few drinks in, and I immediately start talking about the inevitable collapse of humanity in the hands of capitalism.

Strengthen governments? Corporations have been specifically sowing distrust in government so that they can convince voters to weaken regulations and vote against their own interests. How are corporations strengthening governments when they benefit from weak government?

Corporations benefit from Capitalist governments. Larger Capitalists benefit when it is more difficult to compete, such as with strong IP laws or high startup costs, giving them free reign for monopoly.

They also love large militaries, as the MIC makes a ton of money off the suffering of people worldwide.
A strong government could take down corporations, but it has to want to do it first.
- Ideally, the government would represent the will of the people, so all it should take is for the people to want to do it first. But... you know. That doesn't happen, else we would be living in a very different world.
The government represents the interests of the class that holds power in society, which is the capital owning class under capitalism.
They’re not weaker they’re captured. It’s a concept called inverted totalitarianism and it’s terrible.
Controlled opposition.
yeah, the corporations have been doing that, not the shitty behavior of the governments.
Regulations help to protect large corporations from competition, and then the larger the government is the more contracts it gives out. Are you saying we need a bigger stronger government?
- Regulations help protect people from corporations. This libertarian take is total nonsense. What makes competition difficult for new entrants is the overwhelming size of modern day multinational corporations and the capital investment required to wage any sort of real competition which is something that is only going to be fronted by other extremely wealthy interests. So, yes, we do need bigger, stronger governments in relation to those very powerful corporations, specifically strong enough to break them up. Or ideally nationalize them entirely.

Human beings may not be perfect but a computer program with language synthesis is hardly the answer to the world's problems.

The west, so afraid of strong government, now has no government. Only financial power. Slogans such as "governments have limited power by design" come from well-paid researchers, think tanks funded by big businesses. It's privately funded propaganda, like the Trilateral Commision in United States, for instance.

This meme's text has figures about "now" but doesn't note that it is mostly a paraphrased quote from Deus Ex, a video game set in a fictional dystopian version of America in 2052. The speaker is not in fact talking about 2024 America. But even for the past figures, I would want citations.

The first part seems to be talking about tax sources as a portion of total taxes raised, which isn't easy to search for. I did find a table that cited whitehouse.gov and recorded income collections compared to total GDP at least. It did peak in 1945, but only at 7.1%.

The US Bureau of Labor doesn't seem to have records on self-employment before 1948. The only thing I could find talking about self-employment in 1900 was a blog post that said it was 50%. 90% self-employment sounds like a lot of subsistence farming and odd-jobs work, which isn't exactly the ideal economic model.

The Deus Ex part is part of a longer conversation, but here is the relevant section:

JC Denton: Just answer the question.
Leo Gold: Don’t believe me? It’s all in the numbers. For a hundred years, there’s been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people.
JC Denton: Do you have a single fact to back that up?
Leo Gold: Number one: In 1945, corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent. Number two: in 1900, 90 percent of Americans were self-employed; now it’s about two percent.
JC Denton: So?
Leo Gold: It’s called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time.

That game gave growing up me an unrealistic expectation that ventilation systems went everywhere.

Picture is wrong, my panties would be on the floor (I'm a dude)

The remaining question is whether you have the rest of the outfit

It’s going up to 15% in January according to Biden’s new tax proposal.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/11/fact-sheet-the-presidents-budget-cuts-taxes-for-working-families-and-makes-big-corporations-and-the-wealthy-pay-their-fair-share/

Republican House:

LoL

Blue Dog Dems Everywhere:

LOL

Give me the GEP gun.

The GEP gun is the most silent way to eliminate Manderley
- Get PILLS against my orders! Get moving!

1945 is a really weird data point, because yk, WW2 was still going on, so at least for Americans, most of them were probably employed by the state or by the various enterprises that produced the weapons needed for the war effort

If we didn't pay for our forever wars with credit, I'd agree.

What a shame. He was a good man

The fact that a worker who barely makes ends meet pays 10-20 times the taxes Amazon pays is... Fascinating in a dark way.

Similar to feudal peasants that used to pay up in the form of free labor and produce, while their noble overlords enjoyed massive privileges and zero taxes.