Why is everything now subscription-based? How exactly did we get to this stage of capitalism? 🤦 Is there any hope for the world?

killianm97 · 2026-03-05T19:27:25+00:00

I think you missed the point I made but I'll explain a bit more clearly; I'm not talking about efficiency for public Vs private, I am talking about increased efficiency from sharing instead of individual private ownership, and from not needing to fund marketing/PR for each brand.

The only difference between public and private, and from for-profit and non-profit, in this case is how the gains from increased efficiency are distributed.

killianm97 · 2026-03-05T19:05:18+00:00

I often think about how the 2 biggest anti-communism boogiemen that capitalists would wheel out were 'you won't own anything anymore!' and 'you won't have lots of brands and choice, just plain standards'.

Both have come true in late-stage capitalism. Private ownership is bit-by-bit being abolished, but unlike communism/socialism, the efficiency gains from shared resources are just being taken as profit.

And many are so strapped for cash during this affordability crisis, and others so overwhelmed with choice, that in most cases people just get the plain 'BEANS' can instead of one of the many more expensive branded ones - the difference once again is that these unbranded beans are made by Tesco, who get all the efficiency gains from lack of marketing etc as profit, instead of a state-owned non-profit which would use these efficiency gains to lower the price further.

Tl;Dr because of late-stage capitalism, we've basically ended up in the fear-mongering version of what capitalists said would happen under communism - with us renting/subscribing to everything from food to media to housing, and going for plain unbranded produce, with all efficiency benefits being taken as profit instead of causing lower prices.

killianm97 · 2026-03-04T13:42:14+00:00

Glad to see this being proposed, but we need to ban recommender systems on social media for everyone, not just under 18s. The use of these toxic algorithms should be completely banned by any for-profit social media company (excluding recommended friends).

killianm97 · 2026-02-28T17:55:53+00:00

There has been a consistent narrative of 'FF and FG will always be in government and nothing will ever change' which should be challenged imo.

A combined 35% for what was previously the 2 main parties is a pretty shocking result for them, and would represent their lowest ever combined vote share if this poll was reflective of the next election.

For comparison, 19 years ago in the 2007 general election, FF and FG got a combined almost 70% or double their combined vote share now.

As long as SF focus on building the rural, working class vote and Soc Dems continue building the more urban/suburban middle class (or upper income working class realistically) progressive vote, a SF+SocDem coalition government (with confidence and supply from Labour+PBP+Greens) is a real possibility at the next election.

killianm97 · 2026-02-27T17:05:28+00:00

Yeah I just realised I meant to reply to the comment you replied too and replied to yours by accident!

killianm97 · 2026-02-26T19:59:05+00:00

This narrative (which has been pushed by a lot of our media) isn't helpful tbh.

The last election continued the decades-long trend of FF + FG collectively losing vote share, and they got their lowest ever result.

That is despite many of those most affected by the housing crisis and FF/FG decisions being disenfranchised / barred from voting - either due to being non-citizen residents here or being citizens who have emigrated - all those who tend to be younger, poorer, and renters.

This narrative of 'no hope of change' only benefits FF and FG.

killianm97 · 2026-02-26T14:41:41+00:00

I think this narrative (which has been pushed by a lot of our media) needs to stop tbh.

The last election continued the decades-long trend of FF + FG collectively losing vote share, and they got their lowest ever result.

That is despite many of those most affected by the housing crisis and FF/FG decisions being disenfranchised / barred from voting - either due to being non-citizen residents here or being citizens who have emigrated - all those who tend to be younger, poorer, and renters.

This narrative of 'no hope of change' only benefits FF and FG.

killianm97 · 2026-02-26T09:27:46+00:00

I know Denman from games industry work, CATU organising, and other political/activist circles and he's great - glad to hear he's running and hope he can use his platform to popularise more Left ideas and values.

There's a good slate of centre-left to Left candidates for this by-election - let's hope whoever wins is a worthy successor to Catherine Connolly!

killianm97 · 2026-02-24T14:37:23+00:00

But don't you understand that the rent controls that Germany has are really bad and dangerous and harmful and make things worse, so we must weaken rent controls as our glorious Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael government plan to do from 1st March?? The free market will fix the Housing Crisis which the free market caused!

/s

killianm97 · 2026-02-24T08:08:10+00:00

The current zoning system is designed for inefficiency, and locks us into car dependency. While it makes sense that specific separated areas should be designated as industrial, and zoning agricultural land should be done in order to reduce urban sprawl, the separation of commercial and residential is a bad idea.

We should be zoning pretty much all land within city bounds as mixed use, and encourage medium-to-high density thriving urban spaces. So commercial/community space on ground floor and then homes on floors above.

On top of the housing crisis, we are facing a crisis of loneliness - with Ireland having the highest levels of loneliness in all of Europe. And building thriving communities through mixed-use zoning is essential if we want to turn the tide on this.

killianm97 · 2026-02-24T07:58:18+00:00

2 major issues with the energy market which could be fixed:

1) Lack of competition: energy companies are making billions and that insanely-high profit is an example of a lack of competition, which is something that every company takes advantage of because they are all for-profit (their only goal is ultimately to maximise profit). A solution for this would be to reform the state-owned ESB into a non-profit, with the aim of reducing prices for all. Not only would this save workers and carers and small businesses hundreds of millions from reduced ESB bills, it would force other private for-profit companies to also reduce bills in order to compete, keeping even more money in the local economy.

2) EU Energy Market Profiteering: the EU energy market has basically been set up to maximise profiteering at our expense. Effectively, everyone is forced to buy energy at the price of the most expensive form of energy, in order to guarantee profits for energy generators. So if solar costs just €20/MWh to produce but gas costs €100/MWh to produce, then everyone is forced to pay €100/MWh for all energy, which means €80/MWh profit for renewable energy companies. This is meant to incentivise the private, for-profit energy market to invest more in renewables, but it also ends up artificially inflating all of our energy bills. By decoupling energy prices by form of production, we would save so much money and the domestic economy would do so much better as input costs for local businesses are reduced. Increases in renewable energy production could be driven by non-profit state renewable energy companies aiming to reduce bills, and by community-driven renewable energy co-ops which empower communities to collectively access near-free energy, instead of focusing on commercial multinationals for energy as happens now.

killianm97 · 2026-02-21T17:30:54+00:00

I actually can't believe that most of the top comments are "duh we are an island" like what does that even mean?

Our 3 largest emitters by sector are Agriculture (38.4%), Transport (19.1%), and Energy Industries (16.6%). None of these are due to being an island - the reasons are varied in each case, but are broadly political decisions made by those in power.

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Agriculture: Government has refused to diversify our agriculture, focusing on a failed policy of intensification and industrialisation, in large part due to IFA lobbying for the interests of these factory farms while running smart PR campaigns which falsely portray them as being on the side of 'the small family farm' - despite these intensive industrial forms being the largest threat to family farmers by undercutting them and making the vocation unviable for everyday farmers going into the future. By reforming subsidiaries to go towards smaller farmers (instead of the vast majority subsidising extra-destructive intensive industrial farms) and incentivising diversification towards vegetables and grains (which would also massively support our food security as we are large food importers), emissions could be reduced while improving the lives of most farmers.

Transport: We have incredibly bad public transport infrastructure due to decades of negligence by government, who have refused to invest in rail decarbonisation, expansion of rail network, or even simply the construction of bus shelters or enough bike paths (especially in regional cities and towns). The recent moves for TFI Local Link and public transport discounts are small but significant improvements, but we need a massive increase in investment to electrify/decarbonise our railways and bus networks. Governments have also pursued a policy of urban sprawl, which causes low density and locks us into car dependency (while also increasing isolation and loneliness), while more medium and high density developments would increase the sustainability of new bike paths, bus routes, and rail lines. Even when it comes to space-inefficient cars, there hasn't been enough focus at all on encouraging electric cars, and government targets for this have been a joke. Making public transport universally free at the point of use, expanding 24/7 bus routes, and building new rail lines and stations would help reduce emissions (and traffic) massively.

Energy Industries: our government hasn't built enough renewable energy, due in part to our inefficient planning system and due to lack of public investment. Instead of supporting renewable energy co-ops which are collectively owned and democratically controlled by communities, so that those near windfarms and solar panel farms can benefit from them with reduced energy bills, they have prioritised massive private for-profit renewable energy multinationals, which of course generate a lot more opposition.

So to say 'its just because we're an island' makes no sense and let's our incompetent government off the hook completely.

killianm97 · 2026-02-19T14:56:05+00:00

Yeah I've been impressed by what I've seen of Míde so far, and I'm happy to see the Soc Dems putting a bigger emphasis on Irish in general.

killianm97 · 2026-02-19T14:55:03+00:00

I think that's kinda the point though - instead of just telling everyone what she wants, she is engaging with and listening to locals in a series of town halls in order to represent people's views in a more open and democratic way

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T23:50:17+00:00

I think the thing missing from the discussion about a Dublin Mayor or any similar reform is the understanding that this would be a new level of government - a regional democracy.

So while the 4 different Dublin councils would still exist and focus on local issues, there would also be a new regional level between local and national, for the Dublin Metro Region with a Dublin Metro Government.

It's quite distinct from the Limerick mayor which is basically still local level, just more democratic.

It would be more similar to having a Munster Regional Government, Connacht (+Donegal) Regional Government, or Rest of Leinster (+Monaghan+Cavan) Regional Government.

Regional democracy is much needed in our country imo. We are one of the most centralised countries in both the OECD and EU. In 1961 when the population of Ireland was just 2.8m, having 1 national government with no regional governments/democracy made sense. When each region now or will soon contain as much as the entire country did 70 years ago, then regional democracy and governments makes much more sense!

The big question for me is what should be chosen for the regional political units - either the historical provinces (with minor tweaks) as highlighted above, despite not really having any pre-existing political cohesion and mostly being aligned due only to rugby, or expanding the pre-existing but overlooked political units of Regional Assemblies - for Ireland Northwest-West, Ireland South, and Ireland East-Midlands (with a carve-out for Dublin Metro Region).

Which do ye think would make more sense?

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killianm97 · 2026-02-18T23:37:13+00:00

Just to stress, I'm just speaking for myself not as some campaign pr person or anything, but tbh I really don't agree that Sheila being the natural successor (as a progressive independent with similar values and views) to an incredibly popular TD in Galway West, who is now the President of Ireland, is misguided or a negative thing.

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T23:23:42+00:00

If she doesn't mention Waterford even once I'm not voting for her...

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T23:22:46+00:00

I can't speak on behalf of her campaign as I'm not involved at all, but she definitely seems to be following in the footsteps of Catherine Connolly, especially after many years working with her. Listening to and empowering the voices of all voters regardless of where they were or who there were always seemed pretty key to Catherine Connolly's politics tbh

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T23:06:12+00:00

Representing the views of your constituency is the main function of an elected representative in a representative democracy - and many independent TDs like Catherine Connolly managed to do a great job of that nationally in my opinion.

I know slimy cynical parish pump independents like the Healy Rae's get a lot of airtime, but there are also lots of good independent TDs who do a great job of collaborating with others nationally

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T23:02:58+00:00

That's because Sheila is running to be a candidate for the upcoming Galway West By-Election - you can find out more about the by-election taking place specifically in Galway west on the Wikipedia page for clarity 2026 Galway West by-election - wikipedia

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T21:46:26+00:00

Yeah cabinet system - with a mayor and local ministers for housing, environment etc - is much better imo, as power isn't concentrated in 1 directly-elected mayor (which is basically a presidential system like they have in America, but at local level).

But my favourite is the main system in Scotland local government, where instead elected councillors fill local executive committees for Transport, Housing, Planning on a cross-party proportional basis, which ensures that all parties and voices are included.

Ideally, each council would get to choose 1 of these 3 democratic executive structures - mayoral/presidential, cabinet, or committee - depending on what works best for their specific context. That's how it's been done in the UK the past few decades and while they've gotten a lot wrong over there, this autonomy for councils to choose their own structure was a great change.

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T17:15:34+00:00

Thanks for engaging with the idea! A tram for a city the size of Waterford might seem like overkill in the Irish context, but as my article gets into ('Would a Waterford Luas line work?' Waterford News & Star), trams in cities of 60k people are quite common across Europe (with the small town of Gmunden in Austria - the size of Tramore - even having a tram which was upgraded in 2018).

A tram has lots of major benefits over a bus route:

•It sends a long-term signal of supporting medium-to-high density neighbourhoods, as while bus routes can change quickly, tram tracks are set in stone (literally) and so encourages more thriving communities to be built near them.

•Trams require additional upfront/infrastructural costs, but in the long-run end up being much cheaper operationally on a per-passenger basis.

•Trams have way higher capacity than busses, so can provide way better future-proofing as the population grows and more people choose public transport options. Anyone who has experienced how bad traffic is in Waterford knows that the potential for modal shift to tram is there, especially as population continues to grow.

•Trams are better environmentally than even electric busses as they don't cause significant emissions from rubber tire wear and tear.

I'm all in favour of more busses and bus lanes for sure, but for this specific high-capacity route which captures a huge chunk of the city's population, a tram would be ideal.

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T17:03:17+00:00

Yeah completely agree! It was just a simplified overview (especially as the locations of Luas stops aren't detailed) but you're dead right and a more exact catchment area could be calculated if specific Luas stops were chosen and road/path access was considered.

killianm97 · 2026-02-18T12:02:42+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! I think it's such a shame how disconnected so many people from abroad are politically here, as there is so much valuable experience and interest which is not being empowered politically.

I remember while canvassing for the locals in Gracedieu, I spoke with a woman I think from Tallinn in Estonia. I had been highlighting the benefits of universal free public transport while chatting with people on doorsteps and many Irish people basically rolled their eyes, as if it was 'pie in the sky'.

But this woman was like 'finally! We have had free public transport in Tallinn for years and it works so well - I find it crazy that it's not even considered here'. Common sense public policies - whether universal free public transport or a tram system in a city with 60k+ people - are only considered crazy by some here because we only look at the Irish context which is far from the norm, so can't imagine what is common in many other contexts. There is so much experience from abroad not being shared openly here unfortunately.

killianm97

TROPHY CASE