Tech's broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap::Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. From video streaming to ride-hailing and cloud computing.

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[–] 263 points 3 years ago (22 children)

Yep. The business model has always been "Lure them in and stifle competition with a low initial cost. Then when we have the market we can jack up the price." Enshitification at its best.

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  • [–] 141 points 3 years ago (20 children)

    This is just capitalism at work. Capitalism = enshitification, exploitation, and destruction.

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  • [–] 65 points 3 years ago (7 children)

    Literally working as intended. Not sure why it takes people so long to figure this out.

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  • [–] 48 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    A healthy dose of western/capitalist propaganda since birth and until death helps a lot. So many people under the illusion that this is the natural progression of civilization, or the best.

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  • [–] 24 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    When you've been exposed to nothing but capitalsm your whole life it's incredibly hard to be convinced that anything else could even work. Just like people born into religious cults, it's hard to break when it's all you've known.

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Growing up in the '70s and '80s in the US, I know that the "greatest country on earth" propaganda worked on me. It took me until my 30s before I kind of looked around and said,"What the fuck is going on here?"

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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    Capitalism without any regulation*

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  • [–] 39 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah but then the wealthy eventually start buying away regulation. The only thing that made capitalism get under any sort of control was fear of a worker’s revolution

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago*

    The only thing that made capitalism get under any sort of control was fear of a worker’s revolution

    Yep, and so they made capitalism global, exported all of the union jobs to countries where labor abuse is permitted or encouraged, and then created new categories of unorganized, exploitative jobs faster than labor could keep up with them.

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  • [–] 20 points 3 years ago* (3 children)

    Even well-regulated capitalism strives for this and somehow manages to achieve it. It is the nature of capitalism.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    It is in the nature of power. Reducing this to a particular economic system is nearsighted.

    Every social system with a power dynamic (i.e. a system with two or more people in it) is vulnerable to power abuse. Power blinds, blindness strips powerful of perspective, decisions made without good information drunk-walk towards ruin.

    The only common thing is the fact that it’s the average Jane who suffers first and whose rage ends up counteracting the ruin.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    It is in the nature of power. Reducing this to a particular economic system is nearsighted.

    I will agree that it is the nature of power. But I will argue that few other economic systems actively facilitate (and actually reward) the concentration of power the way capitalism does. I'll also point out you are basically resorting to a "whataboutism" argument.

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  • [–] -3 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    If its actually well regulated it wont be capitalism. Just like Europe has many kingdoms yet isnt full of actual monarchy.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    All capitalism is, at its core, is the system of owning and investing capital for greater returns later. You can have that while regulating things--at least in theory.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    An actual dictionary definition of capitalism:

    an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.

    Any definition of capitalism that doesn't in some way mention private ownership of capital is simply wrong.

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