Tech industry is deriving its value from destruction rather than creation and we have been paying the price.
The 2008 mortgage crisis is remembered with 3 million families loosing their homes, plunging the US is the worst recession since the Great Depression. The government responded by helping the banks, rather than the families, with the $498,000,000,000 bailout. The Occupy Wall Street protestors surfaced all over the country, speaking out against government’s choice to rescue the banks.
While protestors were ineffective in achieving justice due to lack of leadership and concrete demands, they did plant the seeds of hate for corporate America. Today, fun start-ups appear to be the complete opposite of the rigid and hierarchical corporations. However, they use the same tried and true corporate practices to monopolize industries and eliminate jobs.
On the surface, start-ups look like complete opposites of corporate culture. The save-the-world mission, friendly graphics, and warm colors on the site are attractive. Being able to wear a t-shirt and jeans to the office, sit crossed legged on the couch with a laptop, and drink beer during office hours is fun. The hungry daily desire to do more and acquire more at any cost and as fast as possible is nauseating. Tech companies are deriving their value not from creation but from destruction and the people have been paying the price.
While it’s DVD service was popular, Netflix was only able to kill Blockburser when home internet speeds picked up enough for everyone to be able to stream content. As Redbox is on its last breath, Netflix is forging ahead with more original content, burning on average of 2 billion a year. It overtook its competitor Hulu with 4 times as many users, made cable TV irrelevant, and is suffocating the cinema industry. A single digital streaming platform has 5.5 thousand employees. The industries it put out of business employed millions.
As Netflix is becoming the behemoth of the TV industry, the closure of Dillard’s and Sears, and Macys and Target showing losses are just some of the examples of Amazon takeover of retail. Their blatant copying of other services like Etsy with Amazon Handmade and Blue Apron with Amazon Fresh are aggressive attempts at monopolizing every corner of the goods marketplace. Currently, Amazon employs 650,000 people. Amazon warehouse employees speak to some of the worst working conditions they have ever encountered, their tasks dictated to the second and bathroom breaks being an earned privilege. Amazon pays $11.25 per hour, which is half the lowest living wage in the US.
The bailout of 2008 rescued the bank sector allowing it to continue creating capital and funding businesses. As mortgages were made much more difficult to obtain for families with higher income limits, longer requirements of full-time employment, and higher down payments, banks got to enjoy some of the lowest interest rates in US history, fueling the lending spree which caused the 2008 economic crisis. The financial sector preaches responsibility by incorporating fun spending pie charts and automated savings to encourage users to meet their financial goals. All while, Amazon and Netflix were in debt for 20 years, just to take out competitors, destroy entire industries, leading to unemployment of millions of people, while paying their employees half of the living wage.
'Dematerialize. Democratize. Digitize.' is the mantra of the start-up world, but at what human cost?