• aleph@lemm.ee
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      5 months 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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        5 months 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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          5 months ago

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

          • General_Effort@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            But it doesn’t redistribute wealth. To do that, you have to take wealth from somewhere and spread it elsewhere.

            • aleph@lemm.ee
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              5 months 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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                  5 months 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.

                  • General_Effort@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    You want to force people (not just companies) to pay for use of a new kind of intellectual property. That is capital income. You want money to go to property owners.

                    If you think about this for a second, you should realize that this means lower wages. If a bigger share goes to property owners, then employees must have a smaller share. The money can’t come from anywhere else.

                  • General_Effort@lemmy.world
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                    5 months ago

                    I thought of something that maybe gets this across. Think about roads. We all pay for them with taxes. Companies use these roads for free to make a profit. EG Amazon runs delivery vehicles on public roads.

                    The (center-)left take on that is: “You didn’t build that.” It can be an argument for progressive taxation and even a wealth tax.

                    Then there’s people who say that we should privatize all the roads. Let Amazon pay a toll for using those roads. Is it clear that this is a conservative policy?