Steve StrezaFacebook/Meta laid off 11,000 people and now is doing 40 BILLION in stock buybacks. None of these companies care about cost cutting, they saw an opportunity to suppress wages without any criticism and they took it. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/facebook-parent-meta-announces-40-billion-stock-buyback.html
Dynomoose@stevestreza billionaires aren’t human and don’t deserve to be treated as such.
Zlasha@Dynomoose @stevestreza fuck that. Of course they are human. Just take away the money they have taken from society. Human rights are unconditional. Stop dehumanising humans. fuck that.
Mordko@zlasha “taken from society” = earned, at least in the case of FB founders. FB is quite useful to millions of people. @Dynomoose @stevestreza
@stevestreza @Dynomoose @Mordko
Yes, however, it has grown to a degree where it fulfilled a function that could be considered public (information) infrastructure. Profiting from the network and lock-in effects of a centralized information platform is one thing. Using this to earn unethical wealth can be discussed as legitimate or not. With everything we have learned about Cambridge Analytica and the POTUS election 2016, it doesn’t stop at earning money.
Yes, however, it has grown to a degree where it fulfilled a function that could be considered public (information) infrastructure. Profiting from the network and lock-in effects of a centralized information platform is one thing. Using this to earn unethical wealth can be discussed as legitimate or not. With everything we have learned about Cambridge Analytica and the POTUS election 2016, it doesn’t stop at earning money.
@zlasha Cambridge Analytica data scandal was exposed and courts looked into it. We are a civilized society. We have laws. All companies provide public services to make profit. Otherwise they go bankrupt as useless (as Twitter hopefully will). Confiscation is the kind of practice used in uncivilized societies like USSR.
@stevestreza @Dynomoose @Mordko All companies provide public services to make profit, but… infrastructure is a service of a different kind. Compare health infrastructure that is optimised on profit (USA) with one that isn’t (Europe). (Or compare a private railway (UK) with a public one (Germany)). Usually infrastructure’s profit (at least partly) is also a social one. Optimisation on shareholder value comes at a price for social profit.
@zlasha my experience is in Canada (private healthcare banned), UK (both private and NHS) and USSr (public). UK has the best; USSR was the worst. Private absolutely has a role. My US colleagues seem wuite happy. @stevestreza @Dynomoose
@Mordko @Dynomoose @stevestreza What criteria do you use for measuring the quality of the healthcare system? Is it private profit only? Or would you check for total/average coverage of employed or even the minimal coverage for unemployed? This is the point I tried to make. FB optimised their services for private profit. Public interest (i.e. privacy) is ignored - thinking of the Texas antitrust lawsuit allegations against FB and Google wrt msg encryption.
@zlasha my neighbour had breast cancer. Apparently 2 types, 1 needs to be operated on asap. In Ontario 3 months wait for diagnostics. She had to go to US and pay. So paid twice (once via taxes in Canada). And travelling, wasn’t nice under circumstances. My son had similar problem with his knee. Months of waiting just to see specialist. And then rescheduled, meant he had to change flight. Thats my measure.
@Dynomoose @stevestreza
@Dynomoose @stevestreza
@Mordko @Dynomoose @stevestreza
So your answer is: a healthcare system’s performance is measured by your (familiy’s) individual treatment.
Sure one can say, just ignore all the other‘s that have to wait for that same treatment, cause they don’t have the means - they could have saved some money to prepare for that OR … one could say that the system should be improved for everybody, maybe by reducing the the financial benefit at the favour of a social one.
@zlasha yes, I take stock of personal experience in evaluating system effectiveness, although my neighbour wasn’t “family”. And having lived in 3 countries, I can compare. In general, remote communities in Canada suffer even more from poor healthcare service. Everyone pays taxes but quality of service is a postcode lottery. Its unfair system as well as bad.
@Dynomoose @stevestreza
@Dynomoose @stevestreza
@zlasha @Dynomoose @stevestreza still better healthcare than the socialist USSR though. Taxes generated from profits paid by capitalist economy help to fund far better overall standards than the socialist economy did. And Canadian post code lottery is less unfair than the Soviet socialist system where communists had massive healthcare privileges because it was government run and they represented government.