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The problem isn't the financial industry. Or, rather, the financial industry is only a special-case of the problem. The problem is middle-men. Specifically, it'
by quanticle 13y ago
The problem isn't the financial industry. Or, rather, the financial industry is only a special-case of the problem. The problem is middle-men. Specifically, it's the fact the Internet has made a certain class of people, whose job it was to take money from people and give it to people who need money (in exchange for a cut) obsolete.
The financial industry is the man-in-the-middle between lenders and borrowers. The recording industry is the man-in-the-middle between listeners and artists. Auto-dealerships are the man-in-the-middle between car companies and car buyers. Realtors are the man-in-the-middle between home buyers and home sellers. In every case, these used to be vital services in a pre-Internet, pre-cheap-communication world. But now, they all look like parasites, simply because we don't need their services any more. And, instead of refocusing their business around providing information and helping the market clear, all of these industries are trying to carve out regulatory havens that would allow them to continue business as usual whilst imposing higher costs on the rest of us. It is this rent-seeking behavior that makes them parasites.
- marcosdumay 13y agoIt's funny how the Internet only become widespread about 20 years ago, yet we need people like you remembering us how it was like before. It's amazing how fast we changed, and how fast we got used to it.
- xarball 13y agoWe need people like you. What a parasite! Should we pay him?
- quanticle 13y agoThey funny thing is that I'm only in my 20's :) It's not that I necessarily remember how times were before the Internet (I was but a child then), but I study a lot of history in my spare time. So maybe everyone needs to sit down and read a few books and think about how different life was when you couldn't just look up whatever you wanted to know in a matter of minutes.
- SaltySailor 13y agoI'm guessing you didn't spend more than 30 seconds skimming the article.
- snowwrestler 13y agoThe idea that the Internet has removed middlemen is a persistent fantasy that has no basis in reality. All the Internet has done is replace the middlemen. Tower Records is gone, but in its place is Apple, Google, Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, heck even the Pirate Bay. And in case you hadn't noticed, big record labels are still doing just fine. They might make less on album sales due to piracy, but now they just require a cut of everything else before signing a new band.