I mean, I get it too (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, July 05, 2026, 16:38 (19 hours, 59 minutes ago) @ Kermit
edited by Cody Miller, Sunday, July 05, 2026, 16:45

And yes, maybe the immediate replacement is worse (as with VHS)

VHS was arguably not worse. It ran twice as long. That's a pretty big advantage in being able to put movies on one tape. The load mechanism was also far simpler, and didn't break as much as BETA.

Is every product better in every way than what replaced it? Of course not, but do more people have access to greater benefits than they had before? On the whole and over enough time, I think the answer to that question is undeniably yes.

Hard disagree. As Technology has proliferated, we are seeing less and less benefit, and lots of straight up regressions. Platforms enshittify. Our ownership rights are taken away. Prices go up. Generative AI plundered human culture for nobody's benefit. I can count on one hand the number of things that have gotten better in the last 15 years.

Like I said, a real issue that is more likely to happen with large corporations that have some sort of lock on the market. We must be diligent and ensure fair competition. Focusing on large corporations, however, presents a distorted view of our economy—at least in the US. Small business make up 99.9% percent of US companies. They represent a little less than half of our GDP. 


It is not the small businesses that are ruining everything. It's the large ones that have the push.

Small business owners are often hustling 80+ hours a week to out-innovate their competitors.

To failure it seems then. Because we have no meaningful choice anymore with regards to many things we used to, or technologies that control large portions of people's lives. Nobody cares if a brewery started by immigrants thrives. That's not driving the destruction of our privacy, rights, or culture.

Consumers get a vote, and when they don’t buy, they are being critics.

I've found that instead of 'listening', they simply make it harder for you to not buy it.

Here is the bottom line: what I appreciate about free markets as opposed to alternatives to it is the former’s ability to self-heal.

Never in my life have I seen a market heal. Only destroy. Have you looked at ANYTHING?! We'd still be driving without seatbelts and airbags if the market weren't distorted by having them be REQUIRED.

Not requiring an account of any sort for splitscreen is just not an option for a company that is so intent on data collection. They can't even conceive of NOT logging everything you do. What does that gain you? Not a damn thing.