@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

tokensane

@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk

Married, software dev, geek, science fiction fan, Linux user. searchable.

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tokensane, to random
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

In the UK we have student protests, but the riot police are conspicuously absent.

BBC News - Inside 'peaceful and proud' Gaza protest camp at a UK university - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw0v8d805ypo

ChrisMayLA6, to cooperatives
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

When I was assembling my last book (Corporations: A research agenda), I became quite interested in Mondragon in Spain as an alternative way of organising businesses (and featured them in the book).

Somehow I missed this recent profile on the Spanish Cooperative conglomerate. It make for an interesting read when we are told there is no other way of running firms in capitalism.... because clearly there is!


https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/24/in-the-us-they-think-were-communists-the-70000-workers-showing-the-world-another-way-to-earn-a-living

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @ChrisMayLA6
"can be financed with conventional financing": how is that going to work? I can see a bank lending against assets, but you won't get far without equity financing too. How does that work?

Speaking as an individual, I would not want to invest significant money in my employer or have my employer also be a big chunk of my equity: if things go south, I'd be taking a double whammy.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @ChrisMayLA6 Banks generally want loans to be backed by an asset they can sell. A limited claim on future profits sounds to them like the worst of both worlds.

Having said that, you might look at Islamic finance for ideas. Simple interest-bearing loans are haram (forbidden), so they have a lot of alternative structures.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @ChrisMayLA6
What's in it for the guarantor?

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @ChrisMayLA6 So where does it get its capital from?

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @ChrisMayLA6 Yes, but the guarantor is going to need something similar to a bank. I'm getting the feeling that there is a big money-shaped hole in all this.

tokensane, to random
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

George Monbiot (who I think is @georgemonbiot) has written about a local conspiracy theorist. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/may/04/youre-going-to-call-me-a-holocaust-denier-now-are-you-george-monbiot-comes-face-to-face-with-his-local-conspiracy-theorist

Its a disturbing read. Anyone who pays attention to politics will have opinions on which bits of media are systematically misleading us and why so many people swallow their line. So where does that become a conspiracist fantasy?

Hats off to Monbiot: I couldn't have stayed focussed on what this guy said: I'd have given in to the temptation to argue.

GottaLaff, to random
@GottaLaff@mastodon.social avatar

Via Weissmann, 1/…

Where are we and what is left in the ?

-The DA must prove Trump made or caused making knowingly false business records with intent to further or conceal another crime, such as state campaign law.

-so far, they have adduced evidence of intent to conceal another crime, and with Hicks, that at least at the time he reimbursed Cohen (if not before), he was aware of the hush money scheme.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@GottaLaff So what was the predicate crime? I still haven't seen someone say (though I might have missed it). Or does a general intent to conceal out of a fear that there might be a law count?

joyce, to random
@joyce@hcommons.social avatar

Good morning!

It's May 4, and like every year I have conflicting emotions about this day. On the one hand, I'd love to get fully into the spirit of Star Wars Day and May the Fourth Be With You. On the other hand, this is the 54th anniversary of the day the Ohio National Guard opened fire on student protesters, killing four.

I remember that day vividly, even after all these years.

I've been thinking about May 4, 1970 a lot recently, as I watch the student protesters tear gassed and brutalized by the police and right-wing counter-protesters, as we were, see them misrepresented and lied about in the media, as we were, and pray that none will be murdered as students were at Kent State in Ohio and, a week later, at Jackson State in Mississippi.

I will spend today remembering.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@joyce
If it helps, I've had some conversations with an ex-NG guy (joined after 1970). He says that current NG training now has a big section on handling protests. It covers Kent State, what went wrong, and how nothing like it can ever be allowed to happen again.

So it sounds like they, at least, learned from it.

ChrisMayLA6, to politics
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Jonathan Freedland offers a summary of where we are:

'The Tories are so unpopular because so much is broken & there is not enough money to fix it. Right now, that is the Tories’ problem, one that promises to sweep them out of power. But once it has, it will become Labour’s problem. And it could hardly be more daunting'!

Of course, there being 'not enough money' is Tory policy not a fiscal fact, but otherwise this offers a fair/concise signpost to our future (I think).

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@ChrisMayLA6 There's an easy get out to the promise to stick with the Tory "fiscal rectitude". Just declare that you are following the rule they followed in one of their 14 years in power, rather than just the last one.

tokensane, to random
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Happy Star Wars Day!

gwynnion, to random
@gwynnion@mastodon.social avatar

Upon finding out 99% of NYU protesters were indeed students, Republican Councilwoman Vickie Paladino decided they all have to die.

It feels like Democrats should stop helping these people in their war on students and higher education?

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@gwynnion She sounds exactly like talking about a disobedient dog.

mattblaze, to photography
@mattblaze@federate.social avatar

nerdetry:

I have a pretty developed and deliberate approach to the photos I make, in that I generally have a fairly clear vision of the final result I want to achieve when I'm capturing something, even for details like contrast and tonality.

Except for color toning. I almost never have any idea whether I will add a sepia tint or whatever. I'm totally ad hoc and inconsistent about this, and I often go back and forth several times before settling on a final version.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@mattblaze That thing you do, that you've spent countless hours working on? I've decided that you're doing it wrong.

arstechnica, to random
@arstechnica@mastodon.social avatar

The BASIC programming language turns 60

Easy-to-use programming language that drove Apple, IBM, and Commodore PCs debuted in 1964.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/the-basic-programming-language-turns-60/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@arstechnica
This was my first computer programming book.

https://www.carousell.sg/p/vintage-1980s-illustrating-basic-a-simple-programming-language-1196314968/

GreenFire, to random
@GreenFire@mstdn.social avatar

In July 2022, the price of a used Tesla Model Y (2021 model year) was $71,000. Today, it’s $32,000, reports Edmunds. Most remarkably, a used Tesla Model 3 is now cheaper than the average used gasoline vehicle.

Because of sophisticated cooling hardware and management software, most batteries are expected to outlive their car. Replacing the battery is unlikely to pay the full price of $6,500 to $20,000 cost. Warranty policies generally cover batteries when they fall below 75% of original capacity

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@GreenFire AIUI they also don't need cobalt, so no dependency on child slaves in the Congo.

aral, to random
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

Folks: there’s no alternative to capitalism.

Capitalism: Hello! Today I created a potentially deadly new pandemic by feeding ground-up chicken shit and other poultry waste to cows because profit!

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@aral The fundamental problem here is that both these statements are true.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@aral
/1
I assume you're asking for a cite on "no alternative to capitalism" one.

I don't have a single cite, but I'll try to lay out my thinking in brief.

If we want running water, sewage disposal, electricity, modern medicine, mechanised farming, transport faster than a horse etc then we need a high-tech civilisation. Going back to 1700 is not an option.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@aral
/2
Hi-tech civ requires large-scale organisation. Any tech product has a BOM of hundreds or thousands of parts. There are tens of millions of different products. E.g. https://www.rs-online.com/ 500,000 products alone. Getting the right number to the right place is a huge problem.

So far we have two models.
1: central planning. That has many failure modes. The USSR provides a good case study. I can go in to more detail if you are interested.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@aral
/3
2: Decentralised planning mediated by money. Current implementation: capitalism.

Could there be a different implementation of money-based planning? Possibly, but I haven't seen a credible one yet. Closest one is worker-cooperative model, but that only manages steady-state, not investment in innovation and Schumpterian creative-destruction. For that you need investors. So we come back to capitalism.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@aral
/4
Also, worker co-ops are just as likely to feed poultry waste to cows as capitalist companies are: same pressures, same response.

So I'm in favour of a "kinder gentler capitalism" built around free health care, Basic Income and stronger regulation, but still in a fundamentally capitalist mode of economic organisation.

Does that answer your question? I'm happy to engage further.

dougiec3, to random
@dougiec3@libretooth.gr avatar

Keep in mind that the US does not have a health care system. It has an insurance/medical industry.
https://www.propublica.org/article/cigna-medical-director-doctor-patient-preapproval-denials-insurance

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@CivilityFan @dougiec3 Worse, they're not being paid to review, they're being paid to nope the claims with their authority as doctors.

Cirdan, to Economics
@Cirdan@awscommunity.social avatar

A primer on how Commons Capitalism (CC) works to replace traditional capitalism, i.e., corporations or other entities owned directly or indirectly by individuals. 1/8

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @GhostOnTheHalfShell Legally that would make it a trust, in that it is run by trustees for the benefit of a defined set of individuals. You might want to look into trust law.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @itty53
I think you're going to have to drive that forwards yourself if its to make any headway. So far its an interesting idea, but an idea and $5 will get you a cappuchino.

I look forward to reading your paper though.

One question, related to my earlier question about equity finance. How does this manage innovation and Schumpterian creative destruction?

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @GhostOnTheHalfShell But you said it was for their benefit. Someone administering an asset for the benefit of someone else is a trustee by definition.

tokensane,
@tokensane@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Cirdan @GhostOnTheHalfShell I think you need to read up on Trust law. I'm more familiar with UK law on this. Over here if it looks like a trust and quacks like a trust, it's a trust regardless of what the paperwork says. I think the US is broadly similar.

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