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Don't be so glum. We can travel across the world in a day. We have medical treatments for diseases that would have killed millions a year 75 years ago. We can c

Don't be so glum. We can travel across the world in a day. We have medical treatments for diseases that would have killed millions a year 75 years ago. We can communicate openly and freely with people all over the world. We can go to motherfucking space! The world is more at peace right now than any other time in recorded history. The power of religion to control people has slowly degraded away. What a time to be alive!

na85 6y ago
>We can travel across the world in a day. Damaging the fragile environment in so doing. >We have medical treatments for diseases that would have killed millions a year 75 years ago. Thus exacerbating global overpopulation and all the problems this causes >We can communicate openly and freely with people all over the world. Not for much longer. There's a push everywhere to centralize communications into silos owned by tech giants with zero accountability. How many times have I seen on HN that "email is deprecated" and the way of the future is to just buy into $proprietary_messenger that the user happens to work for? >We can go to motherfucking space! If you're a CEO, sure. The privileged overclass enjoys many perks as a consequence of its dominance. >The world is more at peace right now than any other time in recorded history. The power of religion to control people has slowly degraded away. Replaced by massive media and tech corporations controlling public discourse via social media, the new opiate of the masses, and fomenting identity politics to stave off the realization of class consciousness. We live in a corporate dystopia.
- wizzwizz4 6y ago
  > Thus exacerbating global overpopulation and all the problems this causes The others are valid, but not this one. You don't get to be cross about people not dying.
  - na85 6y ago
    >You don't get to be cross about people not dying. You aren't the referee of what I can and can't do.
- zip1234 6y ago
  Anybody with a $200 Chromebook can now write things that are read more than ever before. People have a voice that was unthinkable even 50 years ago. CEOs can't go to space quite yet. However, it appears that space is about to get far more accessible. Not only that, cheap space launches are enabling things like Starlink, which may provide worldwide internet and get around national firewalls and make the world that much more transparent. The average person has many incredibly cheap amenities available that were unthinkable not that long ago. What does a CEO have that is that much better? A bigger boat than other people? They get to fly in an airplane that has less people in it? A more expensive car? A slightly bigger TV? There are rapidly diminishing returns for being rich.
  - na85 6y ago
    >CEOs can't go to space quite yet. Sure they can[0]. They can also afford to live in luscious gardens patrolled by private security while inner city kids struggle with things like lunch debt because they didn't have the foresight to be born to wealthy parents. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott#Spaceflight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott#Spaceflight
  - jodrellblank 6y ago
    A (large company) CEO has the wealth to give them the freedom to not be an employee. The wealth to pay others to do anything they don't want to do. The top of the pyramid status and respect, and power that comes with it. Ordinary laws and things like parking fines become trivia they can dispense with. Other laws become things they can bend by buying a sufficient quantity of lawyers. Time becomes less of a sticking point as they can buy a waiting limo and direct connecting flight, other people become less of a concern as they can rent any Penthouse suite with bodyguards in any location. Influence over others becomes a matter of spending - donations, philanthropy, employment, high status connections. The returns on being a (sufficiently) wealthy (American) person are much more than just the material stuff they can buy and own.
    - BuckRogers 6y ago
      You missed the biggest one of all, he doesn’t have to work at all anymore. Giving him all his time back, which is priceless. But, they also become what they likely spent their life hating: a non-worker. Worse yet, they get the added distinction of becoming a leech on the human network, gaining further wealth through usury. The welfare recipient at least puts all the money they’re handed back into the economy. The capitalists can never claim that, and mostly horde. The OP is correct in that materially, the capitalist and the worker are largely equals. We all use the same phones, TVs and computers now. When I was a kid in the 80s a car phone was something only in movies, I never actually saw one.

na85 6y ago

>We can travel across the world in a day. Damaging the fragile environment in so doing. >We have medical treatments for diseases that would have killed millions a year 75 years ago. Thus exacerbating global overpopulation and all the problems this causes >We can communicate openly and freely with people all over the world. Not for much longer. There's a push everywhere to centralize communications into silos owned by tech giants with zero accountability. How many times have I seen on HN that "email is deprecated" and the way of the future is to just buy into $proprietary_messenger that the user happens to work for? >We can go to motherfucking space! If you're a CEO, sure. The privileged overclass enjoys many perks as a consequence of its dominance. >The world is more at peace right now than any other time in recorded history. The power of religion to control people has slowly degraded away. Replaced by massive media and tech corporations controlling public discourse via social media, the new opiate of the masses, and fomenting identity politics to stave off the realization of class consciousness. We live in a corporate dystopia.

wizzwizz4 6y ago
> Thus exacerbating global overpopulation and all the problems this causes The others are valid, but not this one. You don't get to be cross about people not dying.
- na85 6y ago
  >You don't get to be cross about people not dying. You aren't the referee of what I can and can't do.
zip1234 6y ago
Anybody with a $200 Chromebook can now write things that are read more than ever before. People have a voice that was unthinkable even 50 years ago. CEOs can't go to space quite yet. However, it appears that space is about to get far more accessible. Not only that, cheap space launches are enabling things like Starlink, which may provide worldwide internet and get around national firewalls and make the world that much more transparent. The average person has many incredibly cheap amenities available that were unthinkable not that long ago. What does a CEO have that is that much better? A bigger boat than other people? They get to fly in an airplane that has less people in it? A more expensive car? A slightly bigger TV? There are rapidly diminishing returns for being rich.
- na85 6y ago
  >CEOs can't go to space quite yet. Sure they can[0]. They can also afford to live in luscious gardens patrolled by private security while inner city kids struggle with things like lunch debt because they didn't have the foresight to be born to wealthy parents. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott#Spaceflight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garriott#Spaceflight
- jodrellblank 6y ago
  A (large company) CEO has the wealth to give them the freedom to not be an employee. The wealth to pay others to do anything they don't want to do. The top of the pyramid status and respect, and power that comes with it. Ordinary laws and things like parking fines become trivia they can dispense with. Other laws become things they can bend by buying a sufficient quantity of lawyers. Time becomes less of a sticking point as they can buy a waiting limo and direct connecting flight, other people become less of a concern as they can rent any Penthouse suite with bodyguards in any location. Influence over others becomes a matter of spending - donations, philanthropy, employment, high status connections. The returns on being a (sufficiently) wealthy (American) person are much more than just the material stuff they can buy and own.
  - BuckRogers 6y ago
    You missed the biggest one of all, he doesn’t have to work at all anymore. Giving him all his time back, which is priceless. But, they also become what they likely spent their life hating: a non-worker. Worse yet, they get the added distinction of becoming a leech on the human network, gaining further wealth through usury. The welfare recipient at least puts all the money they’re handed back into the economy. The capitalists can never claim that, and mostly horde. The OP is correct in that materially, the capitalist and the worker are largely equals. We all use the same phones, TVs and computers now. When I was a kid in the 80s a car phone was something only in movies, I never actually saw one.