Today's PSA: (because, apparently, this is shocking to people). It's OK for corporations to make less money. It's OK for shareholders to receive less value.

No, they don't have to raise prices on their consumers. No, they don't have to cut wages or benefits. They're choosing to.

If your perpetually ascending profit model only works because you exploit your labor, then your profit model deserves no sympathy, fretting, or hand-wringing.

You can, and should, make less profit.

I had some thoughts about @nilay_patel's interview with Substack's Chris Best.

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/14/substack-ceo-chris-best-doesnt-realize-hes-just-become-the-nazi-bar/

"And so I think that there’s just a profound uncertainty to life right now, and that this is one of them. And it has some pieces of uncertainties that we’re familiar with. However, it’s also the case that automated technologies are quite literally made by us. And while they can have generative velocity, it’s not the case that they necessarily have to be unleashed and unknown to us. That’s a choice."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-alondra-nelson.html

Tennessee has forcibly removed two of three elected Democrat officials simply because those officials wanted to protect children from unmitigated gun violence

The chamber vote was 72 to 25. Other red states will follow.

In fact, Florida has already made efforts to remove *all* Democrats from future ballots

Republicans are still in the middle of a coup attempt