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Our monetary system is designed to facilitate unlimited compounding interest and returns; this necessarily leads to centralization and monopolization which lead

Our monetary system is designed to facilitate unlimited compounding interest and returns; this necessarily leads to centralization and monopolization which leads to a monoculture across all industries. I wouldn't be surprised if the same force which drives monoculture in agriculture is also responsible for monoculture in the software industry. The winners (first movers) tend to keep on winning - They just have to get it right the first time and after that they will keep winning most of the time regardless of what they do; whatever they push out into the markets. I think it's wrong to say that software is capital but software and the people who use it certainly follow capital very closely. Why do so many people use Uber? Because the investors are/were subsidizing the rides (making them cheaper). Why do people use Apple iPhones? Because it allows people to use money-saving apps like Uber. Why do people use Google search? Because its result pages are loaded with products which are subsidized by big investor funding like Uber. Why did Windows become so popular? Because all the big investor money was being spent on building games and programs for Windows (and also, big-money IBM gave them that huge contract). The infinitely compounding wealth of the richest investors decides everything. Most peoples' decisions regarding which software they use is determined by where the big money is being spent. Those who are getting all the big money can afford to lower their profit margins and the monetary surplus can facilitate an entire ecosystem to grow around them. These sometimes poorly designed but well-funded software systems and ecosystems starve funding from better alternative ecosystems and thus starves them of developers which starves them of users. On one side you have extremely wealthy companies which can sell or lease software solutions which are very cheap and low-margin (because these companies have so much surplus capital coming in from other channels) and on the other side, you have poor consumers who need to squeeze every penny to get by. This is the recipe for a winner-takes all economy. Just look at cryptocurrency; almost all the developers are working on Bitcoin or Ethereum. Not because they're the best (they're both horrible to develop for and integrate with) - They're simply able to attract developers because that's where the big investor money is and developers and their users are just constantly chasing the money with laser precision. Also, underlying all this, there is a constant force of peer-pressure which subtly nudges people towards solutions which are backed by big money. Big money can buy both respect and trust.

subradios 4y ago
The best criticism and praise is not that consumers are scraping by. It is that the businesses that take their money have such a strong value proposition that the consumer prefers that value to cash. What we do not have an answer for in capitalist thought, are businesses that rely on human failure - take the five blade razor. We have spent millions and millions of dollars on single use plastic to save a month of occasionally nicking our neck. That is not a failure of a sociological system, that is a failure of humans. Big money stays big by producing value, unfortunately humans are observed as having stupid values on a near constant basis, yes, even me - especially me!
- bombolo 4y ago
  > Big money stays big by producing value But mostly by offering no choice.
  - jongjong 4y ago
    Yes, by ensuring that the average consumer is so poor that they are forced to use the cheapest possible option and then you produce that cheapest possible option for them. The big money beats the next cheapest product by a tiny fraction, but that's enough to take them out of the market completely. Then, in the absence of competition, the big money can start to boost its profit margins again.
    - subradios 4y ago
      The average consumer is not poor by any respect. The median household income in the United States is 45 ish thousand dollars. I made 20 ish thousand dollars a year for a long time, still had plenty of food, paid my bills, was even able to afford a car and to go out a fair bit.
      - jongjong 4y ago
        There's constant inflation. 20k doesn't buy you the same amount of value that it used to. It also depends on where you live. Many jobs require you to move to big cities were rent is expensive (fully remote opportunities are hard to get in practice). Also, it's difficult to buy a house in this economy as they cost much more than they used to relative to salaries.

subradios 4y ago

The best criticism and praise is not that consumers are scraping by. It is that the businesses that take their money have such a strong value proposition that the consumer prefers that value to cash. What we do not have an answer for in capitalist thought, are businesses that rely on human failure - take the five blade razor. We have spent millions and millions of dollars on single use plastic to save a month of occasionally nicking our neck. That is not a failure of a sociological system, that is a failure of humans. Big money stays big by producing value, unfortunately humans are observed as having stupid values on a near constant basis, yes, even me - especially me!

bombolo 4y ago
> Big money stays big by producing value But mostly by offering no choice.
- jongjong 4y ago
  Yes, by ensuring that the average consumer is so poor that they are forced to use the cheapest possible option and then you produce that cheapest possible option for them. The big money beats the next cheapest product by a tiny fraction, but that's enough to take them out of the market completely. Then, in the absence of competition, the big money can start to boost its profit margins again.
  - subradios 4y ago
    The average consumer is not poor by any respect. The median household income in the United States is 45 ish thousand dollars. I made 20 ish thousand dollars a year for a long time, still had plenty of food, paid my bills, was even able to afford a car and to go out a fair bit.
    - jongjong 4y ago
      There's constant inflation. 20k doesn't buy you the same amount of value that it used to. It also depends on where you live. Many jobs require you to move to big cities were rent is expensive (fully remote opportunities are hard to get in practice). Also, it's difficult to buy a house in this economy as they cost much more than they used to relative to salaries.