• CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Don’t ‘break it up’, nationalize it, and do the same with all these other giant corporations.

    Profits could support UBI instead of encouraging billionaires.

    • emmy67@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      That’s not in anyone’s interest. It’s the surest way to have a thousand national search engines which are all shitty. National walled internet Gardens etc

      Break it up instead

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Not sure where you’re getting the idea that there would be thousands. But as for the shitty part, it’s already shit. Google’s search engine utterly fails at it’s job, and not just because of the rise in LLM/SEO. They waste billions on fancy new AI searches that nobody wants, they accept bribes to get pages to the top of the search, and even when you’re looking at an actual for real result, it often isn’t even what you want.

        When a critical industry fails to do its job, it is time to nationalize it. With that said, the criticality of search engines is debatable. I’m cool with breaking it up at a bare minimum. The list of corps in need of getting broken up is way to long.

        • emmy67@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          The idea stems from the propaganda tool that would be if it were state owned. Other countries would seriously discourage or ban its use, but as it is useful they’d need a replacement. Hence a thousand shitty ones.

          • Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            The idea stems from the propaganda tool that would be if it were state owned.

            How is it not currently a propaganda tool? It’s owned by shareholders like blackrock and vanguard. At least with it being nationalized it’s possible to control it democratically.

            Our options are:

            • An open source nationalized search engine (which would promptly run into problems with SEO, because anybody could see what would get their site the #1 spot). This option can’t honestly be called propaganda, because everyone would know what weights if any are placed on results.
            • A blackbox search engine that has been nationalized, with limited ability of the people to know/modify the algorithm, which could be called propaganda, especially if this is controlled by a failed democracy.
            • A blackbox search engine owned by the likes of blackrock and vanguard, with no ability to democratically modify the algorithm

            None of these options are good, but the third is clearly the worst. The rich should not dictate what results pop up.

            Other countries would seriously discourage or ban its use, but as it is useful they’d need a replacement. Hence a thousand shitty ones.

            There is only ~200ish countries out there depending on how you count it. Most of them share search engines across borders, and that is unlikely to change, because if they were to see a nationalized search engine as a security problem, they would have already seen google as a security problem. So even if every third country made their own, there would only be a few dozen search engines.

            But even assuming there would be 1000 search engines, 1000 shitty search engines is better than 1 shitty search engine with 85% market share. At least with the 1000 shitty engines there is competition. As of now, google is free to mess around with their black box engine however they like, showing and hiding what they like, all at the behest of blackrock, vanguard & company.

            So I don’t see how this would be to everyone’s disinterest. Killing google and nationalizing it is exactly in everyone’s interest. Though like I said, the criticality of search engines and therefore the need for nationalized search engines probably isn’t there.

      • CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        How would there be thousands? There aren’t thousands of nations, and everyone would still use Google.

        If you break it up, that’s how you get thousands of shitty versions.

        Maybe some countries might disable Google if it was owned by the US, but I have a feeling those countries already have their own issues with Google as it stands now.

        I just think if the monopolistic corporations are too big and too essential to take down, then nationalization is a solution with many more positive traits than negative.

      • CascadianGiraffe@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Ignoring the snark in your comment…

        I assume you take issue with UBI?

        Would you feel different if we ‘required service’ for UBI? For example, some countries have mandatory military service. If we nationalize these giant corporations, we could make working there a way to qualify for UBI.

        Do you think UBI is just taking money from the average person and giving it to lazy people who do nothing? Or do you enjoy the separation of the rich while the rest of us struggle for scraps? Do you understand that the UBI would apply to you as well?

        Or am I missing deeper thoughts given to your comment?

        • ARg94@lemmy.packitsolutions.net
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          26 days ago

          I don’t worry much about people who have more than me. I am grateful to enjoy my work and my life. I don’t want the government to steal from me and I don’t want them to steal from others either. Even in the black and white world of marxists, exploitation of labor just moves from the oppressors to the government. The government becomes the oppressors. It has never worked, it will never work. People are naturally motivated by profit. It’s built in. Messing with that or short-circuiting the work-reward system is unsustainable.

      • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I don’t agree with that guy but doesn’t that apply to the people running these companies. Profit can only be made by exploiting labour. There can’t be any other way