• Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Yeah, I’m also kinda surprised cuba apparently allowed them to operate there? There are few companies that more thoroughly exemplify the imperialist state than those two.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Nestlé? Amazon? HSBC? The fucking VOC?

      Come on, there are a lot of evil companies but it’s crazy to pretend Visa and Mastercard are somehow the worst of them.

      • demonsword@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        there are a lot of evil companies

        All of them, as long as their only reason to exist is to chase profit above anything else

        • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          Well sometimes in their pursuit of making money, their interests coincidentally align with those of the public and they make the world a better place as a result.

          For example, Valve trying to protect their market dominance in the PC gaming industry has resulted in large improvements to game distribution, consumer protection, and convenience for computer game players.

          Another example is the mail order drug company owned by Mark Cuban (the billionaire). He’s making buckets of money from it, but their profit model is to cut out the insurers to buy drugs from manufacturers at wholesale prices and sell them for cheap. So the medicines he sells are drastically cheaper. I actually am a beneficiary of this. I normally buy my medication from his company for $5 a bottle but one time I spilled it and had to get a refill from a local grocery store pharmacy which cost $100 a bottle (insurance paid $85).

          But at least the pills from the grocery store pharmacy were blackberry flavour.

          • demonsword@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            Well sometimes in their pursuit of making money, their interests coincidentally align with those of the public and they make the world a better place as a result.

            And this happens purely by chance, and always temporarily. As soon as it is financially better for them to throw you to the wolves that’s what they’ll do next

            • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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              7 hours ago

              Sometimes. But even if it is temporary, it’s still good while it lasts.

              Nothing too deep about it. That’s the whole thought.

      • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        … The dutch east india company hasn’t been relevant for more than 200 years, but like fair enough. If you want to have “capitalist megacorp fightclub” that could absolutely be one of those few I mentioned. I’m gonna defend that “the primary architects of the global financial transaction system” are good entries onto the list though…

        • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          I feel like if you want to blame a company for creating the modern financial system, John Pierpont Morgan and the company which bears his name are probably 10x more responsible.

          • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            And that company isn’t even a little bit relevant right now, nor has my intent ever been to figure out which company is the “most to blame”. But neat, thanks for sharing your opinion, I will continue to consider Visa and Mastercard to be among the few absolute worst offenders.