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Silicon Valley startups: being evil, again and again

notesfrombelow.org

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Re: Silicon Valley startups: being evil, again and again

#51

At the heart of this article is the claim that buying equity is a form of theft. That is an extreme claim (in the sense of surprising, remarkable, unusual, and one that needs a lot more support than ordinary claims). It is inadequately defended here. The argument that it violates fair exchange is tautological.

The article is clearly written from a bit of a Marxian perspective and I think there's a lot assumed ... presuppositions about exploitation and value theory. So yeah, even though on first skim I think I agree with the thrust of this article, I think you're right it's poorly defended, assuming it's at all for an audience outside of people who already think this way.

I haven't read Marx since I left college, but in my remembering the only thing that is "theft" in the capital is the initial accumulation. There is no idea that any form of ownership beside that is theft (I don't believe there is any notion of "evil" either.) To be honest, you don't give the impression that you have read anything from the author that you are siting. Marx is like those ancient greek phylosophers and classical scientists who are "quoted" more often than read.

One could probably say that the privatisation of human communication is a form of "initial accumulation", or maybe just another step toward appropriation of culture, but that's apparently not the angle that the author decided to explore (can't be sure, I couldn't do better than skim that text which looked wrong in too many ways).

Re: Silicon Valley startups: being evil, again and again

#52

At the heart of this article is the claim that buying equity is a form of theft. That is an extreme claim (in the sense of surprising, remarkable, unusual, and one that needs a lot more support than ordinary claims). It is inadequately defended here. The argument that it violates fair exchange is tautological.

For me, when you start to lobby, when you explicitly pay people to pass laws in your favour, that's when you cross a line. You go from playing within the rules of the system to making up rules that favour you, and it's wild that it's legal much less acceptable for corporations to do that.

While I agree it is unfair and it would be better if they didn’t, the reality is that there is a meta-game at a higher level and they are playing according to the meta-game rules. Part of the meta-game is to convince others to stay in the regular game sandbox which gives rise to the hypocrisy we are all familiar with. I don’t know what it would take to diminish the meta-gaming let alone eliminate it, it’s very hard to stop things that are very profitable. I also think we’re in the looting phase of corporatocracy. I think the result of this means the meta-gaming rapidly grows like a cancer to take over everything.

Re: Silicon Valley startups: being evil, again and again

#55

[flagged]

...yet kids are pretty quick (and eager) to understand "mine"... and seem to struggle understanding "not mine" at first. Transgenerational greed? And still, not respecting these concepts make you the thief today. So, what now?

I'm all for experimenting on babies, but I can't understand what point you are trying to make with this.

Do you mean they naturally understand property, or do you mean they naturally understand theft, or what?

Re: Silicon Valley startups: being evil, again and again

#57

This article oversimplifies things...and then comes to some bold conclusions. It helps to look at different perspectives, rather than looking at everything through an ideological lens. I guess thats the age we live in, unfortunately.

What is the ideological lens that characterizes our society? Greed.

The individual owes nothing to society: no limit to what I can own. Society owes nothing to me: my share of the wealth is my own fault. Might makes right. A deal is fair regardless of the terms: a deal is a deal. Workers don’t deserve a vote: they agreed to their servitude.

Re: Silicon Valley startups: being evil, again and again

#60

It's like accusing a pig of being a pig. Pig gonna do what pig does. What DOESN'T work is legally-enforced "norms" that we the people decide everyone has to follow. Businesses are "people" now, according to the US Supreme Court, so it's our job to make them face consequences if they refuse to behave like actual "humans" bound by laws. But it's only if we elect representatives who are not corrupt grifters.

Is it really so crazy to extend democracy to the enterprise?
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