Alberto Cottica

Post-growth economist, citizen, runner. Network science, complex systems, digital anthropology, collective intelligence. Co-founder of Edgeryders, currently with the United Nations Development Programme. Ex minor rockstar. Polyamorous. Thoughts my own.

#economics
#degrowth
#postgrowth
#anthropology
#NetworkScience

No license, implied or explicit, is granted to use any of my posts for training AI models.

website: https://www.cottica.net

Public Key

npub1w4lv8l7nmp9wqa2fp0cstavvs7pf7r9ll7r0a7z0e7shlqz00w5qyszlz7

NIP-05 Address

alberto_cottica_at_mastodon.green@momostr.pink

Profile Code

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Last Notes

2026-04-14 07:52:57 UTC

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The collection of signatures continues until January 2027. The political goal should now be to make this the most successful ECI ever (I imagine this, since I am not involved in its organization). I think 3-4 million signatures is not unrealistic.
As part of this goal, minimum thresholds should be achieved in more member states (minimum is 7, currently 10).
2/3

2026-04-14 07:48:32 UTC

RE: https://mastodon.green/@alberto_cottica/116368064283097406
1/2
I am delighted to announce that the European Citizen Initiative (ECI) asking the EU to suspend the association agreement with Israel on human rights grounds has collected over one million signatures. The @npub1m96…ag4y and the European Parliament have now a legal obligation to respond. 300K signatures were collected in less than one week!
I know this because six days ago I wrote a thread to explain how ECIs work and ask people to support this ECI in particular.
#gaza
#iran
#peace
#note1llm…s53v

2026-04-08 08:45:45 UTC

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Many of us, myself included, feel powerless in the face of geopolitical tides. As small as it is, this ECI, I feel, gives us a chance to weigh in and improve the very poor state of the public debate on these issues.
So, my recommendation to you is: sign it, if you are a EU citizen and you agree with it. Fight it if you disagree. Both will be better than just passively trusting the diplomats.
Also gives us something to do as we wait for the next doomsday deadline anyway. Hang in there!
7/end

2026-04-08 08:44:48 UTC

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So, for once clicktivism is not a travesty. It's easy, and it could have a big impact. At a minimum you are giving pro-human rights MEPs ammo to demand a public debate on why we are in business with Israel, and, more in general, what price "being in business" comes with, and for whom.
6/

2026-04-08 08:28:29 UTC

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Let's acknowledge these countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden. Well done!
The second condition is on track to be met and exceeded, too. As I write this, the petition stands at 712,525 – almost 3/4 of the way, with still 9 months to go. This could easily be the most successful ECI ever.
5/

2026-04-08 08:22:25 UTC

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There are two success conditions. First, petitions need to gather at least one million signatures within a year of starting collection. Second, in at least seven different member states certain minimum thresholds must be reached in the number of signatures collected nationally.
Most ECIs fail, but this particular petition is doing VERY well. It started collection in January; the second condition is already exceeded, with ten member states achieving over 100% of their thresholds.
4/

2026-04-08 08:17:55 UTC

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An ECI is a "very official" form of petition, run by the European Union itself. If it is successful, the @npub1m96…ag4y has a legal obligation to respond with an official act. Additionally, the European Parliament organizes a hearing centered on the petition, and might (but it is far from certain) also discuss it in plenary.
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/how-it-works_en
3/

2026-04-08 08:11:42 UTC

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This treaty is the legal cornerstone of cooperation between the two parties. Its suspension would be a big deal for Israel: the EU is by far its main trading partner, and its universities rely on the Horizon Europe programme for research funding.
Early this year, a group of people launched a European Citizen Initiative (ECI) to demand its suspension:
https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/initiatives/details/2025/000005_en
2/

2026-04-08 08:09:06 UTC

If you are a European Union citizen, there is a concrete way you can support a peaceful resolution in Iran and Gaza: you can demand the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement in view of Israel’s violations of human rights.
#peace
#palestine
#iran
THREAD 1/

2026-04-05 20:05:51 UTC

@npub1afm…5gp4 going through Warsaw airport on my way to Yerevan and was reminded of that hackerspace you introduced us to that one time 🙂. What was it called again?

2026-04-05 14:05:59 UTC

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that's a masterclass in passive-aggression, Michal. Well played!

2026-04-02 06:53:51 UTC

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that's not how I understand it. Is resilience not a property of systems? When applied to individuals it would still refer to.some kind of system, for example if I live and work in the same dense neighborhood my life is more resilient to shocks that affect transport and mobility.

2026-03-18 15:15:01 UTC

It looks like #degrowth has become big enough that its proponents are starting to police one another for being unorthodox. Fortunately, the mighty Giorgos Kallis has wise words of advice:
"What if, instead, we were all to relax and cherish the plurality of political and exploratory pathways opened by degrowth? [...] What if we were to accept that [...] there will be different theories of degrowth too, and different political proposals for achieving it? "
https://degrowth.info/en/blog/what-s-wrong-with-degrowth-nothing
#economics

2026-03-08 21:06:21 UTC

Many moons ago, I used #RSS feed readers to read blogs. A recent post by @npub1fdr…lvhs has pointed out that this technology is not gone, and we can use it to make the experience of the Internet, to borrow Cory's word, bearable.
https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/07/reader-mode/
OK. To all you out there in the know, a request for advice: what do I use on Ubuntu? I would really like not to see ads by the reader, it kind of defeats the purpose.
Huge thanks for suggestions.

2026-02-21 16:57:27 UTC

Here is an European Citizen Initiative asking the @npub1m96…ag4y to block certain imports from Russia (like steel and fertilizers) that are simple to replace with imports from countries that are not waging war on European soil. Makes sense to me. Collection of signatures just started a few days ago.
https://eci.ec.europa.eu/057/public/#/screen/home
#ukraine

2026-02-10 08:56:10 UTC

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To this, I would humbly add a bit more specificity: the benefit for the wealthy is not so much in "number goes up" or "number eat dirt" per se, it's in VOLATILITY. Buy in a crash, sell just before the next crash, rinse, repeat. This allows you to extract the value others have built using liquidity.
Taleb makes this point forcefully in "Black Swan". Steady, predictable prosperity is bad for the rich. Their interests are fundamentally misaligned with everybody else's.
2/2

2026-02-10 08:54:15 UTC

This post by @npub1fdr…lvhs makes an important point: the wealthy ("the Epstein class") benefit from economic crashes, because, when ordinary people are in debt and distress, they are the only ones with the cash to scoop up their assets for pennies on the dollar.
1/2

2026-01-19 16:16:14 UTC

"Data from 136 countries confirms that as economic resources become more unequally distributed, so too does political power. This leads to policy outcomes that reflect the preferences of upper-income groups more than those of lower-income groups."
Policy outcomes that reflect the preferences of the rich, indeed. A neutral formulation for a dire outcome – one that, among other things, is costing out the planet with the irreversible climate change already in place.
https://www.oxfam.org/en/resisting-rule-rich

2025-09-22 08:52:56 UTC

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emphatic yes. Successful civilizations do not make great, stupidly expensive coffee for the privileged, but great commodified coffee available to all.
(which is to say that successful civilizations do not measure economic performance in monetary terms, but in the ability to satisfy human needs within planetary boundaries)

2025-09-22 08:44:01 UTC

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ahhh, indeed, I did not get the joke.
As you must have found out by now, Italians are almost never coffee geeks, and do not make a big deal about coffee. We expect great coffee as a matter of course and with minimum fuss: a cup of espresso should cost 1 EUR and take 30 seconds to serve at the counter. No equipment needed except a moka (and a grinder, if that's your pleasure). Buy once, use forever.

2025-09-22 07:55:43 UTC

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what's wrong with this? Lasts forever, never glitches. No cutesy design needed.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/115/246/871/064/949/039/original/fdd1f9eed5bd7bca.png

2025-08-22 15:46:15 UTC

"This is a fight about who gets priority over scarce resources: the public, or Big Tech’s power-hungry servers."
The British government overruled a local Council to force through the construction of a massive 90MW data centre in Buckinghamshire. Now two non-profits, called Foxglove and Global Action Plan, are crowdfunding to take the British Government to court.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/datacentre-challenge/
#butlerianjihad
#AI

2025-08-16 14:59:49 UTC

"When you are paying by the "pull of the handle," the vendor's incentive is not to solve your problem with a single pull, but to give the appearance of progress towards solving your problem."
Working with #AI as gambling: another thought-provoking reflection by @npub1fdr…lvhs
https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/16/jackpot/#salience-bias

2025-08-10 21:00:06 UTC

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3/3
But, of course, fooling all of the people all of the time is VERY difficult. I can almost taste the strain on the system – for example when Jeremy Corbyn's Your Party in the UK managed to gain 600K members in about a week and become the country's first party by membership. That's over double the membership of Labour, and four times that of the Tories.
So, if you were thinking of starting a progressive party and run for office, now is the time. Go forth, and bring down these neocon ghouls!

2025-08-10 20:56:29 UTC

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2/3
Implication: a true democratic process in the so-called West would turn the tables, and end the rule of billionaires and giant corporations. Substantial resources are being deployed to restrict the political offer so that most people do not have the option of voting for credible candidates that support those progressive policy options. For example, media are pushing the idea of the Overton window – if an idea is not being talked about in polite company, you do not cover it..

2025-08-10 20:51:09 UTC

1/3
The mighty @npub1fdr…lvhs put together a remarkable list of survey results, stating that "good ideas are popular". By this, he means that large majorities in many countries support progressive economic policies, up to and including socialism. Large majorities mistrust and loathe capitalism for putting profit over people and planet.
https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/07/the-people-no-2/

2025-08-01 09:46:28 UTC

Sci-fi author Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and I are working on a script that extracts economic concepts from reviews of science fiction novels. We are interested in observing convergences: are there alternative economies that feel believable to several authors? Here is a first shot, using reviews mostly written by myself over the years. Authors reviewed include @npub1fdr…lvhs , @npub180t…3agy @npub1hhs…rl5g, @npub1rhm…wgvj, Kim Stanley Robinson, and others.
https://edgeryders.eu/t/what-if-we-turned-the-sci-fi-economics-wiki-into-data/19688/13?u=alberto
#economics #sciencefiction
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/114/952/860/846/361/299/original/82eb266385cfb7ad.png

2025-07-15 21:02:55 UTC

Everybody, do yourselves a favour and read this post from @npub1fdr…lvhs .
AI is not about the tech. Neither were blockchains and the metaverse. It's always about the economics.
Pluralistic: When Google’s slop meets webslop, search stops (15 Jul 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/15/inhuman-gigapede/#coprophagic-ai
#AI
#enshittification

2025-07-05 06:29:31 UTC

Peak #Italy on #climateChange:
"A spokesperson for an association of Italian ice cream makers in Germany told the Rheinische Post the heat wave was making it too hot for ice cream. When the temperature outside gets above 30°C (86°F), people prefer something to drink instead."
AMOC slowing down, giant storms and huge wildfires are bad, but people preferring drinks over ice cream WILL NOT STAND.
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/07/04/european-central-bank-boldly-goes-where-others-fear-to-tread/

2025-06-26 18:55:48 UTC

Ye Gods. @npub1fdr…lvhs goes straight to the heart: advances in surveillance technology make it possible for the oligarchs to push our society deeper jnto democratic debt. Until... What? 100 families eat UK the entire world's wealth? The guillotines come out?
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114750843996343134

2025-06-10 17:44:58 UTC

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maybe @npub1fdr…lvhs got tired of the "future is not evenly distributed yet" quote and decided to give that distribution a push.
I know these days he is pretty much my economist of reference.

2025-06-09 18:56:14 UTC

New study (longitudinal data!): protected bike lanes *cause* people to take up cycling as their way to commute. Painted bike lanes have no discernible effects. ROI on protected bike lanes is the highest of all bike infrastructure.
Who could possibly have imagined it, eh 🤣
https://momentummag.com/want-more-bike-commuters-build-protected-bike-lanes-says-new-study/

2025-05-09 06:49:41 UTC

"Make war not just unthinkable, but materially impossible." Today marks 75 years since the Schuman Declaration.
A bit of European history to be proud of. Let's cherish it.

2025-04-28 13:32:24 UTC

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thanks for the heads up. I have now followed [@bert_hubert](https://fosstodon.org/@bert_hubert ) 🙂

2025-04-16 17:49:56 UTC

These DOGE emails lend themselves to being imitated by phishing schemes or just generic fraudsters.
https://mastodon.world/@obtener/114348648816583025

2025-04-10 12:54:18 UTC

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I am curious as to how the choice of Microsoft as a provider was nevertheless made. So I made a FOIA request, which came back today:
https://www.asktheeu.org/request/security_risks_associated_to_the
The result is inconclusive: DIGIT does not have the information. "the European Commission limits its cloud services to be operated within the EU by general principle" (but then Microsoft is considered Irish 🤦‍♂️ ), "adheres to binding public procurement rules when contracting cloud providers", etc.
2/n

2025-04-10 12:48:17 UTC

The @npub1m96…ag4y uses Microsoft applications for the everyday work of most its officials. This is puzzling:
* in conflict with the Union's strategic autonomy objective.
* a wasted opportunity to use procurement strategically, bringing business to European IT companies (even better if open-source based).
* disturbing securiy implications as US authorities have eyes and killswitches on all our executive's IT systems.
1/n
#Europe
#infosec

2025-03-31 13:58:49 UTC

The combo of monopoly, unlimited property rights, and erosion of privacy rights souped up by AI has created a toxic world where private companies have both the legal and practical power to deny essential services to people who criticize them. This post by @npub1fdr…lvhs is his clearest formulation of the problem yet:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/31/madison-square-garden/#autocrats-of-trade
Conclusion: a healthy economy must have strong anti-monopoly provisions, or it won't stay healthy for long.

2025-01-25 08:49:53 UTC

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shame, would love to catch up. And with my newfound reluctance to flying, it is unlikely I'll show up in Rejkiavik any time soon...

2025-01-24 11:11:49 UTC

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apologies for a slow response, Tommi. Why don't you and @npub1xzr…laxe and I share a coffee at some point? A point of attention: I won't be at FOSDEM, so it would be some coffee shop in town. We could also involve @npub1y6p…pcc3 – similar situation to all of you, but we already know each other a bit. And of course it would be a joy to see @npub1afm…5gp4 again, but I am not sure he'll show up in Brussels this year.

2025-01-22 13:49:59 UTC

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I live in Brussels if that counts.

2025-01-11 11:20:26 UTC

"Your Iphone isn’t an ad-supported gimme. You paid a thousand fucking dollars for that distraction rectangle in your pocket, and you’re still the product. What’s more, Apple has rigged Ios so that you can’t mod the OS to block its spying.
If you’re not paying for the product, you’re the product, and if you are paying for the product, you’re still the product."
Good stuff happens when @npub1fdr…lvhs joins #SOTW2025
https://people.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/551/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page05.html#post106
#surveillanceCapitalism

2025-01-09 16:51:08 UTC

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sounds to me like you are calling for a new _economic_ paradigm, one based on the efficiency of public information instead of the exclusivity (hence monetizability) of paywalls. I could not agree more! #NewEconomicThinking #OpenKnowledge

2024-12-23 17:36:23 UTC

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hmm. Need to think about this analogy. But even then, I guess the message is: my patience is running out, and I am now (hypothetically, since I have no power whatsoever) willing to do some damage to get results.

2024-12-23 17:11:15 UTC

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human sympathy does you honour. But the advertising industry is harmful, and it has to go. Anyone choosing to make their living as an influencer is complicit in it. So, sympathetic yes, on a good day. Conflicted, hell no.

2024-12-22 08:49:03 UTC

"Making art is not an "economically rational" activity. Neither is attempting to persuade other people to your point of view. These activities are not merely intrinsically satisfying, they are also necessary, at least for many of us."
Amen to that, brother @npub1fdr…lvhs. Let me take the opportunity to thank you for your blog: your writing is cognitive prosthetics not only to you, but to me too. Happy holidays!
https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/21/blockheads-r-us/#vocational-awe

2024-12-19 11:21:34 UTC

I need to travel to Istanbul from Brussels in March. Wondering: is there a way to do it by #CrossBorderRail ? Willing to consider a mix of rail, road and sea, and grateful for any pointer.

2024-12-19 11:17:01 UTC

The European Union's Next Generation Internet Initiative @npub17xc…rqd8 drops X and adopts Mastodon as its main communication channel.
https://ngi.eu/news/2024/11/29/ngi-projects-end-use-of-x/

2024-12-09 20:46:26 UTC

Oh, look: @npub1fdr…lvhs has published a thread where he reflects on predicting the murder of execs of murderous health insurance companies in a country full of assault rifles.
Do yourselves a favour and read his novella "Radicalized", which is about just that.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/113624672834296987

2024-12-08 14:16:13 UTC

I was one of the people to write to MEPs and and representatives of member states in the Council, arguiing the the EU's Deforestation was a good idea, and asking them to push back against its watering-down proposed by the usual suspects, EPP and the rights.
They did, but also delayed the regulation from coming into effect by one year: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/eu-delays-deforestation-ban-but-discards-changes/ar-AA1vjN1q
#ClimateCrisis #biodiversity #europe

2024-11-20 12:52:15 UTC

"II dislike how the #realestate market has financialized the human right to decent housing, and I dislike how our way of building homes have made us lonely, alienated, surrounded by strangers. As an economist, I also find modern housing incredibly inefficient, because it does not produce public goods – like common spaces and communities – that are, by definition, the most efficient goods there are."
Four things I learned building a #cohousing project in #Brussels – http://www.cottica.net/2024/11/20/four-things-i-learned-building-a-cohousing-project-in-brussels/
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/113/515/366/895/615/550/original/95cae11dc9c6e91d.jpg

2024-11-11 20:21:13 UTC

So, this needs to be said: two weeks ago something happened that made me proud to be Belgian. THREAD!
Here's the story. A friend – I will call her Caroline – got in touch after a silence of several years. We used to work together back in the day, and had become sort-of-friends. We had stayed in touch through a common friend, who, like me, lives in Brussels. Caroline herself, who lived in the US when we worked together, was now back to France.
1/
#Belgium

2024-11-08 17:40:34 UTC

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Brexit was a textbook bezzle. For two years, people were like "Welp, I did not know [INSERT OBVIOUS CONSEQUENCE OF LEAVING THE EU] would happen!"

2024-11-02 12:34:03 UTC

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nice gig if you can get it, my friend

2024-10-21 12:47:12 UTC

"It is disappointing to see [GDP] used in a document of the importance of the Draghi report. #NewEconomicThinking scholars would have tried to estimate physical productivity: for example, by comparing worked hours and material input with some measure of human welfare like the United Nations’ Human Development Index."
http://www.cottica.net/2024/10/15/the-draghi-report-vs-new-economic-thinking/
#economics #MarioDraghi #degrowth #EUCommission

2024-10-06 12:08:50 UTC

The Draghi report is not big on the #CircularEconomy:
"Recycling of most other waste streams, including chemicals and plastics, to the contrary, does not have a viable business case at present. [...] Recycled materials can replace fossil feedstock, but the recycling comes with costs in collection, sorting and processing that make it more expensive than virgin material, and the recyclates tend to be of limted quality, making it difficult to justify a green premium."
https://commission.europa.eu/topics/strengthening-european-competitiveness/eu-competitiveness-looking-ahead_en

2024-09-24 16:28:28 UTC

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actually I have a shorter read myself. All you need is section 4. https://www.cottica.net/2023/11/24/designer-economies-how-much-freedom-do-we-really-have-when-imagining-believable-economic-systems/

2024-09-24 15:02:05 UTC

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you would like @npub1cdn…ndeg 's "The Value of Everything". #economics

2024-09-21 12:10:44 UTC

"On average, the intensity of heavy precipitation events increases by 7% for each degree of global warming."
With 2°C already baked in, this means our bridges, dams and sewers are now way under specifications. Brace for (a lot of) further damage. And build some ruggedness if you can afford to.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/climate-scientists-troubled-by-damage-from-floods-ravaging-central-europe?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
#ClimateCrisis

2024-09-17 10:06:58 UTC

Dear fellow Europeans, I am respectfully asking you to consider signing this European Citizen Initiative to institute a billionaire tax. It was invented by leading French economist Thomas Piketty; I read the whole thing, and it is technically excellent. Hit me if you have questions, but please sign it, it is important.
https://www.tax-the-rich.eu/
It needs 1 million signatures (currently 300K) and seven countries over their threshold (currently three: Denmark, France, Germany).
#economics #tax

2024-08-07 13:01:30 UTC

1/
The ever-brilliant @npub1fdr…lvhs calls our attention to the fact that, in the US of A, three companies control the market for school lunch payments, and they hit poor families with junk fees that go up to 60% of what families pay.
https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry
Now, some of you might have seen newer economics papers refer to something called “mode of provisioning”. The concept is not very intuitive, but – I believe – the story of school lunch payments is great to explain it.
https://files.mastodon.green/media_attachments/files/112/920/853/635/316/613/original/a201248a0b281b35.jpg

2024-08-04 17:17:11 UTC

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truth.

2024-05-19 22:30:03 UTC

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yes. And I would add: better FOR WHOM. Looking at what capitalism brought to the Global South, where most people live.. well.
@npub182r…pm8s @npub165c…tdlq