Has this ever not been the case?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The best Florida can hope for is better policies WRT land use and erosion control. There is nothing a state government can do to meaningfully impact global sea level rise.

Green policy (e.g. carbon taxes) tend to be ineffective at fighting climate change and almost always devolve into an excuse to impose regressive taxation to benefit the general fund. Other favorite green policies such as attempts to limit natural gas or rooftop solar mandates are actively harmful from an opportunity cost perspective.

Having said that I don't support this legislation because while green policies almost always suck this doesn't mean it is impossible to get it right the text seems to go too far limiting policies to manage GHG emissions.

Grievances? What the fuck are you talking about you imbecile?

Monopolies have a enormous and well-documented negative impact on consumers. How the fuck would any sane human being who knew what the word means be opposed to antitrust law enforcement?

I'm guessing that you're a bot. Because nobody in their right mind would write something that fucking stupid by themselves. I'm guessing the prompt was write a reply to this comment regarding antitrust law and mentioned grievances.

I think that's kind of the new game around here is to see the bot posts and wonder and figure out what the prompt was that created them from chat GTP or Grok. I don't think it was grok though because there's no sign of pedophilia

Is that large companies weren't too large so they were keeping each other in check.

As a voter Americans were disorganized and distracted to focus on antitrust law enforcement under normal circumstances.

So what would happen is McDonald's would be getting overcharged by the beef producers and they would file a lawsuit and get the public's attention to break up the cartel. This would benefit the public in the form of lower beef prices across the board.

These companies have gotten so large they don't do that anymore. McDonald's doesn't bother suing. They go to the four beef producers and they say give us a kickback and we won't Sue and you can keep over charging everybody else. Just as long as you don't overcharge us and you have to give us that kickback because we are actually big enough we can fight you in court.

So McDonald's gets their kick back and they get the pocket that money and the price of beef keeps going up and up and up because the system where these businesses were small enough that they could fight amongst themselves, AKA competition, has been broken down.

This is what is called a chesterton's fence. The idea is that if you have a fence you don't take it down unless you know why it was put up.

We had a fence up in the form of limiting the size of corporations and private equity and we took it down without knowing why it was put up in the first place.

Not every day before noon. Not every day at a bar.

In a country that doesn't even have a healthcare system, the idea that "Preserve Online Games" will be the thing that unites people to throw off the yoke of the ownership class, is ridiculous indeed.

Because they belong to the ruling class.

The word is ration. And you're next.

So...your theory is WEALTHY studio execs addicted to money and power with immense levels of privilege are willing to throw away their mansions in Beverly Hills and their power over adorning sycophants...endless hot assistants and interns....as well as aspiring actresses wiling to suck and fuck their way to the top....they're willing to risk this for woke ideology?

I like social justice and feeling like a good person. I like unfathomable wealth, power, and blowjobs more. So.....these folks.....they don't care about their egos, their careers, or their wealth?...just pushing "the message?"

So...you really believe that?....or you just want to believe it to fit your pre-assigned narrative? Do you even think about the things you say?

Honestly without our government being captured by billionaires and foolish voters falling for slick media campaigns none of what these Jokers do would matter.

One individual asshole isn't enough to screw us all over. It takes a lot of money and a lot of people who aren't paying attention to what's going on for . And that's on all sides. I'm on the left wing and we are dumb as dishwater. We are currently in fighting with the centrists instead of doing something about the little fascists.

Every time one of these cycles happens pay always goes down. They can just wait a little bit for your savings to be depleted.

About 20 years ago I noticed the cycle.

Too big to fail private equity would collapse the economy after a bunch of right-wing politicians deregulated Wall Street and cut taxes on the wealthy.

During the economic collapse it would always be taken out on our hides. Even if you hold on to your job raises stopped or became less than inflation and the cost of your health care kept going up as private equity moved in.

So every 8 years the Republicans came in and crashed the economy with Wall Street deregulation then they handed the mess to the Democrats who tried to fix it and failed because of course they did they were being sabotaged and then the public would put the Republicans back in charge for another round of it.

It really got going with the savings and loan scandals of the '80s. That was the start of too big to fail and the entire economy being held hostage by crooks. It was also when most of those crooks got away with it with only a few going to jail and mostly the ones who did are the ones who fucked with people who have real money and not people who stole from you and me.

Americans are not good have pattern recognition though so we've been dancing this Charleston for over 50 years now. But the next cycle I think is going to be a hell of a lot worse. The amounts involved are much much larger and so many more of the protections have been dismantled.

They are on track to privatize social security and when they do that it's going to massively juice the stock market taking an already overvalued market and sending it through the roof. A bunch of people here think that's going to be awesome because they'll get to see the line go up but that's going to be a mirage for them. Everyone though is hoping to take advantage of the greater fool without realizing that sooner or later everybody except a handful of trillionaires is...

I wish I could get people to understand if you have less than half a billion dollars in your bank account then you are on the menu but that's just not something people can believe. I think one of the problems is that if you have a realistic outlook on your chances in this world it is really hard to get out of bed in the morning...

I know that sounds like a non sequitured but stick with me.

In the old days antitrust lawsuits were part of the enforcement mechanism. If you illegally used a monopoly to harm competition you could expect your competitors to sue you and win.

After the lawsuit you would have to adjust or change your behavior or the regulator would move in.

Microsoft was when that broke down. They did the payouts but the regulator never moved in. Well it did, but then Bush Jr won the election and that was that.

So what does that have to do with beef prices? McDonald's has colluded with the beef producers. The beef producer is now giving McDonald's a kickback to keep their profits up while keeping the price of beef elevated via collusion. The regulator is asleep at the wheel or more likely they got shived by the administration. Meanwhile you're paying $8 a pound for ground beef.

You can't keep allowing all the systems that protect you and keep prices low to collapse and then complain when prices shoot up and crooks you all your property. You need to start making a choice between candidates that will actually put money in your pocket and keep it there and candidates that give you that warm feeling inside from grievances.

Unfortunately so far Americans are on track to go for grievance politics

I know. It’s tough to discern when I paint in subtle shades like that. Should have added an F-bomb for flavor.

I can afford a new car and do my own maintenance. My frustration is more for the growing army of citizen victims who absolutely cannot, which is considerable when you factor just how many 500-credit score morons got approved to feed the automotive repo problem, which alone could become the next financial crisis. 2008 it was home mortgages. 2026 will be car mortgages. Where it’s legal to charge 20% interest and fiscally cripple a moron who justifies budgets with girl math and TikTok trends.

Cars are not exactly optional in America if you wish to be considered a capable effective member of society. Not everyone can live in NYC and pretend we’re Europe. Less than 5% of America is crazy enough to even try.

Really? Because I thought the signal to every employee was being told more in the form of the overpriced unsellable disposable dogshit made out of plastic and Greed currently rotting away on every new car lot.

AI has a problem to solve alright. How to account for the idiocy of comparing line worker pay the the CEO of the company as a basis for hostile union “negotiations” that insisted an American auto worker be paid as much as the new six-figure barbers** out there to build the kind of “quality” dogshit that might last as long as the car loan, IF you’re smart enough to NOT follow the manufacturers maintenance schedule designed to break it prematurely.

** Yeah, no shit that bubble burst for barbers. It’s also gonna pop hard for the UAW when there’s no more reason to have a union because only 5% of America can afford your Greed. The stealership, had too long of a run. Now Reality sets in. Hard.

We are currently around 20% functional unemployment. That is the number of people who have a job that does not pay enough to support them as a basic human being. Those people are relying on relatives or friends to make up shortfalls or they are working homeless. Last I checked we had about half a million full-time employees who are homeless.

The two and five, which is 40% cuz well math is hard, is the number of people who have good jobs. A good job is one that gives you enough money to afford a one bedroom apartment by yourself and a reliable car and health care. Basically what the baby boomers took for granted before pulling the ladder up behind them.

You don't have to like reality but you do have to live in it. You've got Google you can look all these things up little man. As the saying goes, reality has a liberal bias.

In other words, "The stats look good, you must be imagining things."

Thanks for the tip, Mr. Biden.