corporations ruin everything they touch

lalal AI has made some great innovations in taking songs and separating them into vocals and instrumentals. that’s a game changer for remix artists.

other than that niche utility and a handful of others, AI is largely bullshit.

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

Mega corporations that only hire contract workers with no morale or investment in the long term success of the company (because the majority of their efforts are purely to appear shareholders) are not equipped with the means to put out decent products.

Passion, dedication, investment in workers, and long term talent are what create remarkable pieces of software. Microsoft has none of this because these things are incompatible with the directives of infinite growth shareholder appeasement. Want extra time for QA? nope, that would reduce profits. Want to pay higher salaries to attract better talent? Nope, that would reduce profits. Want to adequately reward employees in ways they actually connect with like raises and bonuses? Nope, that would cut into the boss’ annual bonus and he needs his new vacation home more than we need to afford rent.

There is an optimal level of profit chasing and company size within which excellent software can be produced, and Microsoft exceeded those thresholds years ago. There is also an optimal phase of capitalism that is conducive to quality innovation and development, and we’re well past it.

I earn money by working

But do you earn enough? Does the working class earn enough? The general consensus for most people is no. The vast majority of wealth that the working class produces every year does not make it into the hands of the people who produced it, but rather the oligarchs who already possess most of the wealth already.

I can spend my money on what I want, and can start a business if I wanted to.

These are not exclusive to only capitalism. People were trading money for goods and starting businesses for thousands of years before capitalism was around.

The best businesses are rewarded with more money while poor businesses fail.

This is how it’s supposed to work in a merit driven free market economy, but that’s not how late stage capitalism plays out.

Many corporations are run by imbeciles and hemorrhage money, pursue short term profits at the expense of long term sustainability, treat their workers horribly, and rely on their monopolistic position in the market to survive rather than merit, competence, ethics, or quality. When they finally make an error that would normally bankrupt a company out of existence, they simply cry to the government for bailout money, and they get it every time because our politicians are bought and owned by billionaires and their lobbyists. This is the core principle of an oligarchy, which we are, and which capitalism always evolves into given enough time.

The rich get bailouts, the workers do not. This is a direct product of wealth inequality and regulatory capture that capitalism inherently generates.

The main argument against capitalism is that it leads to only a privileged few getting all the wealth, opportunities and freedom while the rest become wage slaves and debt slaves. It is the ultimate capitulation to artificial scarcity as if that’s somehow the best we can do as a species.

All the homelessness, overpriced healthcare and education, unaffordable housing, etc exists because of capitalism and it’s supporters look at this and say “good. fuck the poor.” or “this is the best we can do.”

I stopped being a libertarian because I was tired of the cynical capitulation.