vga
@vga@sopuli.xyz
- Comment on The existence of billionaires is a policy failure 6 days ago:
I don’t think so. Protectionism was high, government-granted monopolies were typical. The British East India Company was the only company that was allowed trade with India and China from UK, for instance. The Dutch had something similary.
Perhaps later though in late 1800s it was more like you described.
- Comment on The existence of billionaires is a policy failure 6 days ago:
Sorry, do you think a business failing is only possible with government coercion?
No, more like that actual monopolies are possible only by government coercion. Failure obviously doesn’t require that.
And what government coercion gave Google near monopolies on web search and video? Microsoft Windows accounts for 70% of desktop computers, did a government give them that? Whom did the government coerce for Amazon to have such domination of server hosting and online retail?
Yeah, that is true at least in the short term. Windows indeed had even larger percentages at some point, but eventually it has been chipped away by competition.
I’m not calling free markets a magic tool that always works well. Rather a tool that needs to be controlled carefully and as little as possible for the best results. For instance, making Microsoft stop bundling IE with their operating system in the 90s, I’m not sure if that decision had any effect. Then again, EU declaring that mobile operators must adhere to certain rulesets opened up the market a whole lot. So it’s not just about following the best ideology, the details of decisions have to be good as well.
- Comment on The existence of billionaires is a policy failure 1 week ago:
I don’t remember that ever happening without government coercion. Can you refresh my memory?
- Comment on The existence of billionaires is a policy failure 1 week ago:
If you want to fix it you need a new economic system.
We could try free markets.
- Comment on The existence of billionaires is a policy failure 1 week ago:
Either not taxed enough or there’s almost no competition in the thing they do. And in a healthy free market, there should definitely be competition in a field that nets that much profits. The logical conclusion is that something is actively preventing the competition.
- Comment on Me when Valve releases a phone 1 week ago:
If it’s the size of an iphone 13 mini or smaller, I’ll buy it.
- Comment on Our first look at the Steam Machine, Valve’s ambitious new game console 1 week ago:
All is console, console is all.
- Comment on Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026] 1 week ago:
If Valve makes ARM Linux work properly as a gaming/desktop OS, I will uhh hmm.
I will buy this thing.
- Comment on 3 weeks ago:
I recommend Zero Sievert for anyone interested in the genre.
- Comment on Nearly 90% of Windows Games now run on Linux, latest data shows — as Windows 10 dies, gaming on Linux is more viable than ever 3 weeks ago:
Meanwhile nearly 60% of Windows Gmaes now run on Windows.
- Comment on Banana 4 weeks ago:
Eggs.
- Comment on coping 4 weeks ago:
Lemmy 30-year old teenagers, perhaps
- Comment on coping 5 weeks ago:
Lemmy edition:
Bigger than you = nazis
Richer than you = first ones against the wall
Smarter than you = nazis
Look better = conservatives aka nazis
- Comment on Framework under fire for Omarchy/DHH/Hyprland support? 1 month ago:
I cannot speak for anyone else, but a year ago I thought that I’d never buy a chinese laptop due to political reasons and here we are one year later and I have a Lenovo.
- Comment on Framework under fire for Omarchy/DHH/Hyprland support? 1 month ago:
Given the amount of publicity they’ve received from all this, I’m inclined to be a bit conspiracy theoretic about this… Did they plan it to unfold exactly like it did?
- Comment on Some are too young to understand 1 month ago:
I’ve had a pretty bad relationship at one point in my life and I still don’t understand why the fuck anyone would think this shit is even remotely funny.
- Comment on Why does the GOP think “ANTIFA” is bad? 1 month ago:
Some or even most of their goals are good, but there’s what I believe to be a fringe that’s anarchist and anti-capitalist. Those fringes are against civilization essentially.
- Comment on Game developers desperate for you to join their Discord "server" 1 month ago:
Upselling
- Comment on Why do companies always need to grow? 1 month ago:
Well, companies like Valve are kinda like that.
- Comment on Why do companies always need to grow? 1 month ago:
I think the focus on growth is not the problem. The problem is leadership thinking that the individual has a significant role in how much they can create growth. The environment is much more significant.
- Comment on Why do companies always need to grow? 1 month ago:
It’s perfectly possible to have a company that is not growing and just stays where it’s at. But then the salaries of the employees won’t be growing either, and if it happens that the company has competition, that non-growing will soon change into shrinking.
- Comment on It's official: EA is going private. 1 month ago:
Is this better or worse than being a public company?
- Comment on Ethical alternatives to Spotify 2 months ago:
You know what I meant, don’t deliberately misunderstand.
- Comment on Ethical alternatives to Spotify 2 months ago:
That pays exactly $0 per stream to the artists.
- Comment on Ethical alternatives to Spotify 2 months ago:
Daniel Ek is investing in European defense companies. This is not unethical.
- Comment on Shape up. 2 months ago:
But not a president.
- Comment on Too soon? 2 months ago:
3000 people all shooting their handguns at the sound of the rifle… might work!
- Comment on Too soon? 2 months ago:
This was apparently done by a sniper, so not really a conceal carry thing.
- Comment on Anon doesn't like AI 2 months ago:
There have been a few studies now that show that it doesn’t really make work efficiënt.
Anecdotally, I’ve been an infinite times more efficient in some tasks thanks to AI.
Hell, it seems to have a negative influence on our brains.
Sure, that could very well be. I would welcome a study that compares its negative effect to social media. My guess is that this is worse.
- Comment on Anon doesn't like AI 2 months ago:
Okay, sure. I’ll rephrase that.
It’ll make existing humans who are not complete morons more efficient.