cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/28864827
Clocks in at 9am
Mentally clocks out at 9:05am
this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
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That's it. Act your wage, people!
What if I'm a teacher in Florida?
Even in pure socialism it wouldn't make sense to compensate for 100% of your value. You still produce something for others.
I'm all for compensating fairly but expecting 100% compensation is unrealistic.
Yeah there wouldn't be any reason to employ you.
This mentality is a major part of why things are so shit today. Badly engineered, badly coded, badly built, and badly serviced. Great work, Americans.
Rather than blame Americans you could make the shit you want. Just saying.
America sucks at the moment no doubt, but what exactly is the rest of the world’s excuse for not creating viable local or collaborative alternatives to American corporate services and products?
what exactly is the rest of the world’s excuse for not creating viable local or collaborative alternatives to American corporate services and products?
Decades of American diplomacy and big tech market domination hindering them from doing exactly that. It's not a coincidence all relevant tech companies are in the US. For the most time, if you started a company elsewhere and it became reasonably relevant, you had to eventually move to the US or go down.
Of course, you could start a non profit, but it would also stay irrelevant because it's incompatible with big tech. Microsoft's docx, android and iOS locks etc.
That said, there is now a political opportunity to move away from this system, but it takes a few years.
Eh, there are plenty of success stories with companies that aren’t American. Spotify for example is Swedish, as is Skype, and if you count fintech, Klarna. Skype was acquired by Microsoft.
That is the way with a lot of tech; something was created and then bought up by a bigger tech company, either because they wanted to expand their offerings, or snuff out competition.
Yes, but nobody cares about Spotify. It's not an essential app in any sense. It's also owned by the music industry, btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ5z_KKeFqE
But I can use my own cd collection instead if I want to or play my own music or none at all. Nobody cares.
What I can't do is write a funding proposal in libreoffice, because docx is the standard form and if your proposal looks odd they are happy to desk reject it. I also can't just use my own search engine, browser, social media. Well, I can, but I'll have to be tech savvy and will be isolated. This is by design.
The actual counterexample is SAP, which for some reason managed to cling itself into core business infrastructure. I don't know of another example, but let me know if you have one.
Many other startups were founded abroad and eventually bought by big tech or moved over for tax reasons. This is part of the "standard path" now, and people discuss when the strategic point in time is right to move over. American diplomacy made sure there is no competing environment anywhere else, except in China where they couldn't enforce it.
Yes, but nobody cares about Spotify. [...] But I can use my own cd collection instead if I want to or play my own music or none at all. Nobody cares.
I really wish this was the case, but a lot of people feel like they're stuck with Spotify, and buying music to own is increasingly difficult. You and I, and people like us who maintain our own collections are outliers.
I recognise however that Spotify isn't an essential service in the sense that say, a word processor is. I'm also not saying that Spotify, Skype or Klarna are good services by any means. Skype doesn't really exist anymore so fuck them, but Spotify and Klarna are terrible corporations.
What I'm saying is that there are services outside of the U.S., as well as popular software that isn't developed in the U.S., though many of these might just exist to cater to needs that U.S. software doesn't fill. For example, we have a software suite that's ubiquitous in government and public institutions here called Platina developed by Formpipe.
I wouldn't say that the ubiquity of American services is because their services are higher quality or in general better than other offerings. I think a lot of it has to do with the absolutely bananas funding of the U.S. tech sector, as well as the anti-competitive practises the tech giants have been engaging in for decades at this point. Word became the de-facto standard not because it was the better software, but because Windows was the de-facto standard.
Had as much time and money been poured into FOSS alternatives, they'd be at the forefront now. We might see this happen now with a lot of European governments attempting to move over to a FOSS software stack to minimise their reliance on proprietary, particularly U.S., technologies.
I'd further argue that a lot of the U.S. tech sector is actually backed up and powered by FOSS software that doesn't necessarily have an inherent "location" to it. Any sort of big media platform that serves video or audio (Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, etc.) will be using ffmpeg to do the heavy work for them. Most of the web runs on Linux servers, and the ecosystem that comes with. None of the tech giants would even function if not for the smaller software projects developed and maintained in large by private individuals.
What I can't do is write a funding proposal in libreoffice, because docx is the standard form and if your proposal looks odd they are happy to desk reject it.
You could always just use PDF. If there's no reason for the person receiving the proposal to edit the file, it shouldn't really be in an editable format anyway.
I also can't just use my own search engine, browser, social media. Well, I can, but I'll have to be tech savvy and will be isolated. This is by design.
Switching your browser is easy, you just download a different one. Vivaldi is from Norway, Ecosia is German, and Mullvad is from Sweden. Switching search engines is also pretty easy, including the built in address bar ones. On Android I was able to switch from Google to Kagi easily between the browser settings, and app. No need to be tech savvy beyond knowing how to install an app. Kago itself is US, but there are European alternatives, the steps to switch are just as easy.
Technically we're on social media right now, but most usage of that term means more like Facebook and that sort of site instead. "Social media" like that should generally be avoided if only to help with mental health.
You could always just use PDF
No, I can't. You're obviously not familiar with such processes. The format is enforced, nobody cares about some dude asking for money and then also asking to use a different format. Won't happen.
Vivaldi is from Norway
Uses chrome under the hood
Ecosia is German
Uses Google/Bing under the hood
Mullvad
Uses Firefox under the hood
Kagi
Is American
Technically we're on social media
Yes, and there are dozens of us!! Dozens!
But that means the blame is misplaced. The opportunity for competition existed all this time, but other nations rested on their laurels or otherwise corrupt politicians must have stopped competition and/or regulation preventing that technological dominance.
Likely it was simply easier to say “let America do it.” Then there’s no responsibility or accountability and if anything goes wrong, blame America.
We’re a nation of ~340 million in a world of billions. Surely there’s a means for other nations to create the same level of technological progress and rival whatever products and services we have. Our education system is trash and our politicians corrupt. You can’t be saying there was no other country or non-American business smart or savvy enough to make it happen. I’d it’s happening that way it’s because they choose not to out of convenience. It was a choice, and we’re all living with the outcome globally.
No, not out of convenience. I don't know what your image of American diplomacy is like, but they have always been willing to force other countries to go their way. In some cases they had to kill political leaders, in the EU for example politicians "understand' without getting killed.
But I think we're generally on the same boat. It's weird how all relevant tech companies are in the US. The difference is, I don't think this is because of"convenience". That doesn't scale that much. This is enforced.
Ah yes, the reason Spotify is vibe coded, tech bros make shitty products, and Europe doesn't have a decent competitor to Netflix is... checks notes ... the threat of assassination of European leaders via "diplomacy."
Bro, I don't know whether you're wearing the tin foil or smoking out of it but either way I think you should put it down.
I still say it's a choice. There are European providers that are hosting alternatives even for the likes of Azure and AWS. Use them. Fuck off from Amazon, Microsoft, and other American companies. Vote with your wallet. Support local products and services. They exist. If they're not as good, it's in part because they weren't supported over American options.
You're twisting my words, end of discussion here for me.
Look up the Atlantic treaty association, for example. Look at what the Snowden Files revealed about how America treats its "friends".
What the fuck are you talking about? Are you telling me to personally cast the fittings used in my water heater? To hand solder a PCB for my microwave? To machine my own engine camshaft?
Or did you already decide on a response after you read three words and guessed at the rest? In what state, may I ask, did you receive your education?
Badly engineered, badly coded, badly built, and badly serviced. Great work, Americans.
You blamed it on Americans and specifically pointed out bad code, badly built, and badly serviced products.
Are you telling me to personally cast the fittings used in my water heater? To hand solder a PCB for my microwave? To machine my own engine camshaft?
Believe it or not, some people actually do that shit.
Also, please point to me where the any of that is specifically a fucking American problem? Your microwave PCB was probably manufactured in China or Taiwan. Same for the rest of the stuff you mentioned.
And yeah, feel free to solder shit. I fixed my microwave PCB that way when a thyristor fried. Microwaves are pretty fucking simple where circuitry is concerned, large components and they even come with a PCB manual, generally above the door. Even if you can't build it you can at least repair it.
That's a shit take. The reason things are so shit today is because in so many places you have one person doing the job of 3, as employees leave, some poor bastard scrambles to cover them, then management just doesn't bother replacing them so they and the shareholders can pocket that salary, leaving the remaining employee permanently overextended.
Or because an engineer will design a product, along with materials, testing, and manufacturing specs, and then management will use cheaper materials or cut out some testing and quality assurance because they can rest on their brand name, or their monopoly, then pocket the difference for themselves and the shareholders.
And even if none of those things apply, chances are you've got someone who worked their way through school and university with the idea that they'd eventually get a career with stability and income growth, only to end up in precarious employment, working stupid hours in shitty conditions, making only barely enough to survive if they're lucky - forget about saving or disposable income - again, because instead of investing in employee well-being, all those profits are being funneled to overpaid executives and shareholders.
If you can think of something that's been enshittified (everything), you can pretty much always draw a direct link back to greedy, overpaid executives, and shareholder profits.