It’s not like capitalism is doing itself (or the 99%) any favors. When it’s blatantly clear that the ultra rich and short-term profit seeking are responsible for a lot of world problems (extreme pollution, climate change, corruption, being essentially immune to most laws), being “toxic anti-capitalist” is a natural step.
That was probably more valid before WW2. Afterwards, it’s mostly government (military) spending and financing that really funded the innovations we’re using today, at least regarding computers and electronics
The modern PC was developed in a garage. Linux was a pet project. Uber and many other companies was funded by the previous success of another app. The owner sold StumbleUpon to eBay for $75M then used that money to make a killer rideshare app. SpaceX, Tesla, Streaming media. I beg to differ on whether most innovation is government funded. There are thousands of entrepreneurs that prove you wrong on that point.
The USA version of a modern PC, overseas the brits were fiddling with their own versions. It was only possible because the govt spent loads of money financing companies into creating electronics. If not for the USA govt needs and the competition arising from that, its unlikely Silicon Valley would be what it is today, and Steves Wozniak and Jobs probably wouldn’t have access to cheap chips.
Linux was a pet project
Of a university student, not an entrepreneur, and something he did because he didn’t want to pay for a license of MINIX, not for financial gain.
Uber
Is a piece of shit that just tacked together existing technologies and abused a completely unregulated space to grow and dominate the market.
SpaceX
Wouldn’t exist if the USA gov’t didn’t get its shit together after the initial successes of the URSS’s space program. Look how long it took until private companies began bothering with space without direct funding from a government.
There are thousands of entrepreneurs that prove you wrong on that point.
Most of them relying either directly or indirectly on the shoulders of gov’t funded innovation that likely wouldn’t have happened otherwise, especially any company dealing with space. The internet would either have taken longer to develop or be much different without the ARPA Net as a forerunner, for instance. Most of its innovation afterwards came from universities, not entrepreneurs. More often than not, entrepreneurs take existing technologies and find a way to profit on top of them.
Pricing together existing technologies to create new innovations is exactly how things have always worked. We stand on the shoulder of giants. It is the reason why many discoveries happen simultaneously in different parts of the world. Because the latest understanding and tools available make the next innovation possible. Saying that Uber is shit for making a GPS enabled app that can act as a commissioned merchant service is like saying anyone that uses AWS is a bad company because they don’t host their own servers. SpaceX filling in a government void is a great entrepreneur story and puts the scope on how significant government overspending is. The internet would have come about even without ARPANET. University labs were already messing around with these systems and were all working towards transmission protocols.
abused a completely unregulated space to grow and dominate the market
And I didn’t even mention how they began fucking their “partners” (drivers) after their place was consolidated. Not too different from what Amazon did for years to grow into “the” online marketplace despite competition.
When I said that capitalism doesn’t do itself any favors, the reasoning was mainly that. Any innovations or “innovations” are beside the point when the companies and people with a certain amount of money can simply bend the rules to their will. The Microsoft antitrust case in the late 90s became a nothingburger. FacebookMeta after the Cambridge Analytica scandal turned into nothing. Amazon can probably buy its way out of a possible antitrust suit, which is still “being considered”. There’s a reason people joke about “finger wagging” and “wrist slapping” being the biggest punishment the rich ever get
Sorry for the late reply. Busy week being a slave to the system. Need to work hard to play hard though.
Uber did exactly what it should have. It tapped into a blue ocean, creating a brand new vertical in a stale market. This is capitalism at its best, bringing something innovative and useful into the world.
They never presented the gig economy as a career path. It’s a side hustle. Anyone complaining that they can’t feed their family off it is missing the point. It was meant to be something that you do with your car in between jobs for some extra spending money.
I agree that we have an issue with those in power not enforcing market regulation. Plato predicted this too. These are not new concepts by any means. He also said that redistribution of wealth doesn’t work either. His utopian society was a bit wired though. I don’t like the part where no one owns anything.
If anything we need a reset of congressional term limits. That alone might help get more interesting people into politics.
It’s not like capitalism is doing itself (or the 99%) any favors. When it’s blatantly clear that the ultra rich and short-term profit seeking are responsible for a lot of world problems (extreme pollution, climate change, corruption, being essentially immune to most laws), being “toxic anti-capitalist” is a natural step.
Capitalism also funded the innovations that enabled us to have this conversion.
That was probably more valid before WW2. Afterwards, it’s mostly government (military) spending and financing that really funded the innovations we’re using today, at least regarding computers and electronics
The modern PC was developed in a garage. Linux was a pet project. Uber and many other companies was funded by the previous success of another app. The owner sold StumbleUpon to eBay for $75M then used that money to make a killer rideshare app. SpaceX, Tesla, Streaming media. I beg to differ on whether most innovation is government funded. There are thousands of entrepreneurs that prove you wrong on that point.
The USA version of a modern PC, overseas the brits were fiddling with their own versions. It was only possible because the govt spent loads of money financing companies into creating electronics. If not for the USA govt needs and the competition arising from that, its unlikely Silicon Valley would be what it is today, and Steves Wozniak and Jobs probably wouldn’t have access to cheap chips.
Of a university student, not an entrepreneur, and something he did because he didn’t want to pay for a license of MINIX, not for financial gain.
Is a piece of shit that just tacked together existing technologies and abused a completely unregulated space to grow and dominate the market.
Wouldn’t exist if the USA gov’t didn’t get its shit together after the initial successes of the URSS’s space program. Look how long it took until private companies began bothering with space without direct funding from a government.
Most of them relying either directly or indirectly on the shoulders of gov’t funded innovation that likely wouldn’t have happened otherwise, especially any company dealing with space. The internet would either have taken longer to develop or be much different without the ARPA Net as a forerunner, for instance. Most of its innovation afterwards came from universities, not entrepreneurs. More often than not, entrepreneurs take existing technologies and find a way to profit on top of them.
Pricing together existing technologies to create new innovations is exactly how things have always worked. We stand on the shoulder of giants. It is the reason why many discoveries happen simultaneously in different parts of the world. Because the latest understanding and tools available make the next innovation possible. Saying that Uber is shit for making a GPS enabled app that can act as a commissioned merchant service is like saying anyone that uses AWS is a bad company because they don’t host their own servers. SpaceX filling in a government void is a great entrepreneur story and puts the scope on how significant government overspending is. The internet would have come about even without ARPANET. University labs were already messing around with these systems and were all working towards transmission protocols.
The main reason I called Uber shit was this:
And I didn’t even mention how they began fucking their “partners” (drivers) after their place was consolidated. Not too different from what Amazon did for years to grow into “the” online marketplace despite competition.
When I said that capitalism doesn’t do itself any favors, the reasoning was mainly that. Any innovations or “innovations” are beside the point when the companies and people with a certain amount of money can simply bend the rules to their will. The Microsoft antitrust case in the late 90s became a nothingburger. FacebookMeta after the Cambridge Analytica scandal turned into nothing. Amazon can probably buy its way out of a possible antitrust suit, which is still “being considered”. There’s a reason people joke about “finger wagging” and “wrist slapping” being the biggest punishment the rich ever get
Sorry for the late reply. Busy week being a slave to the system. Need to work hard to play hard though.
Uber did exactly what it should have. It tapped into a blue ocean, creating a brand new vertical in a stale market. This is capitalism at its best, bringing something innovative and useful into the world.
They never presented the gig economy as a career path. It’s a side hustle. Anyone complaining that they can’t feed their family off it is missing the point. It was meant to be something that you do with your car in between jobs for some extra spending money.
I agree that we have an issue with those in power not enforcing market regulation. Plato predicted this too. These are not new concepts by any means. He also said that redistribution of wealth doesn’t work either. His utopian society was a bit wired though. I don’t like the part where no one owns anything.
If anything we need a reset of congressional term limits. That alone might help get more interesting people into politics.