"capitalism"
what it is: capital+ism. the investors call the shots
what normies hear when you say the word: free market. buyers - of the company's product, not its "equity" - call the shots
the more times someone wearies themselves re-debunking that myth, the more people there are who will have learned that distinction for the first time
@celesteh @carcinopithecus
Are you aware of the history of the term? Because this is where it gets convoluted
@anarchiv @carcinopithecus go on, please
@celesteh @carcinopithecus
Okay so the caveat is I can't point to a specific source on this one so take it with a grain of salt, but what I've learned it that the term "consumerism" has originally been coined as a strategy (customer control of the market, putting pressure on companies, boycotts, you know the drill) and only later became a category of critical analysis where it had strongly negative connotations
@carcinopithecus I wish investors called the shots.
In reality, it's the creditors that call the shots. In any typical corporation, whoever is owed money gets first crack at the profits. Should the company fail, it's the creditors (not the investors) who seize the assets.
Afterwards, it's the preferred shareholders who, because of legal reasons, get compensated.
Finally, it's the common shareholders. They get whatever's left (if any).
This is why co-ops need to be a thing.
@midway @atomicpoet i'll admit i used the term loosely
but it's the same fundamental deal
something powerful lends you some power
and expects something later down the line
and that's how it owns you
@midway @atomicpoet "if it floats, flies, fights or forbids, rent don't own"
@midway @atomicpoet that was the expression played on
(though of course governments fuck people over too)
@midway @carcinopithecus Sure, co-ops don't change the nature of debt. What they do change is the nature of equity.
@carcinopithecus
I never realised until this .moment just how insidious "consumerism" is. 🙀😾