over a decade on this site i've watched comments from people being cynical about the value of Google, Facebook[0], Amazon, Uber and many others

At what point of seeing this same story over and over again and realising that funding growth is a viable strategy do the cynics just let go?

[0] heaven forbid you ever take investment advice from dhh https://signalvnoise.com/posts/2585-facebook-is-not-worth-33...

The fact that the Amazon, Google and Facebook stories are now so well internalized by the general public is what makes investing in Lift dangerous. The criticism back then was wrong - but now it is too easy to dismiss any criticism. The danger is that Lyft and Uber (and some other unicorns) are just cargo cults - copying the visible strategy of rapid growth but lacking ingredients that are more subtle but nevertheless necessary for sustained business.

Facebook and Google were both profitable when they went public, which is a big difference between Uber and Lyft today. They were merely not as profitable as today.

The sites you mention (aside from Uber, which does not make a profit) found their way to profitability by building out and then cashing in from an apparatus of mass surveillance unparalleled in human experience.

So if I'm critical about the "grow while burning money" strategy, it's because I've seen the damage the eventual successful business model does to civil society. It's a bait and switch that we don't have to continue falling for.

And yet, the mechanisms at play make it so that this system survives and thrives. How would you end it?

Tax the wealth and put it to productive use that helps a broader group of people (mass transit, health care, education, climate mitigation).