gemini://clanmorgan.org/gemlog/2023-05-24-on-profit.gmi

Others may experience that megacorps are unprofitable--too much stress, and not worshiping money may find that which remains--a paycheck, or the fearful climbing--isn't much a draw.

Worse, megacorps create work in IT even if you avoid their wares--oh, yeah, Microsoft does that, you need to twiddle these options so Excel is less likely to corrupt your data; or, oh, yeah, Chrome does that, they WONTFIX, try another browser when you see that error. Splash damage, as it were. Perhaps with appropriate regulatory scrutiny or some actual competition for a change there would be remedies for or more alternatives to such?

"Appropriate scrutiny" is because regulations are oft used to exclude new competition from the market, especially where a person has the ear of the lawmakers--oh no, that is not corruption, we citizens, united, disagree! An example of good scrutiny might be the small €1.2 billion fine to Facebook for sending customer data over to the leaky bucket that is America. Whether America will show competence and pass a good consumer data privacy law is an open question.

> The most recent polling data from April 2023 puts the approval rating of the United States Congress at 16 percent, reflecting a decrease ...

Complicated Issues

Policies... processes... getting things right... yes, yes, and the hallway instructions on what to say, or not, to an auditor; there is plenty of room for error concerning server X doing Y, and if the conversation never managed to reach X, eh, what are you going to do? Probably this is saying too much--after all, "The Bad Sleep Well".

It Matters

Mainstream media has largely been reduced to selling clicks; there may not be profit for an article with nuance that takes effort to write that few will make the trouble to read. There could be various reasons for this. Some have noted that rational, educated, and discerning people tend not to make good consumers. Such consumers may ask uncomfortable questions about who has their data, and what that data is being used for, and may demand reasonable progress from the powers that be.

Other consumers might be somewhat jaded about the outsized influence of the megacorps--where is the fairness in the law (that they wrote, with the supremes that they bought) when they can simply crush you with legal fees, or how long does it take to approve a FCC nominee who isn't already caught in orbit?

> ... then this tilts the playing field towards bad behaviour.

Laughable, simply laughable. The playing field was already tilted before Thatcher shrugged at some coal miners. Will they wise up? Probably not, not with their laser focus on profits and their high, solid wall. Some will instead root for the egg.