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0 pointsrglullis5y ago0 comments

This idea is one of my favorite tells to find out the level of alienation of people regarding their own governments.

The top 10 conglomerates from South Korea amount to more than half their GDP. This level of centralization alone should tell you how the regulations are enacted to protect the corporations, not the people.

If Germany (and more generally Brussels) was actually serious about environmental regulations, VW and all the German car makers would be exterminated after Dieselgate. Instead they got one or two scapegoats for VW (and no, the CEO being ousted and still receiving a generous retirement package does not count) and made it clear that the regulations are there just to give the people the illusion of control.

"For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law" -- this is what your democratically elected government is giving you.

0 comments

sveme5y ago

why do the workers of VW have to pay with a loss of their jobs for the wrongdoings of their managers? Several of those responsible have already spent time in prison, others will follow.

hengheng5y ago

Companies with rotten culture are ripe for their own kind of disruption. Above a certain level of decadence, it is more promising to build a parallel company on the other side of the street rather than trying to remove the rotten apples. Countless examples in history. One of the few ways to keep a megacorp alive at this stage is government subsidies, corruption or contracts, with the goal of exploiting its scale advantages.

rglullisOP5y ago

Because it wasn't just the manager, but also the engineers that implemented the fraudulent system and the people doing QC that turned a blind eye and did not speak up.

The manager is the one with most skin in the game and should go to jail, does not mean that anyone else is free from fault. By working for a company that kept an unfair advantage they also benefited from the fraud, they should also face some of the consequences.

WanderPanda5y ago

Yep, otherwise the feedback loop does not work. It works best if people at every stage question if their company is doing something wrong instead of selecting some high income people to blame and take all the liability. After all every worker should be incentivised to have skin in the game through stock compensation

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