Absolutely — well put.

I mean, I’d say you were right, but it lasted just as long as the republic (around 500 years each) if you count up to the fall of the Western empire, and much longer if you count to the end of Byzantium (around 1500 years).

The height of the republican period was arguably some of the “best” times (though the ages of the Augustans and Aquinines were right up there), sure. But it quickly fell to oligarchy.

Democracies/republics are by far the most unstable forms of government historically. Which is why we have to be supremely vigilant to attacks on our system.

Right?

Their marketing has been trash for years and they still don’t understand why the brand is dying.

Sacrifice all earthly pleasures and get to go hang out in a place that sounds like your elderly wealthy grandmother’s house where the furniture isn’t for sitting— with your elderly grandmother, your pastor, and Susan from accounting who wears a cross and a Maga hat.

Or like.. enjoy your life, then die and go hang out with Tumblr users?

Tough choice there.

As much as I hate to say it, (because he was a much better man) Trump’s trajectory probably follows the career of Julius Caesar more than anyone else in history. Underdog politician from a powerful family that creates a populist cult of personality to subvert established law and precedent, eventually leading to the fall of the Roman Republic into an (admittedly successful) autocracy. This happened when Caesar took Rome with a Roman army because -here’s the clincher- he didn’t want to be prosecuted/arrested.

I accidentally doxed myself by just saying the company I work for (a multi-national corporation) combined with the fact that I was going to law school. A coworker called me out the next day.

Apparently I sound like myself in my writing.

We haven’t done all that great, honestly. Let ‘em’ have a shot.

Do you think like, after the bars close they might have a moment of realization?

Looking around at each other like.. wait… guys..

Change all of the other factors. Make it a barbecue with everyone I love and my favorite food. I still don’t want to go.

I also get what you’re saying, but if the regulation were working, we wouldn’t have the gap that we do.

I’m not saying that CEOs shouldn’t make exponentially more than their employees — I’m saying that we need to make our system more competitive. It truly isn’t anymore.

I’m totally willing to let the market set things like prices when these companies have re-entered the market. If they are more accountable to shareholders than the public -with the government to back them up if things go wrong- have they not effectively left it?

Look at lobbying efforts. Look at Supreme Court cases. Look at the things that are actually being done. Money in politics is ruining everything and we are allowing it to happen. We know that when capitalist systems mature they become oligopolic and we are not doing enough to stop it.

I truly trace a lot of this back to court cases like Citizen’s United v FEC, which allowed corporations to be treated as natural citizens when it come to things like political expenditures (which do differ from contributions) and allowed for more channels for dark money donations. In the words of Yale Constitutional Law Professor Robert Post in his 2013 book, “the value of democratic legitimation belongs to people, not to things”. And, truly, our system of deciding whether a merger would violate anti-trust laws is outdated. The HHI ratio in today’s globalized world truly does not work with how vast and interconnected everything is.

If you look at personal income distribution (not household) of Americans making more than $1 per hour, well over 60% of the working population makes less than $50,000 per year. Saying that these people should all get better jobs overlooks that this js what these jobs pay. They do so because it appeases the shareholders. And for most of these companies there’s another layer under US workers — there’s whatever heinous exploitation they’re using in the developing world for component parts. Look at fishing in Thailand if you want to be sick.

What I’m saying is that you would be right if the model was working. If we were living in a market in which consumers were still truly steering things with their dollars, there was absolutely no way for the shareholders that sit on the vast majority of companies to collude, and we, as a society, were to realize that one of the primary tenants of capitalism is that some things must fail, you would be 100%, inarguably correct.

But the only way it can exist the way it does, with CEOs and shareholder profits booming in away that no one has ever seen -and quickly diverting the overwhelming majority of wealth into too few hands— is by using the oligopolic model to remove itself from accountability and exploit everyone on the way down, from the enslaved miners in the DRC to the American worker.

If everyone were getting paid correctly the CEO’s pay would be lower by necessity. Company profit would not be as high. This is not a bad thing for the average American.

And whatever you think about regulation, if you truly think a company that is a top five shareholder in, for example, 7 out of the 10 tobacco manufacturers worldwide — doesn’t have some outsized sway and doesn’t also have some incentive to make everyone toe the line. Well, you have significantly more faith in human nature than I do.

And yes, I’m aware some companies actually are “too big to fail” — but in doing so, haven’t we essentially made them state entities? Or is it us that’s owned by them?

Edited to Add: we’re at the point when the Roman senate was facing down Gaius Marius and Julius Caesar and digging their heels in. We’re at the point when Louis XV was catastrophically refusing to respond to events in France.

We’ve forgotten for the 1000th time that if you don’t take care of the peasants — they revolt. Often in the form of populists cults of personality like those surrounding the aforementioned Julius Caesar and the likes of the brutal Maximillian Robespierre.

It goes like this- Massive wealth consolidation at the top of the socioeconomic ladder, over time, leads to unrest and popular uprising that attack and subsequently destroy political systems.

There is a big neon “you are here” sign over some of the worst parts of history, and we are ignoring it again.

But the model itself is wrong.

We’ve allowed our economy to become one of almost solely oligopolic competition within our capitalist system. Firms are too big and this allows them sufficiently extended sway on the system (through collusion), raising prices, devaluing labor, and essentially making things terrible for the consumer and the worker. Economics textbooks are flat out admitting this is where we are - not that we live in an oligarchy, but that the model in the vast majority of industries today within our system are oligopolic.

Does CEO pay in the current system make sense? Of course — but those CEOs are not good for the nation. They are good for the shareholder and the company’s profit- which is neither the worker or the consumer. In a truly competitive model companies respond to the customer. Today that has become the shareholder. It is not the same thing.

The fact that investment management companies are the top five shareholders at the vast majority of corporations (and control more wealth than the GDP of the entire world in 2024 -113 billion vs 104 billion) further undercuts that already fragile competition. It is good for “everyone” if prices are high and labor costs are rock-bottom. And we see the effects everywhere.

Im not sure why I jumped in here because I’m not even sure I agree with taxing the wealthy “extra” I just want them not to be able to get out of paying their fair share. And I understand the point you’re making about CEOs in the system as it exists — just like I understand athlete pay. But we are focusing on the wrong things, and we do have to fix this or it will destroy us just like wealth gaps have helped to crush empires throughout history (from the collapse of the Bronze Age through the fall of the Roman Republic and on to the French Revolution, with 1000 stopoffs in between)— this requires removing wealth from politics, though, not necessarily destroying it completely.

Edit:word

The dynamics of this are something more people should know. Thank you for sharing it.

I…

Kinda just like saying “subjugate me” in Iran, isn’t it?

As an Iranian woman you can’t even dance in public.

I’m not at all saying it’s wrong and it seems to be one of the only truly progressive things the post-revolution nation has accomplished, but, like… if I had the choice to pretend to be a man in Iran I feel like I’d take it.

That’s my take on it too. Many of these people have essentially ruined their lives- destroyed both personal and business relationships, spent countless amounts of money on merch and go-fund-mes, and became raving lunatics.

Everyone who is still on board has to stay there. The only saving grace, in their own minds, is to be right.

Yeah, I feel like Dr. Boba Fett isn’t going to be making an appearance on any scene.. ever

There’s speculation that he slept with both of his sisters, and when the younger, who he was super close to, died, he completely went insane.

Do not bang Caligula!! For one, he was like 18. For two he was into some nasty stuff and would likely kill you later.

When in Rome, bang.. I dunno.. Augustus or Trajan.

I just woke up and read this as incarcerates…

Where do the hand cuffs come in!?

This is why I highly recommend books like “Surrounded by Idiots” to other introverts— though if you’re like me you’ll have to listen on 1.5x to an audiobook and the tone (condescending) will probably still annoy you.

But it gives really good helpful tricks for how to get people to like you in as few words as possible. I want to talk exactly never, but I still want to be successful and being successful absolutely requires playing politics, whatever form.

Edit: sentence clarification

Killed by several accidents got me —

“Well, first the house was struck by lightening. Then there was an earthquake. Then a fire. Then a stampede.”

“So what killed him?”

“Well, there wasn’t much left of him to tell you the truth…”

“I’ll take the lamps-“

“I DEMAND SHE BE GIVEN THE LAMPS AND THE CREDENZA!”

I’ve known a couple of dealers like this. One was just weed but the other was definitely into some harder stuff. The latter was selling out of an upscale lounge with kind of the tacit knowledge of the ownership.

But they let him keep operating because he was a nice guy that brought in a lot of business and always kept his clients in line. He would correct them if they were speaking improperly to female customers, etc.

I went to the place for a solid year before I realized what he was doing.

I am not saying this would be an excuse if this was the case —she needs to listen to you regardless- but has she ever communicated with you in any way about the way you communicate?

One of the biggest issues I have with my boyfriend is that he’s a talker and I’m not. And he constantly talks about things I have no interest in at all. There is one specific subject that he is absolutely enthralled with and can and will talk about for hours a day. It’s also a popular subject, so it’s not like he can’t find anyone to talk about it with.

He cannot stop talking about it. And once again, this is hours everyday. He will literally interrupt me with something I’m interested in to tell me something about the subject. I’ve asked him, very calmly, if he could please just tone it down a bit because though I love him and want him to be excited, it would be like me shouting at him about modern slavery (my niche interest) literally all of the time. I’m not saying don’t talk about it— just give me a bit of a break sometimes. I’ve had days where I’ve fantasized about just going one whole day -or maybe 12 hours- without hearing about the subject.

He can’t do it though. It’s not who he is. He gets excited and needs to talk. And more and more I find myself tuning it out. It starts when he starts talking about the subject, but then sometimes I miss other things too.

Like I said, no excuse— I feel bad about it and am actively working on it. But it is a potential explanation.

Or believed him, probably.

I can just imagine him bringing home his straight-a report cards.

His Mom: “Oh honey, that’s so nice! It’s great that because of the accommodations you’re getting, and because everyone is so understanding, you might just get the chance to succeed — despite the fact that you’re irreparably broken.”

Edit: a word

Whoever is downvoting all of this might be the absolute pinnacle of accidental dry comedy.

What point is it that you’re trying to make, because the message is completely unclear… ? I’m not sure who you even support.

I find it absolutely hysterical that you’re being downvoted — and now I probably will be too.

If people aren’t getting this level of sarcasm without a /s… I… don’t even have a response

Or are there just more secret Trump supporters on here than I thought?