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What’s Behind All Those Tech Layoffs? A New Economic Reality

10 points by axiomdata316 4y ago

karaokeyoga 4y ago
https://archive.md/2Nc8n https://archive.md/2Nc8n
1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
"They are shedding employees, cutting back, watching their financial valuations shrivel - even as the larger economy chugs along with a low unemployment rate and a 3.2 percent annualized growth rate in the third quarter. One largely unacknowledged explanation: An unprecedented era of rock-bottom interest rates has abruptly ended. Money is no longer virtually free." "Unacknowledged" likely because those "tech" companies are effectively controlling the channels through which people communicate and read news. The channels are flooded with neverending "tech" hype. The latest is ChatGPT. "Tech" companies are like a leeches sucking on the rest of the economy. How many thousands of employees were working for companies that cannot turn a profit, their salaries being paid year after year not from revenues but from the investment contributions of outside parties. Hollow, unsustainable and short-sighted. Driven by pure hype. The "tech" company "business model" is using a position as an unnecessary intermediary, aka a middlemen, to conduct surveillance and sell online ad services. Silicon Valley VC have sponsored countless grossly inflated valuations and even fake money ("crypto"). All focus is on "the future", while ignoring the problems they are creating in the present. Big Tech produces no content, instead farming that work out to unpaid computer users. Like some giant lottery, they distribute significant ad revenue only to a small, selected group of "winnners". None of this activity is anything an economy really needs to prosper. It never has been. These "tech" companies have been fortunate that their middleman rackets are still mostly unregulated. Regulation of interest rates. Regulation of cryptocurrency. We see the immediate effects. Any regulation of online advertising could reduce these companies to nothing. Increased regulation of VC is coming. There is no solid foundation to these "businesses". Big Tech and all its wannabes are not the lifeblood of a new economy. They are bloodsucking leeches. They feed on "dumb money", where there is a lack of research, due diligence and monitoring, whether it is advertising spend, "tech" venture capital or cheap debt. I will be shocked if the media continues to portray these middlemen as the "best place to work" or "best jobs for the future". Look at how they treat their workers and the sheer misery of the "work".
- whitemary 4y ago
  >Increased regulation of VC is coming. By who? I doubt it.
  - 1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
    https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/03/24/2022-03212/private-fund-advisers-documentation-of-registered-investment-adviser-compliance-reviews https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/03/24/2022-03...
- anm89 4y ago
  The winners will turn into microsofts and IBMs, the majority will die or get acquired at much lower valuations. The question is, does that happen in the next year or two or is this can somehow magically kicked another 5-7 years. I vote that a big part of it collapses within the next few years. The ones that survive will be some of the most hated companies in US history 15-25 years from now, pretty much automated advertising surveillance companies.
frank_bb 4y ago
[dead]

10 points by axiomdata316 4y ago

https://archive.md/2Nc8n https://archive.md/2Nc8n

"They are shedding employees, cutting back, watching their financial valuations shrivel - even as the larger economy chugs along with a low unemployment rate and a 3.2 percent annualized growth rate in the third quarter. One largely unacknowledged explanation: An unprecedented era of rock-bottom interest rates has abruptly ended. Money is no longer virtually free." "Unacknowledged" likely because those "tech" companies are effectively controlling the channels through which people communicate and read news. The channels are flooded with neverending "tech" hype. The latest is ChatGPT. "Tech" companies are like a leeches sucking on the rest of the economy. How many thousands of employees were working for companies that cannot turn a profit, their salaries being paid year after year not from revenues but from the investment contributions of outside parties. Hollow, unsustainable and short-sighted. Driven by pure hype. The "tech" company "business model" is using a position as an unnecessary intermediary, aka a middlemen, to conduct surveillance and sell online ad services. Silicon Valley VC have sponsored countless grossly inflated valuations and even fake money ("crypto"). All focus is on "the future", while ignoring the problems they are creating in the present. Big Tech produces no content, instead farming that work out to unpaid computer users. Like some giant lottery, they distribute significant ad revenue only to a small, selected group of "winnners". None of this activity is anything an economy really needs to prosper. It never has been. These "tech" companies have been fortunate that their middleman rackets are still mostly unregulated. Regulation of interest rates. Regulation of cryptocurrency. We see the immediate effects. Any regulation of online advertising could reduce these companies to nothing. Increased regulation of VC is coming. There is no solid foundation to these "businesses". Big Tech and all its wannabes are not the lifeblood of a new economy. They are bloodsucking leeches. They feed on "dumb money", where there is a lack of research, due diligence and monitoring, whether it is advertising spend, "tech" venture capital or cheap debt. I will be shocked if the media continues to portray these middlemen as the "best place to work" or "best jobs for the future". Look at how they treat their workers and the sheer misery of the "work".

whitemary 4y ago
>Increased regulation of VC is coming. By who? I doubt it.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 4y ago
  https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/03/24/2022-03212/private-fund-advisers-documentation-of-registered-investment-adviser-compliance-reviews https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/03/24/2022-03...
anm89 4y ago
The winners will turn into microsofts and IBMs, the majority will die or get acquired at much lower valuations. The question is, does that happen in the next year or two or is this can somehow magically kicked another 5-7 years. I vote that a big part of it collapses within the next few years. The ones that survive will be some of the most hated companies in US history 15-25 years from now, pretty much automated advertising surveillance companies.

frank_bb 4y ago

[dead]