… as hundreds of billions of dollars are flooding into artificial intelligence, there are serious concerns that an AI bubble could trigger another bailout with taxpayer money.
In the interview that follows, leading progressive economist Gerald Epstein, who initiated and directs the Game Changers project at the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, talks about AI’s impact on finance and the bailout problem and how a transformative public finance strategy can revive democracy, promote equity and social justice, and build strong and sustainable communities.
Yea but we already know that’s what they’re gonna do regardless of what anyone says.
Just like we already know things are eventually going to get bad enough that killing the epstien-billionare class becomes both moral and necessary.
i would argue that it is already the moral choice. they are killing the planet
How can we know either way without speaking freely about it? I think this is an important conversation we should all participate in. (Fully agree with you btw)
we are talking about it right now :) that means we arent the only ones.
I can feel the class consciousness forming. Can you feel it?
The more this gets stated and reinforced, the more likely that people will wake up, stop investing in slop and liquidate their existing investments.
We shot one corrupt CEO and for a whole glorious month Americans almost had healthcare.
We can change who “they” are though, and this is our best chance since FDR.
It’s not enough to have a progressive president, we need a progressive Congress behind them. But we absolutely can refuse to bail AI bris out and strip the rest of the oligarchs of their wealth.
People acting like we can’t just depresses turnout.
Republicans won’t, neoliberals won’t, but if you act like those are the only two options…
You’re just fucking wrong
I do think you’re a bit naive about it, though. They won’t let this happen with just a simple vote. They will defend their positions of power with violence.
And use our own citizens(military) against us harder than now
My conspiracy theory part of my brain says this is why ICE is going to pay for voter information. Then they know who “the enemy” is based on our votes
People are more likely to show up for the third box, if they’ve seen that the first two don’t.
It’s a numbers game, and we need to show as many as people as possible that a last resort really is the last resort and nothing else will fix it.
Like, they were doing shady shit, it wasn’t working, so the voting members of the DNC gave neoliberals the boot.
That just fucking happened 19 months ago, and it happened with votes. And immediately materialized in a shit ton of wins because the DNC stopped hoarding money and started spending it on outreach.
If you don’t understand how huge that is, then you’re failing for neoliberal propaganda. They’re desperate to make it look like they control the party, because depressing Dem turnout is the only chance neoliberals have to grab the party back.p
Oh, you can vote, sure. I’m just saying that there will be assassinations and refusals to hand over power.
No, you’re saying you think there will be…
Regardless of its right or not, right now that’s an opinion, an assumption at best.
Just a student of history, that’s all.
A ruling class accustomed to power will pretty much never allow that power to be taken away from them peacefully.
Oh hey look at that…
From a sure thing to “pretty much never”
If I gave a fuck about helping you understand things, I’m sure we could work this out eventually.
But I don’t, so best of luck in all your endeavors, except trying to depress Dem turnout.
I don’t know how you’re getting that from what I’m saying.
Yes, you absolutely should be voting. But you should also be prepared for what comes next.
If you think that you can elect progressive Democrats to turn this all around…
… you’re just fucking wrong.
The Democrats have been for sale since the 1960s… it’s pretty obvious.
Do you know the Ds have pitched universal healthcare for over 30 years?
For about as long as the Rs have pitched “smaller government.” How many times will you let them fool you? Don’t be a sucker.
Buddy…
If you don’t like the candidate in the general, the time to do something was during the primary.
If you think shitty incumbents can’t be unseated and progressives can’t become incumbents, you just haven’t been paying attention.
And I’d bet my house that you don’t have an alternative, you just want people to disengage from the democratic process. Which is fucking stupid because if you vote, it doesn’t mean you can’t do anything else. And if you’re doing anything else, why the fuck wouldn’t you also take the time to vote?
How do you legitimately not understand the answer is absolutely never “vote less”?
Yeah there’s really nothing to lose by voting
It’s already shitcanned and they aren’t doing the thing that needs to be done. May as well turn up to vote.