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by kgwxd 17 days ago
Name an industry anyone likes, aside from the money they might be making off it. They're all now hated for the same reasons, caused by the same, scarily small, group of people.
7 comments

I don't think we, as common engineers, can absolve ourselves of all blame. For a time we were in incredible demand and all we've made of it is: some people earned enough to retire early, buy nice cars, or start their own business.

But that demand could have been turned into real power. Now it's too late.

Some of us even pledged to work ethically and practice integrity. Not sure what the original english version is. Found this online:

https://order-of-the-engineer.org/about-the-order/obligation...

Restaurants, gyms, cinemas, Hollywood, sports leagues, book publishing, amazon.

People will have some criticisms of each of these but the average person probably appreciates them more than dislikes them.

I'd say farming. Not agriculture in general, Monsanto is one of the most hated companies, so is John Deere, and farmers hate them too, but the ones working on the field, preferably crops over livestock.

I think that farmers are somehow immune despite having their fair share of evil because we all understand that without them, we would all die.

I'm a New Zealander. Farmers here are disliked by a large percentage of the population
Agriculture is pretty much the antonym of industry.
Hairdressing/beauticians
In the words of Hank Hill, "some people are meant to go to college, and some people are meant to go to beauty school."
This specific quote actually belongs to Luanne Platter

"I learned something really important at college today. I don't wanna be there! Some people are meant to go to college, and some people are meant to go to beauty school. And I'm in beauty school!"

(who says AI is useless?)

Is this a sarcasm? I hate them trying to upsell their stuff or lie about the products(almost all of the product marketing in beauty industry is a lie) or oversell their services.

If I were to guess, I think what you mean interacting with them not the money extraction part?

Kindergartens
Nobody enjoys paying for one though.
I mean sure... but I vote for education tax levies whenever they come up and choose to live somewhere where they pass. I wouldn't call my emotions about it negative.
Space exploration.
I think that's true of NASA. However, I've got a pretty negative view of SpaceX due to the whole "owned by a Nazi thing".
Hahem, Wernher von Braun... What is it with nazis and rockets anyway?
Tons of people believe it's a waste of money though (I disagree).
The problem is capitalism and the injustices it creates. The hated industries are just symptoms.
The problem isn't capitalism, well it's not JUST capitalism. If you give any group of individuals that level of wealth control, the same pattern repeats. They can be shareholders, board directors, or commissars or general secretaries of the people's party, a prince or a duke, or the first citizen.

It doesn't matter, all you need to replicate the same problems is concentration of wealth and power and the ability to direct it.

Indeed. It's just that capitalism produces immense concentrations of wealth as a core feature of the system.
Sure, so did the Roman Republic and Pharonic Egypt and Imperial China and Communist China

So you're going to need a more accurate diagnosis than simply capitalism

I have to tighten your earlier point a bit first: it is not just absolute concentration of wealth that causes this, it is high levels of inequality, e.g. lots of people in misery with a few folks that have ridiculous riches.

I'm pretty sure the commoners (and even more so, the slaves!) in Rome, Egypt or Imperial China didn't love the system either.

However, I think the average modern-day, communist Chinese person has seen such a rise in standards of living (one billion people pulled out from poverty!) that they don't really hate the system despite there also being high wealth concentration amongst party and business elites.

The gap is the problem, not the peak.

Do you have any social accounts? By the username I'm guessing we're from the same country or region.
And yet all this power in the hands of the very few are only there because the rest of us don't know any better than coordinating for their benefit rather than coordinating in any other way.