this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Enshittification
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What is enshittification?
The phenomenon of online platforms gradually degrading the quality of their services, often by promoting advertisements and sponsored content, in order to increase profits. (Cory Doctorow, 2022, extracted from Wikitionary) source
The lifecycle of Big Internet
We discuss how predatory big tech platforms live and die by luring people in and then decaying for profit.
Embrace, extend and extinguish
We also discuss how naturally open technologies like the Fediverse can be susceptible to corporate takeovers, rugpulls and subsequent enshittification.
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Why don’t we just charge the homeless infinite tax money to support the government?
good luck, do you need any pitchforks or are you bringing your own
Bug report filed.
Closing, will not fix
PEBKAC. Known issue.
I am unironically working on an idea where negative money is a normal feature of an Economy which is needs first. Production based on the requirement to fill those needs. There would be no tax money required to support a government and the negative balance is simply a transparent measurement of the cost of life.
It would eliminate the concept of purchasing power. And i know that sounds insane on premises. Hence i am still working on it. May require more then a few pages.
Anyway don't direct skepticism to it yet. Just know that your joke has been a real life math Problem in my head for a few days now.
Some may critique you, but I think it’s important to dream. All the best ideas started as dreams.
Your idea is kind of sound, but it really depends on how you implement the "negative" money.
You can just choose not to pay off the public debt. That will, effectively, make you print infinite money, and we all know how much corpos like to use and very much abuse inflation. Your idea'd fall quick.
An alternative is to charge the provider for the service they're providing, or someone with deep pockets who could. This seems much sounder of a wax to go to me. For example, if someone is building a hotel with 500 rooms, say they have to build an additional 30 apartments meant to house a 4-member family. Or, say you keep the asinine US health insurance system, but for every procedure they charge, they have to make one for free. Who they give it to is chosen by the government. This is effectively a form of "negative" taxation. Shame it's basically a revive of the feudal-era "Wheat tax".
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