• @aleph@lemm.ee
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    19 days ago

    Big tech companies making vast profits off of users providing data for free instead of paying workers wages in exchange for manufacturing goods is only going to deepen the disparity of wealth in society.

    What we desperately need is essentially a Digital Bill of Rights so that we can legally own our own data.

      • @umbrella@lemmy.ml
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        19 days ago

        you mean theres no infinite growth and eventually it would lead to overextracting wealth from the people? just preposterous.

        • @jaybone@lemmy.world
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          419 days ago

          It’s almost as if you could look at countries containing 1/6 of the world’s population and see where all of this is going.

    • @umbrella@lemmy.ml
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      219 days ago

      you’d have to rally everyone against the most profitable businesses right now for this to happen.

      • @aleph@lemm.ee
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        18 days ago

        Private ownership ≠ capitalism. Monopoly is a critique of free market capitalism, which naturally leads to a concentration of wealth for those who hold all the assets. Giving people ownership of their own data would help redistribute that wealth in a more equitable way.

        No, it won’t fix the underlying problem of Capitalism, but it would at least be a step in the right direction.

        • @General_Effort@lemmy.world
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          218 days ago

          Private ownership ≠ capitalism.

          Right. It’s private ownership of capital; aka the means of production. You’re saying that data should be owned because it can be used productively. That’s exactly capitalism for capitalism’s sake.

          This is a typical economically right-wing approach. There is a problem, so you just create a new kind of property and call it done. The magic of the market takes care of it, or something. I don’t understand why one would expect a different result from trying the same thing.

          • @aleph@lemm.ee
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            18 days ago

            The point of it is to redistribute wealth using the existing capitalist framework, which is a left-wing endeavour.

              • @aleph@lemm.ee
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                418 days ago

                Right, so instead of big tech companies keeping all the profits made from utilizing user data, a big chunk of it goes back into the pockets of the users themselves. Like a cooperative organization that shares profits with its workers.

                  • @aleph@lemm.ee
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                    18 days ago

                    Yes, and legislation that forces companies to pay higher wages (or in this case, royalties given back to users) is itself a form of wealth distribution that can help to reduce income inequality.

                    We can talk about the overthrow of capitalism, if you like, but that’s a whole separate issue.