Re:SoftBank’s losses reveal Masayoshi Son’s broken business ...
by mschuster91 on Monday August 29, 2022 @11:23AM
(#32639374)
> But he utterly failed. All he did was redistribute investor money into consumer pockets(and weirdly distort some markets in ways that are difficult to understand).
One might argue that the effects of "gig economy" and similar "modern tech" companies on local economies are damaging as well, beyond "weird distortions":
- residents suffering from noise and rising rents thanks to AirBnB and copycats
- taxis going out of business because they can't compete with Uber leading to people depending on regulated, discrimination-prevented taxis having issues, and to people in "high demand" situations like airports or event venues being squeezed for their money
- restaurants, many of which were already at the edge of financial survivability prior to COVID, facing extortion by delivery apps - either use them and depend on them, or having the delivery apps simply subsidize your competition until you go broke
- employees of all these companies who end up with down-pressure on their wages, and city governments with funding issues because employment tax income collapses as well, and as a result of that everyone else because governmental services degrade
Someone will always pay for the supposed "inefficiencies" that cut-throat capitalism "identifies" - and in almost all cases it is those at the lowest rungs of society that bear the worst load.
One might argue that the effects of "gig economy" and similar "modern tech" companies on local economies are damaging as well, beyond "weird distortions":
- residents suffering from noise and rising rents thanks to AirBnB and copycats
- taxis going out of business because they can't compete with Uber leading to people depending on regulated, discrimination-prevented taxis having issues, and to people in "high demand" situations like airports or event venues being squeezed for their money
- restaurants, many of which were already at the edge of financial survivability prior to COVID, facing extortion by delivery apps - either use them and depend on them, or having the delivery apps simply subsidize your competition until you go broke
- employees of all these companies who end up with down-pressure on their wages, and city governments with funding issues because employment tax income collapses as well, and as a result of that everyone else because governmental services degrade
Someone will always pay for the supposed "inefficiencies" that cut-throat capitalism "identifies" - and in almost all cases it is those at the lowest rungs of society that bear the worst load.