Previously, I wrote 10 Substack episodes, “Digital Direct Democracy”, to update the Amazon Kindle ebook published in early 2023. This post begins a series of potential DDD applications.
Could you include a larger 'Evolution of Democracy' graphic, Gene, the text is a little too small here.
I was 100% on board for defunding CBC and stopping government media subsidies. . . but then I thought: it's largely corporate interests driving the government media agenda, so if we had strictly corporate funded media, the problem could be just as bad, if not worse. It's hard to imagine CBC getting worse of course, but I suspect everything on a new Canadian Broadcasting 'Company,' would be entirely "Brought to you by Pfizer!"
Government subsidies are granted by government officials and approved by elected representatives. If the laws changed that “corporate welfare” using tax dollars and public debt was illegal, the corporate lobby groups would have nothing for which to lobby. Ultimately, pbv ppl control the purse strings.
For sure. This is a problem to be attacked on different fronts.
'Corporate welfare' is a massive problem (and it will only increase in the 'Stakeholder Capitalism' / 'Public-Private Partnership' world. The worst of all is corporate welfare for commercial banks. They are subsidized in many ways (being mostly 'too-big-to-fail'), and this is rarely questioned. The ways they are subsidized (and back-stopped), let me count the ways:
1. Bail-outs (everyone is onto this, but will always support for fear of the alternative).
2. Threat of Bail-ins (that people don't understand as they've not been used here - yet)
3. Central bank reserves created out of thin air to back deposits (of bank created money)
4. Interest paid on bank reserves at BoC (but not on 'our' government reserves).
5. Mere slaps on the wrist for money laundering and other systemic criminal activities.
6. All of the inflation we experience as a result of supporting this crooked system.
I will have to dig deeper into some of this in my own Substack. Great work you're doing, Gene.
Could you include a larger 'Evolution of Democracy' graphic, Gene, the text is a little too small here.
I was 100% on board for defunding CBC and stopping government media subsidies. . . but then I thought: it's largely corporate interests driving the government media agenda, so if we had strictly corporate funded media, the problem could be just as bad, if not worse. It's hard to imagine CBC getting worse of course, but I suspect everything on a new Canadian Broadcasting 'Company,' would be entirely "Brought to you by Pfizer!"
Government subsidies are granted by government officials and approved by elected representatives. If the laws changed that “corporate welfare” using tax dollars and public debt was illegal, the corporate lobby groups would have nothing for which to lobby. Ultimately, pbv ppl control the purse strings.
For sure. This is a problem to be attacked on different fronts.
'Corporate welfare' is a massive problem (and it will only increase in the 'Stakeholder Capitalism' / 'Public-Private Partnership' world. The worst of all is corporate welfare for commercial banks. They are subsidized in many ways (being mostly 'too-big-to-fail'), and this is rarely questioned. The ways they are subsidized (and back-stopped), let me count the ways:
1. Bail-outs (everyone is onto this, but will always support for fear of the alternative).
2. Threat of Bail-ins (that people don't understand as they've not been used here - yet)
3. Central bank reserves created out of thin air to back deposits (of bank created money)
4. Interest paid on bank reserves at BoC (but not on 'our' government reserves).
5. Mere slaps on the wrist for money laundering and other systemic criminal activities.
6. All of the inflation we experience as a result of supporting this crooked system.
I will have to dig deeper into some of this in my own Substack. Great work you're doing, Gene.