17 Comments
User's avatar
Ann M's avatar
1hEdited

We shouldn’t “compete his [Elon Musk’s] market share away” - we must TAKE IT AWAY.

NATIONALIZE tech, power, infrastructure, water, post, transportation, medicine.

It was done in Western Europe following WWll (where despite neoliberalism, their citizens still enjoy better lives than in the US.)

Nationalization is the only surefire way to wrest our wealth back from the obscene midwit plutocrats that currently HAVE IT ALL

Bill Miller's avatar

Under Capitalism, money ensures that the worst people will eventually rise to the top.

Erica Etelson's avatar

Can you spell out why this is so?

Caroline F's avatar

I really believe in the efficacy of financial boycotting since these billionaires only care about money. Would it be as simple as a general strike-- everybody just stay home and put forth our demands and stay home until our demands are met? Could very well be that simple. I am not sure. If there is something being organized, I have not heard of it yet. But we have to give it about a month lead so people can organize and prepare for this kind of day. And we need an anonymous (and possibly foreign) individual to communicate about it from afar so they can't be targeted by our fascist police state. Just thinking...

Cathy Sigmon's avatar

Look up May Day Strong. https://youtu.be/RsNfSd1XlRk?si=ofK6xh5LG_Zf4MDj. They are planning a general strike, and just had a big national call last week (link above). It takes a huge amount of planning and infrastructure, please consider becoming part of that work. Also follow Indivisible, and attend the weekly call What’s The Plan. Every week the founders of Indivisible lay out the major events being planned and the strategy behind them. The link is on their home page, Indivisible.org. Dozens of thousands of people across the country join the call every week and you’ll be better informed than you could have imagined—all the calls are on YouTube and a podcast. It takes huge coalitions to manage all this work. Also No Kings Day III on March 28, which people are working to make the biggest demonstrations in American history. It’s happening, you have to look in the right places and then you can be part of it!

It will take all of us working together to bring down the oligarchs and the regime, and Corbin’s vision for what comes next is key.

Maggie's avatar

The Wildlife News has this quote which certainly sounds apt these days, doesnt it?

""At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being,

drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government

and corporations, "thus far and no further." If we do not, we shall later feel, instead

of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote,

near the end of his life, "If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behavior."

Edward Abbey had the right idea!

In my opinion, its time for the "heads" of the Democratic Party to do some repenting and THEN start making changes.

Christopher Benson's avatar

So how do we take this ship in another direction? I'm in. Tell me how. My belief is that we have to build the alternative, better world, outside the box of the broken one in which we are presently stuck. Stop going back to the same power structure to fix what it so plainly will not lift a finger to fix. Got any ideas? I do it in my own life as a self employed person who actually knows how to make stuff. So how do we retrain or re-flow all the creative potential of this massive populace of ours into something more like that? Where does it begin? I'm game. Show me the map – cause even though I'll vote for the changes I want to see, I sure don't see the path to a better world running through the ballot box. I think we have to make it ourselves.

Ashwini Sikri's avatar

Just wondering how one fights this multi headed juggernaut.

It's a frightening situation.

Most elected officials are indebted to the oligarchs

Dave Goulden's avatar

Supporting candidates who refuse to take that money is a great start. We just need more of them. Corbin is on the right track to do that.

Jessica Benjamin's avatar

The question of nationalization. Versus public option can only be discussed when we have a political party that acknowledges the problem. The issue of Musk’s government handouts may be the best way to arouse political energy as Americans love to personalize and hate him already. Taxation is not enough, but passing legislation to take back government ownership of its share of product in proportion to investment is a good start. That should be part of any progressive candidate’s platform. Simple. Educational. Easy to understand and promote. Same with any platform using gov originated technology airspace etc.

DisplayL's avatar

Will help when you launch.

G Russell-Dempsey's avatar

Corbin...the billions are the Republicans...the too rich bezos and trumps and musk's of the world who Jake the dice and stack their decks. Democrates are flawed for sure...so are you... so am I. But they are all we have, and I believe that most of them are trying to save US. So please focus full throttle on our most heartless and dangerous enemies, the ones who have been wearing us down for decades... the dirty minded fat-assed oligarchs, the rightwing globs who burn us for a two dollar bill, the Epstein acolytes who delight in hurt....Those are the guys, the real enemy. They've got the moolah. Take that away and the playing field gets a bit less slippery a little more even.

Mary's avatar

Yeah Corbin for getting on Fox news. Good on you!

Mae's avatar

There's so many truthful, needed points made here ... but maybe the one that struck me the most is, and likely only because I've spent countless hours and decades thinking about it:

"You know how many people aren’t qualified for the good jobs they’ve got? A lot."

I have SO much to say about where that comes from, but suffice to say for now: We are doing education and career choice very wrong. Eg. No education for a professional field should allow even a single student who isn't there for the love of the work, itself. And we shouldn't be asking our children what they want to be when they grow up, a very selfish question, instead we should be asking them what societal system do they want to improve and support or create and build for the betterment of both one and all.

What I fail to say well is that corrections need to happen from the inside, out, which means addressing our core values and seeking national agreement if not global. Eg. When we agree to make choices based on passion and need, not manipulation and greed, everything changes for the better and for the long-term. In this way, we can fix what's broken without having to go to war or demonize or destroy or create chaos. We can just shift priorities and watch as change happens, naturally and organically. Both sides actually want the same things, they just are both wrong in how to go about it.

Robert Magnani's avatar

Corbin - I like your ideas but as it plays out in my mind - take any topic, say Waste Management - I get lost in the execution - My county let's say is going to "takeover" waste management from the presently contracted company. It hires workers and buys trucks and appoints people to manage the effort? Where does the capital come from? (taxes?) Wouldn't it be a long haul to get folks who know how to run this? Most governments see this as a sub-contracting opportunity - right back to the people we had contracted with in the first place ... no? If you are building housing - you are going to hire carpenters, plumbers, etc to the government payroll ? You won't be tempted to just sub-contract? How does this taking-it-over and doing it yourself actually work?

Dav Cer's avatar

For example: Wall St Healthcare will NEVER be affordable

HMOs destroyed our affordable health insurance that we used to be able to buy like car insurance. I’m 75 and I remember buying inexpensive free market health insurance in the 70s. Can’t do that anymore - have to go to Medicare Advantage or Obamacare, now. More corporate chokehold on Americans. High rise buildings full of trained monkeys denying claims. United Healthcare, for example, denies over 30% of claims as routine. Check out The Rainmaker (1997 film) - Wikipedia

https://davcer.substack.com/p/wall-street-healthcare-will-never