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> The moderators and users of Reddit aren’t the people paying for the hosting and development of the service - a service which has never turned a profit. Seems

> The moderators and users of Reddit aren’t the people paying for the hosting and development of the service - a service which has never turned a profit. Seems like Reddit not turning a profit is strictly Reddit's problem — not users or even really basic business model, but spending.

dangus 3y ago
I agree with you, but the point stands that if Reddit can’t turn a profit their users aren’t really generating any lasting value. If I juice 20 oranges per hour and sell that orange juice for $5, you might say that I created $5 in value, but if minimum wage is $20 all I accomplished was losing $15. Similarly, Reddit moderators only generate business value if you assume the website costs less to maintain than it does in real life. If Reddit users and moderators would like to start a non-profit alternative they can go ahead and try that. It’s not like Reddit has been an especially spendy tech company, either, they’ve had well under 1000 employees until very recently. They’re the 15th most popular website in the world and their headcount is not particularly extreme.
- Ferret7446 3y ago
  Tangentially, this is a decent example for why minimum wage is actually a bad thing. There can be useful work available that is eliminated by the artificial price fixing.
  - gopher_space 3y ago
    Aren’t you describing crime in general?
    - Ferret7446 3y ago
      I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say, but I don't think so. If I'd like to, say, fold custom envelopes for less than minimum wage while I'm watching TV, no crime is being committed, and society is not being harmed. There are certain social restrictions that are set to prevent social harm, and then there are those that are set because some people thought it would prevent social harm but in fact does the opposite; minimum wage falls into the latter.

dangus 3y ago

I agree with you, but the point stands that if Reddit can’t turn a profit their users aren’t really generating any lasting value. If I juice 20 oranges per hour and sell that orange juice for $5, you might say that I created $5 in value, but if minimum wage is $20 all I accomplished was losing $15. Similarly, Reddit moderators only generate business value if you assume the website costs less to maintain than it does in real life. If Reddit users and moderators would like to start a non-profit alternative they can go ahead and try that. It’s not like Reddit has been an especially spendy tech company, either, they’ve had well under 1000 employees until very recently. They’re the 15th most popular website in the world and their headcount is not particularly extreme.

Ferret7446 3y ago
Tangentially, this is a decent example for why minimum wage is actually a bad thing. There can be useful work available that is eliminated by the artificial price fixing.
- gopher_space 3y ago
  Aren’t you describing crime in general?
  - Ferret7446 3y ago
    I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say, but I don't think so. If I'd like to, say, fold custom envelopes for less than minimum wage while I'm watching TV, no crime is being committed, and society is not being harmed. There are certain social restrictions that are set to prevent social harm, and then there are those that are set because some people thought it would prevent social harm but in fact does the opposite; minimum wage falls into the latter.