US government takes a 10% stake in Intel

[sc94597]

sundin13 said:

sc94597 said:

I am actually not opposed to this, although I wish it was done by some actual law rather than Trump's arbitrary whim. 

The tech industry needs to be more democratically embedded than it is. And I say this as a tech worker who is optimistic of the current industry trends. 

As a socialist, if Republicans want to accidentally expand public ownership and justify it as some sort of "patriotism" they can go ahead. Next time we get an actual left-wing government (maybe in the 2030's as unemployment reaches 20% due to AI and automation) we can tie this public ownership to social benefits, expand it, and promote cooperativism or codetermination. 

If the US Government is taking stake in corporations, they need to ensure those corporations are working for the public good, else it is just glorified welfare for big business.

Even if the corporations aren't "working for the public good" and just profiting like other corporations, at least the public is ostensibly benefiting by sharing in those profits (in this case 10% of them.)

Of course that is assuming the U.S Government is itself providing public goods. 

This is essentially the basis of state-owned enterprises. 

Plus as ownership increases and the SOE's are therefore more democratically embedded there is more public influence. 

So yeah, I think public ownership is good in itself and not just "glorified welfare for big business." It's a much better solution compared to the generous loans and bailouts we saw in the Great Recession, for example. 

It just sucks that Trump is doing it for his crony self-interest.

Last edited by sc94597 - on 27 August 2025