And by "democratically controlled" I'm quite partial to sortition, based on the principle that anyone who wants public authority should never be given public authority.

I suppose one good way to clamp down on capitalist/corporate abuse is to forbid either from operating on the public commons. Anything that directly extracts natural resources or directly affects the land, water, and air--regardless of ownership--must be controlled by democratically managed systems.

“gIvE kIdS tHeIr cHiLdHoOd BaCk”

so… you mean fund recreation centres and out of school activities? NO

sports clubs and increasingly walkable cities? HAHA NO

playgrounds, green spaces, skate parks, libraries, any non-commercial spaces where kids don’t have to pay to exist? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

oh… enforce realistic safety standards for urban SUVs and light trucks? WHAT HAS THAT EVEN GOT TO DO WITH THE PRICE OF EGGS?

so how exactly does one give kids their childhood back? BAN SNAPCHAT TIKTOK AND INSTAGRAM

oh… what about 4chan or stormfront or kiwifarms? DON’T BE OBTUSE WE CAN’T BAN THOSE HOW WOULD THAT EVEN WORK??!?

Oh alright, I'll do it. (Put the info up here on mastodon/fedi so folk learn about it, that is. It's not advertising unless it comes from the dead heart of bigco region.)

In-person workshop in Philly at the end of July:

"Influence by Design is a full-day intensive with @PavelASamsonov and Sara Wachter-Boettcher designed for experienced UXers who want to stop being sidelined and start building leverage in their orgs."

Info/enroll:
https://www.throughlineconf.com/events/philadelphia-2026

Not incidentally, the railroads in the USA had one period of remarkable efficiency and restraint: During WWI, the US government created the United States Railroad Administration to take over control of all the railroads for the duration of the war. The USRA standardized locomotives and other physical plant, ended petty inter-corporate squabbles and ran the trains for the benefit of the country rather than for the corporations. They've never run as well since. To this day the lesson remains unlearned.

Having private companies build the railroads in the USA allowed the country to expand rapidly. America had thousands of miles of tracks before Europe had hundreds.

BUT, the private railroads chewed through billions in foreign investment money, trashed the countryside, built redundant facilities, competed vindictively, made ridiculous fortunes, and ultimately built a transportation system that doesn't really work well for anything except long haul containerized freight or unit trains of coal.

Because of their private origins, American railroads manifestly do not haul passengers or go fast or offer any practical alternative to the automobile (or jet).

Capitalism and the corporation go hand-in-hand. Either collapses without the other. Alexander Hamilton was the visionary who saw that and fought for the corporation in the new USA. Masses of capital are needed for big factories and railroads. The bigger question is: are big factories and railroads appropriate for private interests?

Good morning from Putin's oil refinery in Rybinsk in Russia's Yaroslavl region.

The drone appears to be an Antonov An-196 Liutyi which is Ukraine's equivalent of Iran's Shahed-136.

Have an excellent day everyone! 🇺🇦

I think the key to keeping capitalism under control is aggressive taxation. It's okay to let people and/or corporations accumulate millions, but more than, say, 100 million, should be taxed away and used for the "general welfare and the blessings of liberty."

Any infrastructure that needs more than 100 million should be done by democratic, and not autocratic, means (I'm flexible on that "100 million" number. The criterium is simple: If you can afford to buy politicians then you're too rich (which implies: if politicians lower their prices, the amount you can keep is lowered commensurately)).

@ErikUden THIS. There is no through line between "before Trump" and "after Trump." The country is broken. We're gonna need to create a new country, even if its name doesn't change.

hey, yo, if you replace all or part of your dev team with Claude, that just means Anthropic owns your code base now. over time, it will become impossible to maintain without Claude, and when Anthropic decides to start charging per token, you will not be able to go back to using human engineers, and you will not be able to switch to a competitor, because there aren't any. you will be trapped.

everyone can see this is a trap, and everyone is walking into it anyway because the bait is so good.

I'm a big fan of Kat Abughazaleh and the work she does: https://youtube.com/shorts/MaIM40oQUc0

#taxthebillionaires #taxtherich #TaxTheWealthy #taxthemtoextinction #TaxThemToTheGround

And like George Monbiot (@georgemonbiot.bsky.social) says, Neoliberalism is like an accelerant to capitalism; the opposite of constraint.

What liberals will never understand is that there is no going back. We will not return to a 'normal' America, if that ever even existed. We will get to decide between socialism and barbarism. We will run head first against the wall until we answer this question correctly.

Capitalism is like fire. Both are very powerful and effective tools for civilizational growth, but if left untamed, they can also be very destructive. Capitalism, like fire, needs to be tightly constrained and must never be allowed to dictate where, when, and how it burns.

You pass away. The money continues to pour into your estate, a million dollars a day.

Years go by. Decades.

Centuries.

Millennia.

At long last, it’s the year 4765. The last million dollars is given to your estate.

You’ve finally received a total of…

One trillion dollars.

🧵end

The years go by and the money just keeps coming. You’ve stopped trying to figure out how to spend it on yourself years ago - you own homes around the world at your favorite travel destinations.

It’s the year 2076. You’ve been given 18.2 billion dollars. You’ve eliminated extreme poverty from your entire country. You’ve improved the quality of life for millions of people. There are songs and stories written about you.

🧵/6

After a year, your entire extended family is rich. There’s no debt. No one worries about money.

Poverty has been eliminated in your community and significantly reduced in your state.

The millions just keep coming.

After ten years, you live lavishly. You’ve single-handedly eliminated poverty from your entire region. No one starves or freezes to death on the streets.

🧵5/

As the days go by, and the millions just keep coming, you want for nothing.

Each day, you reach out to neighboring communities, funding an end to their hunger/homeless problems. Within a month, no one in your state is going hungry. In two months, no one is living on the street.

🧵4/