Comment by rekabis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rekabis | Hacker News Reader

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> Every transaction I make either identifies me through bank, railway or other id, or quite simply by my face standing in front of the coffee seller. My walk down the road is observed by neighbours and postmen.

Are these the government? Is the bank the government? Is the rail company the government?

No? Then you have answered your own question.

A silo of identification between you and a service provider that uses the provider’s own tooling is still anonymity from government authoritarianism.

The fact that nearly all of these silos are leaky IRL - with the government eager to punch howitzer-sized holes through them for even more access - is not the point. It is a citizen-hostile flaw that needs patching through loophole-proof legislation, not an ID system that would violently eradicate any remaining separation of government from capitalism.

Remember: when government and capitalism rides in the same cart, it is called corporatism, and is the basis of Fascism. Which is what is happening to America.

The problem here is that pretty much every part of modern life has been government and capitalism riding in the same cart - from cities installing electric power stations 100 years ago, to roads and inventions like the transistor and internet itself was government and private capital working towards common goals.

The issue is we want “good” government and “good” corporate behaviour but not the bad. And knowing the difference especially ahead of time requires engaged citizenry, lots of feedback mechanisms that are not overwritten by corruption and noise in the mechanism (ie primaries materringnmore than elections is a feedback mechanism fail in my book)

> The problem here is that pretty much every part of modern life has been government and capitalism riding in the same cart - from cities installing electric power stations 100 years ago, to roads and inventions like the transistor and internet itself was government and private capital working towards common goals.

And here is your argument’s fatal flaw: mistaking public works, that benefits the commons and society as a whole, with government tracking.

The two are NOT the same.

Just a sec - you said: “”” Remember: when government and capitalism rides in the same cart, it is called corporatism, and is the basis of Fascism. ”””

The implication being when gov and big business get together bad things do happen. My point is they can happen yes, but also same players can make good things happen - it depends on the players (and regulatory and reporting and voting and and and )

Government tracking can be good - tracking covid cases good, tracking criminals planning robberies good. It it can also be bad.

This is imo why this is such hard problem - there is no clear answers only something we want sensible courts to (quickly) decide upon based on good laws.

> Just a sec - you said: “”” Remember: when government and capitalism rides in the same cart, it is called corporatism, and is the basis of Fascism. ”””

>The implication being when gov and big business get together bad things do happen. My point is they can happen yes, but also same players can make good things happen - it depends on the players (and regulatory and reporting and voting and and and )

I think you need to go back and take some elementary courses on economics and how governments operate.

Public works are not “government and corporations in the same cart”. If that’s what you are coming to, that only demonstrates your ignorance bleeding out all over the place.

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