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175 points drc500free | 1 comments | 14 Oct 24 17:34 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source

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adamc ◴[14 Oct 24 21:39 UTC] No.41842310[source]▶

One of the questions all this raises for me is: what fraction of successful startups actually make society better?

I'm sure to get pushback here, but my suspicion is: most do not. Looking at companies like Facebook, Amazon, or Google, I'm kind of think they made it worse. Yeah, I know, some people benefited. But net-net, I preferred having more and better bookstores to Amazon. I don't like what google has become at all. And Facebook has never been good.

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tremarley ◴[15 Oct 24 13:10 UTC] No.41848203[source]▶

>>41842310 #

Google helps us lookup anything we want

Amazon helps us buy anything we want

Facebook helps us keep in touch with all of our friends easily

Their not as good a they used to be but how are they not good?

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1. coldpie ◴[15 Oct 24 13:39 UTC] No.41848491[source]▶

>>41848203 #

Google & Facebook push the advertising/attention economy business model, which rewards spreading misinformation & extreme viewpoints, leading to the rise in conspiracy theories and breakdown in discourse & trust in public institutions we see today. Amazon has killed a lot of local retail, removing OK jobs and replacing them with low-paying/low-skill warehouse labor.

I think there's arguments for both sides, but personally I land on the net-evil side for all 3 of the listed companies.

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Scale Ruins Everything