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> a lose-lose proposition for anybody but the most short-term minded. "[I]n recent years the realisation has dawned that what’s good for Silicon Valley is not

> a lose-lose proposition for anybody but the most short-term minded. "[I]n recent years the realisation has dawned that what’s good for Silicon Valley is not always good for everyone. What started with scrappy upstarts promising to make the world a better place has morphed into something more sinister: a pantheon of faceless multinationals who collectively dominate the world’s digital infrastructure, flouting regulations, avoiding taxes, and taking advantage of precarious labour to make a small number of people tremendously wealthy." https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/01/abolish-silicon-valley

tim333 5y ago
There's some good and some bad out of Silicon Valley like with most things but you can always ban the bad and take advantage of the good.
- jfrunyon 5y ago
  Can you? The businesses that were actually illegal have legalized themselves, and the businesses that virtually everyone agrees do bad things have been getting "investigated" by Congress with no action for the past decade...
pdimitar 5y ago
It hasn't "morphed" into anything. It always was a way to easy money (while lying through their teeth), but way too many people are naive and couldn't see it earlier.
- beckman466 5y ago
  > but way too many people are naive and couldn't see it earlier. right, yeah, so others are dumb and you're enlightened? > It hasn't "morphed" into anything. It always was a way to easy money (while lying through their teeth) i don't get comments like yours. i'm sharing this quote because i like that whole article by Wendy Liu. Wendy agrees with you, and so do i. so why not just read it? your comment comes across know-it-all-y and bitter.
- GDC7 5y ago
  > It always was a way to easy money Tell me again how Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook were "easy money" The devil personified in here, Mark Zuckerberg turned down the most "easy money" ever. 1 billion in cash for a couple years old company with an unproven business model, very few paying customers and no moat to speak of. You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "easy" because it could have gone the other way as well, and the protagonists knew it too, but still decided to step into the arena. We all know what happened to Digital Equipment which was the "easy money" company for the longest time. Kodak? What happened to that "easy money printing machine" Xerox anyone? The reality is that you either die as a hero or live long enough to become the villan. So now the villans are Bezos, Gates and Zuckerberg. Jobs and Allen died so they are the dear heroes who we miss and things would be much better if they were here today. Musk is the hero charging on his white horse right now, but unless he OD's on that pure cartel coke he snorts or blows up together with one of his rockets , I expect the tide to turn against him violently and suddenly. Then it's the turn of the crypto guys such as Brian Armstrong and Vitalik to have their moment of glory, and on and on and on.
  - whatshisface 5y ago
    Just like informed people knew about why Gates was bad while he was still CEO of Microsoft, we all know most of the shenanigans that Musk is up to and it seems like that's already been folded in to his image.
  - cool_dude85 5y ago
    >You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "easy" because it could have gone the other way as well, and the protagonists knew it too, but still decided to step into the arena. No, you can make very easy money playing the lotto. All you have to do is give the gas station guy $2 and you're a billionaire. Just because you're the one who got lucky doesn't mean it's hard work or anything.
    - GDC7 5y ago
      The hard work is concentrated in the process of betting your life on a very unprobable outcome
- dghughes 5y ago
  No breakfast either. Air"bnb" my ass. It's been a scourge on my small town. We were down to 0.01% vacancy. People were renting porches in a desperate attempt to find a roof over their heads and not pay $2,000 for the porch.

tim333 5y ago

There's some good and some bad out of Silicon Valley like with most things but you can always ban the bad and take advantage of the good.

jfrunyon 5y ago
Can you? The businesses that were actually illegal have legalized themselves, and the businesses that virtually everyone agrees do bad things have been getting "investigated" by Congress with no action for the past decade...

pdimitar 5y ago

It hasn't "morphed" into anything. It always was a way to easy money (while lying through their teeth), but way too many people are naive and couldn't see it earlier.

beckman466 5y ago
> but way too many people are naive and couldn't see it earlier. right, yeah, so others are dumb and you're enlightened? > It hasn't "morphed" into anything. It always was a way to easy money (while lying through their teeth) i don't get comments like yours. i'm sharing this quote because i like that whole article by Wendy Liu. Wendy agrees with you, and so do i. so why not just read it? your comment comes across know-it-all-y and bitter.
GDC7 5y ago
> It always was a way to easy money Tell me again how Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple and Facebook were "easy money" The devil personified in here, Mark Zuckerberg turned down the most "easy money" ever. 1 billion in cash for a couple years old company with an unproven business model, very few paying customers and no moat to speak of. You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "easy" because it could have gone the other way as well, and the protagonists knew it too, but still decided to step into the arena. We all know what happened to Digital Equipment which was the "easy money" company for the longest time. Kodak? What happened to that "easy money printing machine" Xerox anyone? The reality is that you either die as a hero or live long enough to become the villan. So now the villans are Bezos, Gates and Zuckerberg. Jobs and Allen died so they are the dear heroes who we miss and things would be much better if they were here today. Musk is the hero charging on his white horse right now, but unless he OD's on that pure cartel coke he snorts or blows up together with one of his rockets , I expect the tide to turn against him violently and suddenly. Then it's the turn of the crypto guys such as Brian Armstrong and Vitalik to have their moment of glory, and on and on and on.
- whatshisface 5y ago
  Just like informed people knew about why Gates was bad while he was still CEO of Microsoft, we all know most of the shenanigans that Musk is up to and it seems like that's already been folded in to his image.
- cool_dude85 5y ago
  >You gotta choose one, if extreme luck is involved in the process then it's not "easy" because it could have gone the other way as well, and the protagonists knew it too, but still decided to step into the arena. No, you can make very easy money playing the lotto. All you have to do is give the gas station guy $2 and you're a billionaire. Just because you're the one who got lucky doesn't mean it's hard work or anything.
  - GDC7 5y ago
    The hard work is concentrated in the process of betting your life on a very unprobable outcome
dghughes 5y ago
No breakfast either. Air"bnb" my ass. It's been a scourge on my small town. We were down to 0.01% vacancy. People were renting porches in a desperate attempt to find a roof over their heads and not pay $2,000 for the porch.