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Can we not just say it's greed? "Some people are greedy" and leave it at that? In a sufficiently small and self-governing community, that kind of asshole would

Can we not just say it's greed? "Some people are greedy" and leave it at that? In a sufficiently small and self-governing community, that kind of asshole would be sanctioned, exiled or killed. In a large industrialized society that can't reach any consensus whatsoever on any issue except that economic growth is essential, and that makes that growth its sole unassailable objective, you will get user-hostile software, not to mention user-hostile police, user-hostile employers, user-hostile government, medicine, education, you name it.

tomcam 6y ago
> Can we not just say it's greed? IMHO we can't just say that. Because nothing is stopping us users from paying for email, online document storage, blogs, etc. It would appear to me that greed is one cause, and an unrealistic expectation that infrastructure should be free, or at least an all-you-can-eat buffet, is another cause.
- rdiddly 6y ago
  It's a good point; we can't really escape the fact that it costs "effort" to do things that create "benefit". Although if I still stubbornly try to view this through the prism of greed, I note that it doesn't necessarily fall apart. Like maybe a user's wanting something for free is a form of greed, and the company that bases its business model around that, is really just turning that greed to its own advantage kind of like an aikido master throwing you ass over tit using mostly your own energy! Mind you I don't want to imply or pretend I considered any of this ahead of time or intended it as part of my GP comment.
  - tomcam 6y ago
    I’ll allow it ;) TBH I was thinking along the same lines myself.
afarrell 6y ago
We can, but the people on this forum tend to like trying to solve problems. There's no solution to "some people are greedy" besides mass-murder or reframing the problem in ways that assume people will be greedy.

tomcam 6y ago

> Can we not just say it's greed? IMHO we can't just say that. Because nothing is stopping us users from paying for email, online document storage, blogs, etc. It would appear to me that greed is one cause, and an unrealistic expectation that infrastructure should be free, or at least an all-you-can-eat buffet, is another cause.

rdiddly 6y ago
It's a good point; we can't really escape the fact that it costs "effort" to do things that create "benefit". Although if I still stubbornly try to view this through the prism of greed, I note that it doesn't necessarily fall apart. Like maybe a user's wanting something for free is a form of greed, and the company that bases its business model around that, is really just turning that greed to its own advantage kind of like an aikido master throwing you ass over tit using mostly your own energy! Mind you I don't want to imply or pretend I considered any of this ahead of time or intended it as part of my GP comment.
- tomcam 6y ago
  I’ll allow it ;) TBH I was thinking along the same lines myself.

afarrell 6y ago

We can, but the people on this forum tend to like trying to solve problems. There's no solution to "some people are greedy" besides mass-murder or reframing the problem in ways that assume people will be greedy.