Instead of buying fabric from sweatshops, we are bringing the sweatshops back to America! Child labor is already back, so we've got school age children ready to get a 19th century economy roaring again.
What is crazy: we aren't even doing that. We are putting up tariffs on the raw materials as well. Even the mercantilists were smart enough not to do that...
since it is their 2nd bankruptcy filing in the last 11 months the economy that did them in belonged to Biden
All while AI and automation threaten to eliminate these jobs and many others altogether. This whole administration is so tragic. Backwards looking leadership is never good, but at a moment in time when the future is barreling at us at warp speed, this couldn't be worse.
Without looking I'm going to go ahead and guess, as with the case of most things that have been in business for decades, they were bought out by private equity, enshitified after hiring a bunch of management friendly consultants, and then strip-mined by investors, and eventually the brand itself will be sold off after there is nothing left to leverage.
It seems unprecedented that none of the political parties of America offer any sort of vision of the future. Its either cargo-culting us back to the 19th century or managing the status quo. And in its place, we just have these hopes that technology will be the magic bullet that solves everything.
It's because no one can offer a vision and get elected. I don't agree with your anti-capitalism stance, but I think you and I would agree that we're gonna need a new economic system to handle a plateaued, then declining global population and an autoated AI future that promises to up-end everything from medicine, to labor, to energy, and who knows what the hell else. Since the dawn of human society, systems have been designed to survive through growth. What to do when that can't happen or we have to redefine growth? I mean it's cool for you and I to talk about this at a bar after work over some beers. That's hip and chic, but you can hardly talk about this stuff on the campaign trail - forget about suggesting solutions.
That is an ideological choice. I realize people (especially people who are stuck in the 80s/90s politically) have absorbed the idea that government cant do anything and markets fix everything, but that isnt actually true. Like, someone's going to have to articulate a positive vision of social rights , and it doesnt have to be anti-capitalist to succeed (though things like heathcare or housing probably will be portrayed that way by their opponents). Its all well and good to talk about democracy, but the basis of democracy is the things it provides us, universally. The choice to make is an abstraction, is just that, a choice.
You are partially correct. Both Michael’s and Hobby Lobby were also part of Biden’s economy. Both have survived thus far, although likely have sagging sales and inventory / supply concerns. Michael’s is a B- rating and is Apollo backed. Right now they have sought help from FTI and Moelis on tariff impact. Hobby Lobby is the gem. Zero debt. They will be the big winners. Private, so we can all golf clap behind the ropes.
You can certainly call it an ideological choice, but in a realpolitik sense - there is no choice. What UBI touting platform is going to win at the polls? We need a shift in awareness toward the real challenges we're facing but instead we're being led towards mercantilism, memes, nationalism, gender-wars, xenophobia, and unfettered kleptocracy.
I think giving people money for things would win at the polls. UBI ... maybe not. That's the sort of technocratic approach that certain Americans seem to prefer. But again, I think there it is an ideological choice to avoid those sort of interventions. And its not even a left/right one per se. Lots of European rightwing parties hand out money to citizens for things like having children or 'pro-family' stuff. Anyways, I will simply point out that right-wing nationalism was defeated nearly 100 years by Communism and a robust,muscular Liberalism that had a ambitious vision of social democratic rights. And I dont think its coincidence that the disappearance of those things has led to a resurgence of fascism in various forms in the present.
