@drrimmer Yes, definitely a concern.

@alterelefant @Em0nM4stodon I focus on the authenticity of the face-to-face interaction, at least till AI makes robots that can fake that, a bit of a while away. In Sydney, Australia, I participate in the local speaker's corner: https://soapboxspeakers.wordpress.com/

@DropBear @Bot4Sale @crouton There's more to keep the world going than people doing creative things. There's the people who collect the garbage, run the sewer system, and even the water and electricity supply. Then there's somewhat more mundanely, the people who privately run green grocers. Yes, the creative part of the economy gets a lot of attention, but I think that's more of an accident. I do believe financial incentives can prompt some good outcomes for society, while for sure there are other incentives - the desire to be recognised, the desire to contribute, the desire to be ethical, the desire to avoid criminal legal consequences - but that's doesn't make null and void the financial incentive. I do in fact believe in guaranteed minimum income, so people have more options to pursue creative things - but that does not mean I ignore financial incentives along the way. I wrote on GMI ( UBI variant ) here : https://www.neweconomy.org.au/journal/issues/vol2/iss3/the-case-for-a-guaranteed-basic-income/

@DropBear @Bot4Sale @crouton The problem is that the creativity prompted by capitalism can be ethical, dodgy or criminal. "Gaming the system" can be more profitable than doing the right thing, and that's more often what we see. For sure though, capitalism can prompt creativity we benefit from - it's just that is not necessarily the case, and it is wrong to presume it what will usually happen.

@Bot4Sale @DropBear @crouton Well, OK you have a point at state government and higher levels, but at local government, it is a bit more subtle. The majority of the players are people in small - and larger - businesses. Large businesses tend to operate at state government and higher level. There's very few "regular citizens" at that level. There's "activists" and "lefty party members" but not really regular people. Now, a good number of those small business people seem like decent people. It's not like they're organised into a "vested interested" ( apart from developers), but you can certainly see a lack of balance.

@Spoon Please don't apologise for perhaps "intruding", I don't think anyone owns the discussion.

@DropBear @Bot4Sale Churchill's approach is a false dichotomy - as though there's only one form of democracy, and it is all or nothing. We can think of dramatic improvements in something we continue to call "democracy".