Tech’s broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap::Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. From video streaming to ride-hailing and cloud computing.

  • msbeta1421@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Don’t blame tech, blame the bait-and-switch business model of loss leading products.

    Uber never made money because they chose to undercut prices of all competitors and bleed them out.

    I’d argue that newer streaming companies (those founded by studios, such as Disney +) did the same thing by roping in customers before jacking up prices.

    It may be the “fault” of capitalism, but consider it was capitalism that birthed streaming in the first place. In the long term, the expectation would be a better solution will surface in reference to streaming… the same way streaming was a solution to cable. Thus is the business cycle.

    • UPGRAYEDD@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Also worth noting in the case of uber, even if price is equal with taxis, the experience is much better. Nicer cars, better drivers and much easier app use. Even at price parity, its a very superior product in most cases.

      • msbeta1421@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’re confusing economic systems with systems of government.

        I’m interested to hear how you explain the drive to create streaming as an option to cable without including tenets of a market driven economy.

        Reddit/Lemmy/Etc really has a hard-on to blame all bad things on capitalism. Capitalism is amoral. It is cold and uncaring. But not recognizing it as a driving factor for growth, innovation and societal advancement is a path of willful ignorance.

        Everything has pros and cons in life.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Remember that even in a system in which workers own companies, those workers still want to make more money

        A profit motive is not unique to nor a product of capitalism.

        • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Those workers still want to live. The money is the means- controlled by those with the most money.

          Capitalism and democracy as exclusive concepts.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            None of this makes any sense, both on its face and as a response to my comment

            • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Bold deconstruction of the argument. Capitalism didn’t invent iPhones, workers did. There are economic systems other than capitalism, that can do better, without the unilateral domination of capital.

      • msbeta1421@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You act like capitalism is something that was invented. Market economies have existed since the dawn of time.

        Think of it more like a spectrum where free market and unregulated capitalism is on one end and economies under total state control are at the other.

        There is clear evidence that one side of that spectrum favors innovation more than the other.

        I guess you could argue that one end of the spectrum is more “moral” than the other, but I would counter that the opposite end is amoral rather than immoral.

        • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago
          1. You mean capitalism is inherent in the matrix of the space-time continuum as opposed to invented?

          2. Market economies have not all been capitalistic.

          3. Innovation is not the singular motivation of mankind. Survival, comfort, stability, peace, equality are more important.

          4. An amoral society is no better than an immoral society.