
The Locust Economy (2013) - astrange
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/04/03/the-locust-economy/
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carsongross
I don't always agree with, and I likely don't understand, a lot of what
Venkatesh Rao writes, but he is always entertaining.

His outline of the modern corporation is fantastic:

[http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-
principle/](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/)

~~~
Asooka
That series is fantastic, if a bit infuriating. It defines a language around
concepts and dynamics I've seen, intuited or had other self-taught people
attempt to explain at me, but due to the hollistic nature of theirs and my own
education on social dynamics, never clicked for me. The one addition I'd like
to see to it is advice for the person who understands the Game, but unlike the
Losers (who just want to fly under the radar) and the Sociopaths (who just
want power), wants to kill the Game for good. Someone who wishes for the world
to work according to democratic principles where everyone is an equal, instead
of the feudal lord - serf dynamic exhibited in pretty much all of recorded
history.

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Animats
He predicted that blogging for profit would tank. It did.

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paulpauper
how so? Aren't there bloggers who make money from their blogs?

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drdeadringer
Some or many maybe making money, but are they making a profit? At what "hourly
rate" of "content creation"? Is that rate sustainable or merely supplemental
or in addition to other sources of income?

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jschwartzi
I can see how Groupon fits his analogy, but I don't see how he extends it to
tools like Uber, where it's a one-to-one transaction that's not particularly
exploitative. The only real insight here is that people become more
exploitative when their resources become scarce, which isn't very surprising
to me.

~~~
ciconia
Uber is exploitative in that it can set prices in a completely arbitrary
manner that has little to do with the way an auto-regulating market works.
It's the classic "invisible hand", only in this case it's completely
calculated and pre-meditated by a god-like entity.

