[jimbokun]

You know, it’s stuff like this making me think maybe the anti capitalists have a point.

A company makes a popular product customers like, but to satisfy the VCs the company must make a product the customers don’t like but could make the VCs more money.

Not sure this is the “invisible hand” Adam Smith had in mind.

[lII1lIlI11ll]

"Invisible hand" doesn't force you to take VC funding. You can maintain (and many do) what VCs like to derisively call "lifestyle business". And GNU project somehow wasn't started in Soviet Union either. Editors of both kinds (non-VC funded business and FOSS) are widely available for you to use BTW.

The problems that Cursor is facing are directly resulted by the choices that its founders freely made previously.

[runarberg]

Anti-capitalist here: Our point is actually the same point as the one Anti-feudalists had. The consumer hostility observed under capitalism is simply a corollary.

[peyton]

To be fair feudalism (the row-farming kind) kind of collapsed because people found better deals with the rise of trade and mercantilism and such. It wasn’t anything anybody needed to make points over.

IDEs seem headed in the same direction. Seriously, watching Codex rip apart binaries in parallel and Claude go from nothing to app in one prompt, I’m pretty sure there’s no need for me to look at any code. I’m fine using tools that just emit machine code if that’s more efficient.

[jimbokun]

What if the generated app is sending your sensitive information back to Anthropic?

[runarberg]

It is easier to imagine the end of the world then the end of feudalism.

I kind of like the story of how Malthus had his theory of societal collapse because he couldn’t imagine a better system then mercantilism. That societies would rather collapse then to end their colonial monopolies.

I see a similar theory today with around depopulation, that as society gets older and relatively fewer working age people there are, that society would rather collapse then we find a better system then Capitalism.

[jimbokun]

What system works better when you have a very large number of elderly people who want to retire and very few young people to work?

[runarberg]

Socialism, for one.

[jimbokun]

You still have many people consuming and not producing, and much fewer people producing.

Capitalism or socialism doesn’t change that.

[OkayPhysicist]

We most generally lump Mercantilism in with Feudalism. The transition to Capitalism came with the rise of Liberalism (not the American political definition, the political philosophy one), which involved a lot of revolutions.

[Imustaskforhelp]

(I think I agree), Georgist here, Our point is also that these rent-seeking abilities (something which even the creator of capitalism famously hated the land-lords quite a lot)

This is the issue with something like Cursor and VC's funding because I feel like these private equities essentially seek rent in their own way by hollowing out the products from within, to maximize profits without doing efforts in a manner very similar to Rent-seeking, and most large companies also feel like a rent-seeking on the monopoly that they establish (like google or facebook)

I have made someone who was communist/socialist agree to georgism and I have had someone who was extremely capitalist agree to georgism, and to be honest, whether it be georgism or anti capitalism or socialism, I think that the world just wants a system where a person is treated with dignity within the economic cogs.

My opinion is that as long as we can all agree on the last premise about dignity for individuals within the economic cogs, we can all have meaningful conversations to make that a premise, hopefully a reality.

(I feel like the people who might deny dignity to people within this particular context, have either a bias/incentive to not look towards the problem, or are uninformed, or lack the energy to fight towards change within the system, and more importantly the _hope_ that the future can be better)

I am not hopeful about the current political systems (even around the whole-world at times), I feel like there should be more information and decentralization within politics.

Essentially, politics really just feel unaccountable to me, your vote really stops mattering to politicians if/when money starts talking. But technically, this system can be broken through with enough votes.

I really hope for a future where politics and politicians feel accountable and genuine, maybe even someone from down the street who we can have some chats with to actually know them.

Ironically or unironically, just as how the landlords pushed against Georgism/George within really making political difference, The same is happening right now as well where Online landlord monopolies dictate how people interpret and vote by using their algorithms/influence.

Politics like many other problems feel like a chicken and egg problem, like things work until they don't and things don't work until they do. At a more individual level, stepping outside of most algorithms and the reason why I joined hackernews is for doing something like this, myself.

[runarberg]

Anarchist here. I can definitely see the appeal of Georgism. And if we must have a state (while we Anarchist work to dismantle the state apparatus) I am personally not convinced Communism is a superior alternative to Georgism. And I think you could probably convince many anarchists alike (as long as you strategically avoid mentioning the role of the state). And in either case, I will definitely stand next to a Georgist during the revolution in solidarity against Capitalism.

[charcircuit]

In order to make more money you have to make a product customers want.

[popcorncowboy]

No, just a product they'll pay for

[joshuacc]

Customers aren’t in the habit of paying for things they don’t want.

[tquinn]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand

[qsera]

You sure about that?

[jimbokun]

According to the comment I replied to you have to make the product VCs think will make VCs the most money, even if that’s at odds with what your customers are telling you they want.

[charcircuit]

It is more of a point that it may require leaving your old customers behind and disappointing them in order for you to find the customers you can provide the most value to.