MystikIncarnate
@MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
Some IT guy, IDK.
- Comment on Capitalism isn't the problem, THIS is the problem, and I've watched it roll over us for 40 years. [3 min. video] 4 days ago:
I would argue that capitalist monopolies are the problem.
There are examples where a “monopoly” has 100% of the market and they do a good job, usually in non-profit driven contexts. To provide an example: there’s only one organization in pretty much any given area, that handles extinguishing fires. Usually called the fire department, and it’s run by the local body of government in a monopoly context.
They still do a great job, but there’s no competition in fire fighting.
They’re not inherently profit driven.
Also, hats off to the firefighters out there, you guys are awesome. Anyways, back to my point.
There are good organizations that operate a monopoly in their service segment. They’re just typically owned and operated by a democratically elected government. Of the people, for the people, by the people.
Any monopoly that is profit driven, especially any that are capitalistic, will succumb to enshittification, 100% of the time, it’s just a matter of when it happens. The only time that it is possible to not have that happen, is in privately owned corporations, which are rare… But the leadership believes in improving the product more than profiteering. But on a long enough time line, that will also fail because inevitably someone will buy the company or inherit it, and they will want to maximize their profits over everything.
It will always happen when things are privately held, and especially if they’re publicly traded.
- Comment on Capitalism isn't the problem, THIS is the problem, and I've watched it roll over us for 40 years. [3 min. video] 4 days ago:
There’s a paradox I heard of that’s pretty relevant in this line of thought that is pretty transportable to most things. I heard it in the context of IT security.
It goes something like this: you buy security and after 2 or 3 years when you need to renew, nothing bad has happened, so it seems like you don’t need security. When in actual fact the extra security has been the reason there haven’t been any incidents.
So it’s almost impossible to prove that buying the security is helping without extensive analytics.
In many cases those analytics are either very difficult or impossible to get.
To demonstrate the transportable nature of this concept, let’s transpose it to vaccines.
If everyone is vaccinated, then nobody gets sick from those diseases, making it seem like the diseases are not a threat anymore, which means that vaccines are no longer useful.
Meanwhile, in all actual fact, the only reason why polio is so rare is because there is a safe and effective vaccine for it that everyone has taken (replace polio with whatever disease you want that has an effective vaccine).
It’s a paradox of: how do we prove this is working, without discontinuing it and possibly being eaten by rats/leopards/whatever.
If there’s only monopolies in the market then is their product the best on the market, or is everyone using it because there’s no alternatives?
Leaning that monopoly argument against capitalism, it’s almost certainly not the best product. When you have a captive audience, those that need your service and don’t have an alternative, there’s no incentive to innovate, or invest in improving the product at all. Do innovation stagnates so that corporations can maximize shareholder value; because the focus of a corporation isn’t to innovate, or improve what they do, their focus is always on extracting the most value for the least cost.
Therefore, monopolies will almost certainly lead to a sub-optimal product. The people that suffer for this are the users of that product. In the case of something like Google search, that’s basically everyone.
There’s a more modern term for this phenomenon: enshittification. Actively making a product worse specifically for the purposes of creating profits for shareholders.
Late stage capitalism is fun, isn’t it?
- Comment on Anon is a fan of GabeN 6 days ago:
This is such a controversial person to discuss. On one hand, loot boxes, the steam market for trading, and a lot of gambling and profiteering going on. At the same time, all of the OP comments are also true.
Out of all the billionaires, I dislike gaben the least. The net good he’s done for gaming may not balance the scales entirely, but at least there’s a discussion to be had whether what gaben has done is for the better, or for the worse. Which is more than I can say about most billionaires I know of.
- Comment on Fresh dystopian hell from Samsung fridges with ads. 1 week ago:
I don’t really understand the appeal of a smart fridge. Unless it’s going to tell me what groceries to buy, I don’t really need an iPad on my fridge.
In any case, this was all inevitable. Technology has produced a socially acceptable way for corporations to spy on their customers. They’ve been doing that for years. Now they’re putting what they’ve learned to use, so they can sell you more shit and maximize the profit potential per customer.
Maximizing profit isn’t new or is it news of any kind, that’s literally the entire reason corporations exist. There have been entire lawsuits about it. CEOs, sometimes want to reinvest in their workers and use profits to upgrade facilities and give out raises, only to be sued by their shareholders… The shareholders won by the way.
This is necessary for them. Anyone who acts contrary to maximizing shareholder value is either sued, removed, or otherwise taken out of a position where they can have any effect.
Any publicly traded company, especially multi-National and international companies, are basically slaves to this kind of enshittification.
The system is working as designed.
- Comment on The President of the United States of America 1 week ago:
So this is what a puppet looks like when you pull your hand out… Very interesting.
- Comment on Lemmy users who say that Lemmy users are smarter than Reddit users 1 week ago:
Man, y’all are wrong. People on both platforms be stupid as hell. Myself included.
What was I talkin’ about?
- Comment on Feeding my family alone is expensive. I can't afford to feed all of y'all. 2 weeks ago:
This is exactly what I was trying to say. Someone single making $200k might think, well, I’m not struggling at all, maybe I’m on the rich side?.. No, they wouldn’t be rich there either.
$200k/yr is nothing compared to the fat cats on top.
Even double that, you’re still much much closer to begging for quarters in the go station than deciding what yacht to buy next…
The amount of money the rich have extorted from the rest of us is unfathomable.
- Comment on Feeding my family alone is expensive. I can't afford to feed all of y'all. 2 weeks ago:
🛩️🛩️
- Comment on Feeding my family alone is expensive. I can't afford to feed all of y'all. 2 weeks ago:
Middle class is gone. You’re either extremely rich, or you’re down in the dirt with us poors.
If you’re not sure which camp you’re in, welcome to the fold.
- Comment on Feeding my family alone is expensive. I can't afford to feed all of y'all. 2 weeks ago:
Oddly specific.
I hope you’re living your best life just to spite her.
- Comment on Feeding my family alone is expensive. I can't afford to feed all of y'all. 2 weeks ago:
🛩️
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
Why do you think that?
Because corporate greed > all?
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
The reason is simple. Inflation.
The NES originally sold for $180 USD in 1985, which is worth $530 today. The SNES, circa 1991, was $199 USD or $459 today.
Fast forward a bunch…
The switch 2 is currently priced at $449 USD.
The literal price has gone up, but the cost is going down. Slightly, but still.
I’m sure I could repeat the same experiment for PlayStation, Xbox, or Sega’s consoles and see similar results.
- Comment on PetSmart won't let you leave a review if you have adblockers on 2 weeks ago:
Literally baked into http is a “referrer URL” option.
None of this is new. It’s literally built into the protocols we use daily.
- Comment on PetSmart won't let you leave a review if you have adblockers on 2 weeks ago:
Yeah… As a technology person (working IT for many years now), it’s more likely that there’s some bad interaction between the browser, Adblock and the service that does the reviews. They’ve found a way to get an image to load regardless if the review applet works.
My bet would be that the Adblock is preventing the site from loading the necessary code to show the review submission “page”. This image is up behind the review regardless of if it works, is just that if the review thing works, it covers this up.
Sounds to me that this is a courtesy message basically saying that Adblock thinks the review thing is an ad.
- Comment on 2 weeks ago:
Idk, $699 USD for the PS5 pro seems a bit closer to “PC pricing” than I would expect from Sony if they’re subsidizing the cost with future game sales.
I’d kind of expect them to be making consoles at break-even/no-profit, more than at a loss right now.
- Comment on Labcoat! 2 weeks ago:
Yeah… That’s just unnecessary to put a dog at risk like that, whether service or otherwise.
Also, don’t work in a lab by yourself. Have a buddy, even if all they do is sit in a corner and scroll on their phone. Have someone there in case something happens.
In the best case, you’ve maybe wasted some of their time. In the worst case, at least you’ll have company in quarantine.
- Comment on Racism restaurant 2 weeks ago:
We need the rest!
For science!
- Comment on Racism restaurant 2 weeks ago:
How dare!
(/s in case anyone wasn’t sure)
- Comment on Every accusation is a confession? More like everything is a confession 3 weeks ago:
What’s next? Operation bareback?
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
Good luck.
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
You’re probably right.
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
Well, that was the point.
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
As long as we don’t end up going over the waterfall, that should be fine.
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
Welcome to the club. Were you able to afford the fixer upper on your own, or did you need to split the financial burden with another person?
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
Welcome to the club.
What percentage of your income now goes to your mortgage payment? For me, it’s like 110%… But I have help, so my share is only like 35%
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
Yeah, the market only cares about the maximum that people will pay for it. You’re not offering the maximum, so you’re not important enough for the market forces to care about.
I’m not either, so… We’re in this boat together. You want to row on the starboard side? Or port?
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
Neat, go build another one down the river.
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
A 50 year mortgage will be a lot like renting. Because the bank will own your shit until you die.
- Comment on Bank Workers, Rejoice! 4 weeks ago:
Never did.