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Silicon Valley Values Shift To Customersploitation
theodp writes "Bill Davidow is the real Silicon Valley deal. Commenting on how Silicon Valley has changed over the decades, Davidow is not impressed, dishing out harsh words for Facebook, Apple, Google, and others. 'When corporate leaders pursue wealth in the winner-take-all Internet environment,' concludes Davidow, 'companies dance on the edge of acceptable behavior. If they don't take it to the limit, a competitor will. That competitor will become the dominant supplier — one monopoly will replace another. And when you engage in these activities you get a different set of Valley values: the values of customer exploitation.'"
Adapt to what?
"Me and mine first, and fuck everyone else", that's what. Basic animal survival instincts, sans-humanity.
Nah, that's just basic libertarian philosophy.
Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
Libertarians are just going with the flow, then.
When you put a lot of each-should-help-others (socialist) policies in place, several important things happen:
1) Those who get free stuff from the policies immediately become less productive. Since their reward is not a product of their contribution, they lose their primary incentive to contribute, and stop contributing. Sure some noble souls continue to go above-and-beyond, but they are the exception and not the rule, and the increasing number of non-contributory members makes the system increasingly unsustainable.
2) Those who are having their productivity taxed to support the policies start losing their incentives to be productive too. They experience a lower reward for their efforts, since a percentage of it will be sucked away and delivered to the unproductive members of group 1. This breeds animosity and rebellion; people start looking for ways to skirt their contribution requirements or otherwise exploit the system for their personal gain. This also weakens the sustainability of the system.
3) As the sustainability limits of the system are reached, the response is to do it even more; even more taxation to fund even more social problems, creating a downward spiral.
4) Those who organize and execute the systems (the politicians) wind up with way too much power, and invariably start exploiting it for personal gain. They divert funds from the intended recipients to their porkbarrel projects, make arrangements that are extremely profitable for specific businesses and then become members of the board of directors once their government term of service is up, etc.
All of these consequences stem from the same basic truth: most humans act in their own best interest. Whether that is noble or not, whether it is right nor not, doesn't matter. It is what humans do, and this aspect of human nature cannot be changed. Not by law, not by policy, not by encouragement, not by religion, not by anything. Humans will always revert to essential selfishness, and any system which is built on essential selflessness will therefore fail.
I've seen this word before. Usually in liberal blogs that view everything profitable as "evil".
Ya know, it's not really possible for a company to exploit you if you don't buy their product. Like the Comcast cable I don't buy. Or the shiny new SUV I didn't buy. Or the $200 kindle fire I didn't buy. Or the hulu I didn't subscribe to. And so on. Companies can only rip-you-off if you play their game..... so don't play the game and they can't touch you.
Unless the idiot Democratic Congress rams-through a TARP bailout and Corporate Welfare "stimulus" as law. Government is the real danger because it can take your money against your will.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"