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1. J. Martin (gyokusai@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 20-Apr-2024 20:01:08 JST J. Martin

   • Cory Doctorow

   And while we’re at it, here’s @pluralistic's “Zuck’s Empire of Oily Rags” again, probably the best essay on Zuck’s Evil Empire ever written:

   “No one would pay very much for this oil, but there were a lot of oily rags, and provided no one asked him to pay for the inevitable horrific fires that would result from filling the world’s garages with oily rags, he could turn a tidy profit.”

   https://locusmag.com/2018/07/cory-doctorow-zucks-empire-of-oily-rags/

   • Aral Balkan repeated this.
   • JW prince of CPH (jwcph@norrebro.space)'s status on Saturday, 20-Apr-2024 20:01:08 JST JW prince of CPH

     in reply to

     • Cory Doctorow

     @gyokusai @pluralistic "In corrupt systems, a few bad actors cost everyone else billions in order to bring in millions – the savings a factory can realize from dumping pollution in the water supply are much smaller than the costs we all bear from being poisoned by effluent. But the costs are widely diffused while the gains are tightly concentrated, so the beneficiaries of corruption can always outspend their victims to stay clear." 👍👍