It's so frustrating, and brings me hope to see it change, that RnD and infrastructure investment funds got put into software rental agreement for windows and VMware and more recently into proprietary Cloud ecosystems.

Like you own nothing from that. That money is gone from the public good. It's not an investment. I didn't invest in an apartment, I rented, I don't have any value left from that agreement I had my wants and needs temporally satisfied.

That is just the constant issue these people put in the public trust are learning but have to held to task to.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

That is just the constant issue these people put in the public trust are learning but have to held to task to.

I think the people who've gained a career in politics understand the rent seeking game and it is the people who have forgotten what the stakes are.

I don't buy for a minute that these highly educated people with degrees from prestigious universities don't understand the historical context that they're living through. The amount of corruption on public display is shocking to anyone who is paying attention.

We've just become complacent and have, collectively, forgotten what the stakes are.

You're right, the people who are able to make decisions are able to make objectively bad long term decision and the amount of people who want to hold them to task is so massively diluted by a bunch of people who've grown complacent due to being born in and living through a period of time that has, historically, been largely positive.

(( Huge asterisks there, obviously. I mean there's no world wars, widespread slavery or feudalism. Totalitarianism is limited to corners of the world where we're largely discouraged from thinking about. North Korea is, objectively, an ongoing crime against humanity but most people living in western democracies have no context to understand that reality so it's feels like a fantasy setting in a movie or TV Show. ))

There are still functioning democracies that haven't gone off the cliff despite everything and the Internet has given us an organizational tool that has never existed in human history. We're living through Interesting Times, but there's still hope.