3 ms·

There's a certain prevalent belief that I consider a fallacy, which is that if A profits from B, then that must be to the detriment of B and B is being exploite

by golol 3y ago

There's a certain prevalent belief that I consider a fallacy, which is that if A profits from B, then that must be to the detriment of B and B is being exploited. Irregarding of whether midjourney is exploiting the authors, the author draws a comparison to instagram. He claims him posting his art there is unlaid labour as instagram profits from it, and hence he is being expliited when he does so. That comparison weakens his case for me, as I do not agree with the above implication.

hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago
In my house my wife and I have a saying: "Trade benefits both parties by definition." We say it often as a kind of ward against evil. The zero sum thinking that leads one to feel they're getting gypped in a given deal is almost never actually the case in a free market society. You always have the option to, if a deal provides no value to you, simply leave it on the table and move on with your life. However, I always mentally add an important word to the beginning: Voluntary trade benefits both parties by definition. Who decides what is considered voluntary? If this market square is the only one in town I can sell in without being beaten up, is selling there voluntary? What if it's just the case that no one wants to go to my random grocery stall in the woods? I've come to conclude that's ultimately an ethical question, not an economic one. Hence the eternal bickering. So from a certain point of view, I could see why my handy ward against evil could just be seen as another way the capitalistic regime imposes its will. One of the fun things about the internet is all the edge cases it creates along this very boundary.
- golol 3y ago
  Truth is, there are many platforms where you can distribute your works very effectively while ads are being shown, so there is at least competition, severalarket squares. There are also many ways to distribute your works lrss effectively where ads aren't being shown, so you have that option too. It just sucks because guess in comparison because hosting and distributing just costs some money.

by golol 3y ago

hiAndrewQuinn 3y ago

In my house my wife and I have a saying: "Trade benefits both parties by definition." We say it often as a kind of ward against evil. The zero sum thinking that leads one to feel they're getting gypped in a given deal is almost never actually the case in a free market society. You always have the option to, if a deal provides no value to you, simply leave it on the table and move on with your life. However, I always mentally add an important word to the beginning: Voluntary trade benefits both parties by definition. Who decides what is considered voluntary? If this market square is the only one in town I can sell in without being beaten up, is selling there voluntary? What if it's just the case that no one wants to go to my random grocery stall in the woods? I've come to conclude that's ultimately an ethical question, not an economic one. Hence the eternal bickering. So from a certain point of view, I could see why my handy ward against evil could just be seen as another way the capitalistic regime imposes its will. One of the fun things about the internet is all the edge cases it creates along this very boundary.

golol 3y ago
Truth is, there are many platforms where you can distribute your works very effectively while ads are being shown, so there is at least competition, severalarket squares. There are also many ways to distribute your works lrss effectively where ads aren't being shown, so you have that option too. It just sucks because guess in comparison because hosting and distributing just costs some money.