• GraniteM@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    why wouldn’t they?

    It’s not even a matter of “why wouldn’t they,” do much as a matter of they must.

    Absent of regulations, any company that doesn’t abandon every conceivable human moral in pursuit of more profit will find itself hopelessly out-competed by the ones that do. If your every competitor is charging $12 for a latte and paying their employees starvation wages, and you charge a reasonable amount and pay your employees a decent wage, then every hour you’re in business your competitors will be making more money than you, and you will always fall behind, unless something comes along to close that gap.

    Libertarians might try to say that eventually the free market will close the gap, but adults know otherwise. The free market doesn’t give a shit about human decency, the environment, the value of mom and pop businesses, or any of that. The free market can only ever want to make more money, every year, at a faster rate of increase, every year. Forever.

    Government is the only thing that can reasonably account for how things should be. Regulations are the only reason we don’t have 80 hour work weeks and children in the mines.