
Pokémon Go is everything that is wrong with late capitalism - josephby
http://www.vox.com/2016/7/12/12152728/pokemon-go-economic-problems
======
carlmcqueen
The facebook feedback of Pokemon Go has been astonishingly the joy people have
of seeing people leave their homes to play games. People meeting new people
with similar interests and people having interest in Pokemon that would never
have thought to have it.

This article's fear of 'no value' is short sighted for a game that just came
out, it could easily be the catalyst that gets people to go out of their home
and make economy again. I've already seen pokemon go lemonade stands.

~~~
ewzimm
This is exactly what I was thinking as I read the article. Pokemon Go is one
of the worst possible examples for this problem. It could even be the app that
takes AR mainstream; not just the AR view but the concept of using your local
neighborhood as an app-enhanced playground. We've had things like Foursquare
already, but it never inspired the same kind of joy of discovery as Pokemon
Go.

If businesses are smart, they'll capitalize on the trend and make more apps
that encourage people to go play outside. That makes people thirsty and hungry
for local refreshments and might even inspire conversations about
opportunities around town which they might not otherwise have explored.

------
Arnt
Kind of good for late capitalism if a bit of waste on a game is a major fault
by now, then. Pokémon Go may not be a lasting contribution to culture, but
compared with the past it's not at all bad. One generation ago we had the cold
war. Two, we had the nazis and Stalin, their unrealistic utopias, and the
resulting war. Three generations ago we had a world where most people were
poor (ie. median income was far below average).

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jerf
Astonishing. From "Pokemon Go sure is popular" to "we need more affordable
housing and more redistribution of wealth". Is there a better demonstration of
the fact that some people just can't help but see everything in the world
through their tiny little single-issue lens?

~~~
Eric_WVGG
I'm swinging back and forth between thinking that this article is vapid
garbage and makes some valid points. Probably both.

I have a similar canned lecture that I give to non-tech friends regarding
tech's promises to the future of employment (which eventually rolls around to
the need for guaranteed income). The example I've always cited is Instagram.
Photography used to mean Kodak, which once a billion dollar company employing
an entire city. It got displaced by Instagram, a billion dollar company that
employed 12.

(yes, I know, the cameras came from Apple who bought parts from Sony, this is
just a vague rant)

So this article is kind of dumb in that it's not a brand new phenomenon that
started in the past week, Pokemon Go is not really a great example, and money
flowing out of towns into big city pockets has been old hat since Gone With
the Wind was a blockbuster… but the point he's getting at is an important one.

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empath75
Making it easier for more people to move to San Francisco seems like not the
best solution whatever problem he thinks he's identified.

Also, local businesses _are_ making money from Pokemon Go, since a lot of the
gyms and pokespots are local businesses.

~~~
rexaliquid
That aspect of the game makes Pokemon Go better than other mobile game fads
and mainstays. Flappy Go doesn't get you out exploring the areas around you,
but catching Pokemon can enable spontaneous discovery of local shops/
restaurants.

Edit: er... Flappy Bird. I'm not sure what Flappy Go would look like.

~~~
fhood
we need flappy go right now!

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caminante

      But the Pokémon Go economy also has some real downsides. One 
      has to do with regional inequality. Nintendo and its partners 
      are rumored to be earning more than $1 million per day from 
      Pokémon Go. That money is flowing away from small and medium 
      cities and toward big technology companies concentrated in big cities.
    

The author's argument's VERY short on providing facts.

~~~
sp332
Are you questioning the part of the article you quoted? Because I don't see it
being very controversial. The companies getting money are Niantic and the
Pokemon Company (which is part-owned by Nintendo). And I guess Google who
takes a cut of in-app purchases.

~~~
fixermark
Google makes its money on the Cloud side --- Niantic's running its
infrastructure on Google Cloud.

[https://www.nianticlabs.com/jobs/](https://www.nianticlabs.com/jobs/)

~~~
bsenftner
Aren't they a division of Google?

~~~
fixermark
Not since last year. Google is still invested, but they're independent.

[http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/googles-niantic-labs-spins-
off...](http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/googles-niantic-labs-spins-off/)

~~~
dkuntz2
I guess that's technically true, but aren't they still part of Alphabet, which
means it's still very much related to Google, even if they're managed
independently.

~~~
fixermark
No.

[https://www.engadget.com/2015/08/12/niantic-labs-
splitting-f...](https://www.engadget.com/2015/08/12/niantic-labs-splitting-
from-google/)

------
vlunkr
They are just riding on the Pokemon Go train, this story could have been
written about any internet-based technology over the past two decades. It
hasn't killed capitalism yet.

~~~
smacktoward
No, but if capitalism seems healthier and more popular to you today than it
did in 1996, I want some of what you're smoking.

~~~
vlunkr
This may be naive as I'm no economist, but unemployment is lower/similar to
1996, the stock market has grown steadily since then, and we overcame a
recession. I think we're doing alright.

------
websitescenes
Capitalism and technology are fundamentally opposed forces. Unless we change
our ways, as technology matures, we will see economic disparity grow to
previously unimagined proportions. Technology will continue to automate jobs
and consolidate wealth, this is why we must embrace democratic socialism.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
> Technology will continue to automate jobs and consolidate wealth

Seems like that's perfectly aligned with capitalism tho?

~~~
websitescenes
That's precisely my point. I believe that technology should serve the human
good but capitalism preempts that possibility because of the way it
artificially steers advancement. We're serving the dollar, not utility.

------
BatFastard
Their main objection is that Pokeman Go contributes to the concentration of
wealth. Since all of the income is retained by the owning companies. In this
way it does not distribute the wealth like movie theaters and autos do. Hey
this is the new world. We need to figure out how to deal with concentrated
wealth since that is the future. It's like complaining how we are putting all
of the spoked wheel makes out of business.

~~~
fixermark
I think the article's author agrees with you. It's important to keep in mind
when one is putting spoked-wheel makers out of business because those people
are people too; you want to make sure you at least have an understanding of
the situation and what the way forward looks like.

i.e. it's one thing to acknowledge that buggy-whip manufacturers are going
under when the car arrives; it's quite another to scoff at them with "Well,
they should have known better than to make buggy whips---like their
forefathers did, because it was a super-stable industry and it's their core
skillset."

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angryasian
From some of these comments it makes me feel like a lot of people didn't
actually read the article.

1\. Yes the pokemon reference is stupid but its more about how technology
companies located in major hubs are making money from everywhere and not
giving back. Examples used: Hollywood was always major entertainment but
created jobs through local theatres. Detroit was major area for cars but
created jobs through dealerships.

2\. His solutions are horrible and his clear linkbait to shoehorn pokemon into
this article shows that this article was written to elicit these types of
reactions.

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forrestthewoods
Vox is rapidly moving into my "do not click" list. Their best content is quite
good. But the signal to noise ratio is rapidly deteriorating. Shame.

------
cylinder
Vox is everything that is wrong with late journalism.

------
hiou
But in "late capitalism" all that money going to those large corporations has
to go somewhere else. And that record low interest on government debt
definitely has something to do with this. So when all these corporations are
flush with cash they are actually flush with stuff like 10 year treasury notes
and US real estate purchased in US dollars. Which means the entire world
economy is essentially feeding the US extremely cheap money. How someone can
reason that is bad for a US resident is bizarre.

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fhood
There are a few good points in this article. That said, remember, everybody
thinks everything was better back when they were growing up.

~~~
fixermark
I don't necessarily think the author thought the old system was better. The
author seems to think the old system was well-understood and government
regulation was better equipped to control it; the new system requires new
thinking and possibly new policy that would have been anathema in the past
(Americans have an unhealthy aversion to "resource redistribution" tax policy
as a principle, in spite of how much it is practiced. In an economy where
money is flowing with heavy concentration at points because audiences are no
longer geographically captive, that kind of tax policy may become necessary to
prevent the economy from shutting down due to lack of purchasing power---or to
prevent revolt due to general anger at large wealth disparities).

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hirundo
Funny how the article characterizes capitalism as "late" and overly
concentrated while describing the soaring popularity of augmented reality ...
a technology with massive potential to reinvent and invigorate the peer to
peer economy. We're more likely to be in the early days of a form of
capitalism that will make its past a mere prelude.

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mcphage
> Obviously, it would be ridiculous to claim that Pokémon Go is singlehandedly
> responsible for recent macroeconomic trends.

...but he's going to try his hardest!

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viggity
Vox, the internet's leading source of whiny drivel masquerading as profound
introspection.

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wushupork
You could substitute "Pokemon Go" with "Clash of Clans", "WarCraft", "Angry
Birds" or any popular game where the money flows back to the company rather
than the local economy.

