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Comment by mise_en_place | Hacker News Reader

I like these types of stories that show the harsh economic realities of many in America. It was not the case many years ago, when they could become an American citizen by working hard enough. Now they are servants, beholden to the corrupted members of our government.

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>Now they are servants, beholden to the corrupted members of our government.

ITYM corporations. The government is desperately trying to help and corporate interests (in the form of Joe Manchin's blocking of the BBB act) are how we got to this point.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/12/joe-man...

Most people have forgotten that we "solved" the ozone hole problem through regulation. We could have done the same for green house emmissions. But businesses did not want cut into their profits and now here we are.

Nope, the worst thing a corporation can do is try to sell me something I don’t want. The worst the federal govt can do to me is imprison me, or worse, kill me. It’s time we hold these fascists accountable.

>Nope, the worst thing a corporation can do is try to sell me something I don’t want.

How quickly we forget.

https://www.marketplace.org/2019/10/16/the-20-year-legal-bat...

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/radium-girls-radioacti...

There's more. A lot, lot more.

The Battle of Blair Mountain. Shirtwaist Fire. Company towns. Sharecropping. Child Labor. Indentured servitude.

Authoritarianism is the same whether it's public or private. It's about power and leverage.

> Nope, the worst thing a corporation can do is try to sell me something I don’t want.

I think poisoning your water supply with benzene might be a bit worse.

You know the Federal government contracts out running prisons and the acquisition of execution materials to private entities right?

> It was not the case many years ago, when they could become an American citizen by working hard enough.

I suspect you have an overly rose-tinted view of the past.

>It was not the case many years ago, when they could become an American citizen by working hard enough.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozawa_v._United_States

When was this magical time ?

How do "corrupt members of the government" force these people to collect cans?

What other job do you suggest they could be doing?

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