cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/32714263
Statement: Most governments/companies have a lot of control over people.
Flipped Statement: Most governments/companies have little control over people.
Terms:
- Western bloc - US, EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, etc.
- Eastern bloc - Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, etc.
- Periphery - Non-aligned countries
The USA transfers power to Donald Trump and he starts to isolate the economy, restructure administrative agencies to be more favorable towards executive control theory, and hinders regulation in many industries.
The isolation of the US economy encourages other Western and Eastern countries to decrease economic dependence on the US and create more economic ties with other Periphery countries and become more self-reliant as well.
The restructuring of administrative agencies encourages other countries that were self-regulating due to threat of US retaliation to take action because of decreased effectiveness of the US to mount an effective resistance since the new agencies could be inexperienced/incompetent/uncoordinated.
The relaxed regulation in many industries allows for businesses to continue exploiting more from workers and consumers with them having less recourse to address negative consequences. This earns them more profit and causes citizens to trust common services less.
Periphery countries become more unstable due to more frequent attempts at power grabs fueled by the increased attention from Western and Eastern countries trying to diversify their economies.
This causes the global economy to become volatile as resources fluctuate in price. These fluctuations are somewhat predictable so companies profit off of the volatility and use it as an excuse to raise prices.
With Western and Eastern countries now diversifying their economy in Periphery countries and focusing on stabilizing internal economies, there are less resources used to support specific leaders that offered Western and Eastern countries favorable deals. Instead they rely on economic competition between Periphery countries for good deals.
Reduced outside support for established institutions and weaker direct interference in Periphery countries allows for local communities to flourish in Periphery countries.
All flavors of political communities arise (authoritarian, anarchist, socialist, etc.) depending on previous institutions, current activist groups, and social norms that exist in that area. Global media focuses on what is the most frightening and feeds that to people living in Western and Eastern countries.
At the same time governments in Western and Eastern countries are spending more effort to co-opt or create groups that organize people in rival countries to overthrow that government to replace it with one similar to their own and organize people in their own country to help maintain/strengthen status quo structure (probably whilst advertising it as revolutionary/beneficial change). This helps spread organizing techniques to more citizens than before.
Governments are also increasing use of hybrid warfare on systems that help rival countries sustain their large scale society (internet cables, communication towers, electricity grid, filtration and disposal systems, etc.) which cause people to gradually rely more on local mutual aid networks for their needs.
Businesses that rely on these systems to run their business either move to places where these attacks aren’t effective/happening, pivot their offering, scale down their services/products, or go bust.
More people have the cultural knowledge to organize due to the government influence campaigns which helps increase the effectiveness of the mutual aid networks.
There is quite a bit of truth in that. Trump having close ties to Russia scares European countries a lot. Especially given the situation in Ukraine. So Europe is very likely mostly trying to deal with Russia. That is pretty much a split in the Western alliance.
The US already moved a lot of soldiers out of the Middle East. They still support Israel, but we a conflict between the Saudis and Iran, with Israel roughly on the Saudi site. That is being fought openly in Syria and Sudan right now.
Africa sees Russia taking over French influenced countries on a massive scale.
Asia has probably the most US involvement, with a loose alliance of countries trying to contain China.
Latin America also sees conflicts, as the old massive wealth gap is very much real. At least the Brazilians seem to have a decent plan on how to solve it.
So yeah the world is splitting apart without the US. Conflicts break out as US a lack of US influence means actors the US has fought against have an easier path to victory. Some of those actors are actually evil, others are forces for good. But it does mean more local reliance and that can mean some positive change. Also for workers in the West I might add, as outsourcing jobs becomes harder.
I mean I don’t think Russia or China are in for a good time either. Like yes in the short term they will probably gain more control than they had before and globally more countries might take on similar authoritarian structures to theirs but it doesn’t stop the clash of egos that comes with being an authoritarian country or the cost they are going to have to incur trying to maintain control over a wider range than they have before especially when global economy becomes massively destabilized (I actually don’t think it can collapse in the normal sense that we are used to)
As for workers in the West I think it is a bit of a wait and see. They could be under a “good” government and the new jobs actually help with stabilizing the economy if combined with unconditional support (UBI or similar) during the transition or they could take the easy way out and use cheap labor from prisons and hope that consumers accept lower quality.
Also what is Brazil’s plan?
Edit: put good in air quotes
Most of the West already has okayish unemployment benefits, a working health care system and so forth. It is mainly about changing with the times, without destroying all of the good parts.
Brazil is setting up a lot of regional cooperation. All of that under a roughly leftist democratic stance. Given the resources they have, they are in a pretty good place.
Brazil is setting up a lot of regional cooperation. All of that under a roughly leftist democratic stance. Given the resources they have, they are in a pretty good place.
Huh good for them then. I wish them the best.
