Autoenshittification. How the computer killed capitalism. – by Cory Doctorow
I still have a belief that capitalism and free markets are superior, but not the way we&#x27;re doing it now. I&#x27;m not trying to no true scotsman here, but a man born in germany to 2 austrian parents and dressed in a kilt is no true scotsman.<p>as i see things there are some major issues are<p>- Removing money from gold standard, allowing power to accrue to those who can control the supply. Instead of competing for what consumer wants, they just change the rules, or tax the future to line their own pockets today.<p>- People have bought the lie that the government can do net good things for the economy, not just move the peas around the plate. I think it started with income tax and the social safety net (whereas prior we had charitable works that largely worked by proximity -- you knew the person you were helping or being helped by, meaning you had a spiritual need to treat them humanely, vs a money printer government which seems like it can go on forever, but see my point above about real money.<p>- An image based society, we no longer appreciate and compete on enduring values like long marriages, objects that last a life time (or longer),  making a hard choice that denies ourselves the appearance of gain etc. For example our clothes only need to last long enough to make that IG&#x2F;TikTok post, then they can be discarded. A BMW when photographed appears identical to the one which has its $120 a month options rented or not.<p>-  Sex (porn&#x2F;hookups) and attention(likes, foodie calls, onlyfans) have become huge traps to men, and women, respectively. Meaning people feel like why would I work years&#x2F;decades to get what others print money for, or why would I preserve something my partner might want when I can get what I want in exchange. These tools have made every boy&#x2F;man a john, and every girl&#x2F;woman a prostitute exchanging artificial attention for sex, and artificial sex for attention ...<p>We cannot make real progress while we continue to applaud fake things. A millionaire isnt what it used to be, and neither is anything we see on social media.<p>also see my pseudo rant here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=34560255">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=34560255</a><p>How would I fix things?<p>- Return to gold standard and constitutionalize that governments cannot take on debt (they can only work with current cash reserves, not even projected taxes).<p>- A better education system (likely not a state run monopoly) will help people think smarter about everything.<p>- Social media influencers need to be held liable for inaccuracies and sued into oblivion for what amounts to false advertising and fraud<p>- Pornography needs to be age gated (and enforced) like alcohol, lottery, and voting. Sellers need to be held accountable just as selling alcohol to an underage person is the seller&#x27;s fault. So should be providing pornography. Also it should be an Opt in system at the ISP level meaning the biggest names are not accessible.<p>I know this will get downvoted into oblivion because there&#x27;s so much content people are likely to disagree with at least one point. But this is my best working model rn for how to get back to the stability that will allow us to make real progress again as a society.