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Six years ago I went to work for a small (~100 employee) startup. Three years ago that startup was acquired by Intel, so for the last three years I've been an Intel employee. Last January Intel cancelled my project and laid me off.
So here I am at 58, seven years from retirement, unemployed, not because I was lazy or bad at my job, but because people I've never laid eyes on, people whose names I don't know, people who don't even know I exist, decided they needed to cut costs. And because I'm 58 and ageism is a real thing in this industry, the odds of anyone else hiring me are very low. 58 is awfully late in life to be forced to start over.
The problem with corporations is that by design they provide a virtually impenetrable barrier between one set of humans (the owners of the corporation) and another set of humans (the employees). This has benefits, of course, but it also has one very serious drawback, which is that it allows the first set of humans to treat the second set like a commodity, no different from wheat or pork bellies, but not the other way around. This asymmetry disempowers employees, robs them of their agency and personhood. And all this happens by design.
It really should come as no surprise to anyone that one of the side effects of this system is a lot of depressed people.
- Revoke their "personhood"
- Tax them appropriately
- Prevent them from being too big to fail
- Hold their officers accountable
- Prevent them from hiring public officials
But I'm open to other ideas!
- significantly diminish limited liability. If your corp causes a chemical spill that kills many people, the executives should be put on trial for mass murder.
This change creates a large incentive to do the right thing -- like not implicitly killing.
These corporations are not people. They are run by people. We need to start holding those people accountable for their actions. We need to start naming them and attaching their names to the disasters they are causing.
If you are the head of an oil company when a massive spill occurs, not only should you live in poverty for the rest of your life, but you should probably be in a jail cell for the rest of your life as well for being a danger to society in the pursuit of personal riches.
If we can throw people in prison for carrying certain rocks for all their life, I think this is more than reasonable.
- your concerns about the current status quo,
- how these are causing the current status quo and
- explain what you believe are the expected effects.
It's an internet comment, not an academic essay, so you can just refer to things -- but you're in a diverse forum where most people aren't going to instantly recall the established zeitgeist you're trying to evoke. Many of us aren't familiar with your zeitgeist, so sparse references to it mean nothing to us.
I have no idea what you mean by "citizenship". I don't know what problems this is causing, what the change would look like, and why that would be expected to improve the problem.
Watch 60 minutes and see a “news” story that is really just an info commercial for a new weight loss drug presented as journalism.
The public discourse is now dominated by corporate safe “progressive” topics. Race, gender, identity .. etc all safe.. progressive issues like unions, wealth inequality, bank reforms … nope those are not okay.
It’s depressing because faith is waning in the U.S. as a society and as a government.
Just my two cent ramble
This has existed since TV was originally invented. Ads used to be content...and often still is. I hate it too but I'm not sure this is what I'd point to for "A-ha! Here's the reason depression is suddenly skyrocketing!", when it's been true for 70 years running.
The world was basically a dystopian hell for the non-elite class and only getting worse from the advent of agriculture until somewhat recently (see the Malthusian Trap)...
But today is the worst because you can look back to sometime post-WW2 in the US (and only the US), where - for a few years - things maybe might have been slightly better if and only if you were a white man.
I’m not sure what you mean by no corporations or why that is an implication.
China and other countries put corporations in their place all the time.
I'm not sure you're wrong, but you need more detail for me to be convinced that you're right...
There are many issues at play here. For example: extreme political divisiveness, decreasing real incomes, falling birth rates, increased competition due to globalization, doomscrolling ...and many others.
If I personally had to pick the largest factor, I would blame social media induced anxiety/depression due to the personal issues that arise from comparing your life to the artificial portrayals. That and the dopamine addiction from tiktok, snapchat that causes people to withdraw from applying effort in the real world.
People need more effective coping mechanisms.
Even with little to no money, happiness is possible for people around the world. Why then is one of the world's richest and most productive economies facing rising depression rates?
Most corporations provide "decent jobs" to a limited subset of people. The vast majority of people are not making 100k/year.