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1. muesli (fribbledom@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 03:57:05 UTC muesli

   I faintly remember a time when companies tried to succeed by developing outstanding products that conquer the market by merit.

   These days development seems almost irrelevant, everything is optimized to extract the most cash from the cheapest, often white-labelled, products.

   And on the consumer side? When did we go from "best value for money" to "cheapest whatever it takes".

   With the advent of the internet? Social media? Amazon? I really can't tell anymore 🤔

   • Billy Smith (billysmith@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 04:15:46 UTC Billy Smith

     in reply to

     • muesli

     @fribbledom

     It's partially economic as people are a lot poorer these days, but it's also that the price-point of automation has dropped through the floor.

   • Ivan Sagalaev (isagalaev@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 04:25:56 UTC Ivan Sagalaev

     in reply to

     • muesli

     @fribbledom I was thinking about it a lot. To me this is a natural evolution of capitalist businesses who, over the XXth century, gradually honed the way to make the most money, and it turned out that aggressive marketing + buying out competitors + subverting industries with a subsidized "free" products, all work better than "honest" competition. Computers helped doing it more efficiently, and the Internet helped to scale it globally.

   • miku86 (miku86@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 05:48:01 UTC miku86

     in reply to

     • Adrian Cochrane

     @alcinnz

     Some questions:
     - Who creates these products? Some soul-less people or people like you and me?
     - Who is interested in making money? Some greedy businessman or people like you and me, e.g. by working for these companies or owning shares of these companies?

     I think it's easier than ever to stand up against this shit: don't create these products and buy old/alternative products. I'm very happy with my 2012 Thinkpad

   • Tagomago (tagomago@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 07:16:01 UTC Tagomago

     in reply to

     • muesli

     @fribbledom Old normal is now called premium.

   • Li/Лі (monsoonrains@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 14:53:21 UTC Li/Лі

     in reply to

     • muesli

     @fribbledom Probably because if it's gunna be crap anyway what's the point in spending more?

     Vicious cycle.

   • camethedawnxp@mastodon.social's status on Friday, 02-Sep-2022 16:54:59 UTC camethedawnxp

     in reply to

     • muesli

     @fribbledom and what's worse is if the product is defective, chances are you can't refund or exchange because it's no longer available for special order so you have to live with it.