[HN Gopher] Big Tech Has Disrupted the Social Contract
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Big Tech Has Disrupted the Social Contract
Author : herbertl
Score : 55 points
Date : 2025-02-16 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (basedfob.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (basedfob.substack.com)
| Terr_ wrote:
| A lot of it boils down to a promise that existing systems (and
| existing ways to handle error and deter wrongdoing) have
| _somehow_ been replaced by "With An App" that efficiently
| reimplements what came before... but in reality most of the
| expensive features have been secretly removed, and you won't find
| that out until you're the one getting screwed.
|
| Come to think of it, a similar phenomenon applies to
| cryptocurrencies: Even when they aren't an outright fraud,
| somebody has just thrown away the _hard_ parts learned over
| centuries, quietly dropping them or trying to convince you that
| it 's better to be _entirely_ without.
| AnthonyMouse wrote:
| The general pattern is this: You create a system, it has
| problems, people establish some apparatus to address the
| problems, the apparatus is a central chokepoint which is then
| captured by incumbents and abused for oppression, people demand
| a new system, you create a new system, it has problems, ...
|
| You either need to prevent the apparatus from being captured by
| incumbents or you need to prevent it from being a central
| chokepoint that can be abused for oppression.
| hellojimbo wrote:
| All of these peer to peer apps have the same fate; it works in
| the high trust parts of the country, but the moment you scale,
| the quality of service decreases, fees increase, etc.
| missedthecue wrote:
| That's all businesses. Ever visited an inner city corner
| market? Items cost more, there's less selection, and quality of
| service? The employees are behind bulletproof glass.
| SpicyLemonZest wrote:
| I don't understand this story. Why would you have an "expectation
| that the service will be professional", when you first heard
| about the company from news reports their service was used in
| multiple terrorist attacks? When was there ever a social contract
| that every company with an app can be trusted to provide high-
| quality service?
| namaria wrote:
| So you rented a car from 'some guy' through 'some app' to travel
| with your family across state lines and are shocked at a poor
| outcome?
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| And someone with multiple assault charges lamenting the
| disruption of the social contract. But, it's okay, because he
| assaulted people when he was "supposed to" assault people.
| _heimdall wrote:
| I avoid the whole "sharing economy" as much as possible. I think
| I've taken an uber or lyft twice when I was in a pinch in a city
| I wasn't familiar with, and once ordered a truck part to be
| delivered from a store in town that ended up being through a
| third party app (I couldn't drive down without the replacement
| fuel pump).
|
| I really don't get the hope of trusting individuals that are
| arguably being taken advantage of by a faceless tech business
| rather than trusting employees or contractors that are at least
| more invested in customer service for the company.
|
| It makes about as much sense to me as distrusting humans so much
| that you want to put all your wealth in a glorified git repo
| coded by humans and run by a small number of people.
|
| Either trust people or don't, its a pretty simple choice.
| Convincing ourselves that a layer of tech can abstract humans
| away so much that we don't _need_ to trust anyone is just absurd.
| narcraft wrote:
| "These tech companies used lobbies to destroy the enterprise
| structure of our civilization from taxi cab medallions to hotels
| to brick-and-mortar businesses."
|
| Taxi cab medallions are a very poor example to cite. I'm
| empathetic to the story of terrible customer service and share
| sentiments about the overall erosion of user experience with many
| tech-adjacent, so-called disruptive services, but the second
| anyone suggests we were better off with the taxi cab than Uber or
| Lyft, they lose all credibility in my eyes. I think the biggest
| benefit that many fail to mention is that you can actually get
| rides when and where you need to. For example, people have far
| fewer excuses to drunk drive from bars in my hometown now than
| they did 15 years ago. I've had my skin saved by several rides
| that would be impossible without ride-sharing services.
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(page generated 2025-02-16 23:00 UTC)