Re:Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous
by TulliusCicero on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @07:49PM
(#17762854)
Why though? I'm definitely of the sort that doesn't buy into Stallman's philosophy at all. What's the practical negative impact that I ought to be feeling from engaging in commerce with the usual suspects: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.? Because to me, it just looks like the (mostly potential/future) downsides are massively outweighed by the (mostly actual/current) upsides.
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Re:Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous
by kartan on Wednesday August 15, 2018 @05:35AM
(#17764743)
> Because to me, it just looks like the (mostly potential/future) downsides are massively outweighed by the (mostly actual/current) upsides.
Yes. That is true for most things. Eat fatty and sugar-rich food, have pleasure now pay it later. Drink a lot of alcohol, have fun now pay the consequences later. Burn fossil fuels have cheap energy now have catastrophic consequences later. Spend all money now, not have savings in the future.
You are prioritizing current convenience against future consequences. That is a very human thing to do.
Re:Americans Own Less Stuff, and That’s Reason to Be Nervous
by TulliusCicero on Thursday August 16, 2018 @08:33AM
(#17774043)
Your examples are completely different. Eating a crappy diet now has very well-known, basically deterministic consequences. Ditto for drinking too much or burning oil or blowing all your money. There's no question what will happen if you do these things.
Most of the complaints around big companies seem to be around things they might do (e.g. Amazon could gain monopoly power and raise prices to exorbitant levels) but haven't yet done, and could easily end up never doing.