[FarmGirl]

Found the article very good in explaining how a business model morphs into what it is supposed to be, a way to extract maximum value from customers and suppliers for their own benefit.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

[K-Dog]

The article makes the claim that Amazon was once 'good'.  I don't agree that was ever true.  Amazon leads humanity into a new dark age of exploitation.  The computer rules now, and humans are irrelevant.  Amazon was shitty when they put the first bookstore out of business.  Amazon did not become shitty, they always were.

[FarmGirl]

The article makes the claim that Amazon was once 'good'.  I don't agree that was ever true.  Amazon leads humanity into a new dark age of exploitation.  The computer rules now, and humans are irrelevant.  Amazon was shitty when they put the first bookstore out of business.  Amazon did not become shitty, they always were.

Oh, I don't know. The concept in the article was macro of course, other bookstores knock off bookstores no different than Amazon did, Amazon just brought scale to the table. And the Amazon effect, which could also be called "economies of scale" when it comes to a particular part of the economy (bookstores, clothing stores, mom and pop owned convenience stores and local diners being knocked off by the likes of Dennys and Walmart, etc etc) was just the way America went for whatever reason we decided to become a hegemony, run by oligarchs, where health care for citizens is a profit center and milking consumers for every spare penny they have for useless crap is just normal business.

So I like the macro concept just as part of how American history unfolded, just one of those pieces along the way to the now.

[K-Dog]

For whatever reason we decided to become a hegemony, run by oligarchs, where health care for citizens is a profit center and milking consumers for every spare penny they have for useless crap is just normal business.

What do you mean by we?

[RE]

"And the Amazon effect, which could also be called "economies of scale" when it comes to a particular part of the economy (bookstores, clothing stores, mom and pop owned convenience stores and local diners being knocked off by the likes of Dennys and Walmart, etc etc) was just the way America went for whatever reason we decided to become a hegemony, run by oligarchs, where health care for citizens is a profit center and milking consumers for every spare penny they have for useless crap is just normal business."

Not just Amerikans "went for it", all Homo Saps did.  The only difference between Amerikans and everybody else in the Industrial/Konsumer Civilization is that Amerika got in first on the Ponzi.  However, what everyone else aspired to from Mother Russia to the ChiComs to the Towel Heads facing Mecca 3 timers a day was what Amerikans had.  Unfortunately for them, they mostly got into the game too late and without the kind of massive MIC necessary to enforce the racket of Kapitalism.

People LIKE creature comforts, nice things and constant entertainment.  Provide these things, and the masses will follow you anywhere.  You could go back to ancient Egypt and I'm sure everybody wanted to live like a Pharoah drinking Roman wine, munching on Greek Olives and burning incense, the Febreeze of the Ancient World.  Kapitalism and the energy of 22 Billion Energy Slaves provided a very comfortable existence for a large segment of the population.  Even poor people have a washer and dryer, or at least access to a laundromat.  Laundresses are a thing of the past in the FSoA, but go back a century and many poor women did this job to make their daily bread.

Of course there really is no free lunch, and all these conveniences and creature comforts came at a great cost, but that cost was delayed for succeeding generations to pay.  This is not something you can attribute just to Amerikans, it is human nature.

Edit:  As K-Dog points out, any significant size groups of people who did NOT buy into industrialization were wiped out either militarily or economically  A vanishingly small number of religious groups like the Amish and Mennonites managed to survive by partially buying into property ownership and the monetary system while eschewing many modern conveniences like carz.  However, they do have electric lights and refrigerators and they buy cloth made on industrial looms in Pakistani sweatshops by children, they do not do all their own spinning and weaving these days.  I think some have TVs and Computers also.

RE

[Surly1]

Found the article very good in explaining how a business model morphs into what it is supposed to be, a way to extract maximum value from customers and suppliers for their own benefit.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Cory Doctorow is definitely worth following. Smart, astute, and on-point.