this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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Without the people buying things, those rich don't exist. All regulations really do is line the pockets of the already existing companies and make it harder for the small guy working out of his garage.
People have forgotten that the wallet is the most powerful way to vote. Don't buy their product and they won't make any money.
And protect the environment from wanton pollution and destruction, and provide workers with guarantees against their employer, and keep needlessly dangerous products from hurting customers, and...
And without those rich people making them, they have nothing to buy. They dont just magically appear for people to buy. That is a misconception (or misdirection, rather) with how consumer action works. You cant take action if the rich dont let you in those situations.
The wallet is only as powerful as the people who run your economy, and generally less so.
The economy doesn't need to be "run" is my entire point.
It doesn't need to be, no, but it will be, because we're too busy pretending we can do something about it without organized action that is aided by an actually effective government producing actually effective regulation.
tell that to the owner class. maybe they will care and stop running the economy, if you are asking nicely enough.
Personally, I find regulations to be a bandaid over a legitimate problem: shareholder misalignment. Really, companies should only ever be consumer and worker coöps since those are the direct stakeholders and the reason businesses exist in the first place. Shareholders aren't needed and only serve as a form of parasitic wealth extraction that feeds capital accural, cartel formation, and monopolization.
Even a perfect utopian co-op needs regulations beacuse most people don't know anything about environmental impact or proper safety precautions.
Any work I do on my house I do to code (and I do look it up when starting a new project). The previous owner... not so much - I found newspaper wrapped around electrical junction boxes, because wires never get hot enough to light old, super dry newspaper on fire....
But you’re missing externalities. A huge reason we need better regulation is the tendency of corporations to externalize their costs to all of our detriment.
Climate and pollutions issues are a prime example. In a free market A corporations saves money by evading cleanup costs, polluting, and the rest of us pay. A justly regulated market minimizes those externalities so the corporations covers all its costs