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The powers that be profit from the way things are. Make the status quo unprofitable, and change will follow.

kqr 4y ago
This is a common response to critiques of capitalism: "well, why don't you tweak some of the parameters of capitalism so it results in the system you want instead" forgetting that maybe capitalism is incapable of producing something better according to the critics, and they are convinced we need to get rid of it entirely!
- kieselguhr_kid 4y ago
  I'd also be interested as to what parameters could possibly be tweaked such that capitalism would find it unprofitable to commodify food or at the very least more profitable to distribute it to those who can't afford it. Massive state and international intervention might be able to do it but this isn't the kind of thing we could fix with minor tax incentives and penalties.
- adamrezich 4y ago
  it's also pretty common for naïve developers, when faced with maintaining an antiquated codebase, to advocate for tearing the whole thing out and replacing it with something new and unproven. how often is this the correct decision? well, take that logic and scale it to something the size of the economy of the United States—still think it's a good idea?
  - kqr 4y ago
    I think it was Boeing who actually worked this out at some point in the '70s or '80s: when you need to make changes to more than X % of the software, you're better off rewriting it from scratch. I don't remember what the X was, and I can't find the reference right now, but I want to think it was somewhere in the span of 30–60 %.
    - EddieDante 4y ago
      So, there really is a Ripley Threshold, a point at which it's better to just take off and nuke the entire site from orbit?
PoignardAzur 4y ago
> The powers that be profit from the way things are. I mean... do they? Linking to Our World In Data articles about falling extreme poverty is almost a cliché at this point, but the facts remain. If the super-rich are trying to keep the world population poor for some nebulous profit, they're doing a poor job of it. (That's aside from things like Bill Gates putting all his money into fighting against malaria, and the fact that impoverished countries with high food insecurity are also those with the lowest economic output in the world. Most of the world's coal comes from Australia, not Mozambique.)

kqr 4y ago

This is a common response to critiques of capitalism: "well, why don't you tweak some of the parameters of capitalism so it results in the system you want instead" forgetting that maybe capitalism is incapable of producing something better according to the critics, and they are convinced we need to get rid of it entirely!

kieselguhr_kid 4y ago
I'd also be interested as to what parameters could possibly be tweaked such that capitalism would find it unprofitable to commodify food or at the very least more profitable to distribute it to those who can't afford it. Massive state and international intervention might be able to do it but this isn't the kind of thing we could fix with minor tax incentives and penalties.
adamrezich 4y ago
it's also pretty common for naïve developers, when faced with maintaining an antiquated codebase, to advocate for tearing the whole thing out and replacing it with something new and unproven. how often is this the correct decision? well, take that logic and scale it to something the size of the economy of the United States—still think it's a good idea?
- kqr 4y ago
  I think it was Boeing who actually worked this out at some point in the '70s or '80s: when you need to make changes to more than X % of the software, you're better off rewriting it from scratch. I don't remember what the X was, and I can't find the reference right now, but I want to think it was somewhere in the span of 30–60 %.
  - EddieDante 4y ago
    So, there really is a Ripley Threshold, a point at which it's better to just take off and nuke the entire site from orbit?

PoignardAzur 4y ago

> The powers that be profit from the way things are. I mean... do they? Linking to Our World In Data articles about falling extreme poverty is almost a cliché at this point, but the facts remain. If the super-rich are trying to keep the world population poor for some nebulous profit, they're doing a poor job of it. (That's aside from things like Bill Gates putting all his money into fighting against malaria, and the fact that impoverished countries with high food insecurity are also those with the lowest economic output in the world. Most of the world's coal comes from Australia, not Mozambique.)