Things fall apart

Active agency is replaced by passive consumption, messy relationships are replaced by efficient transactions, and in-real-life community is replaced by disembodied screens.

In current economic data, the growing wealth and income of the FIRE sector are added to GDP as economic growth, even though they in fact take the form of a steepening liability for households and businesses in the rest of the economy, leaving less income for consumption or productive investment. “This financialized overhead is not real growth,”... See more

the companies do little to encourage accountability, institution building, or integration with existing community structures

the hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which groups do not. It is about resources—which caste is seen as worthy of them and which are not, who gets to acquire and control them, and who does not. It is about respect, authority, and assumptions of competence—who is accorded these and who... See more

our avenues for participation have narrowed as professionalization, specialization, and technocratization have expanded.

The two biggest threats with the privatization of community — which I see as any effort that paywalls a social experience, like a club, friendship bootcamp, or any product or service that promises connection for a fee — are that it creates monocultures and enables people to profit off of loneliness

as Bob Putnam lays out in Bowling Alone, participation in parent-teacher organizations has dropped from more than 12 million in 1964 to about 7 million. Despite decades of increased urban migration bringing us more physically proximate to each other, we don’t know each other better — instead, our reported feelings of loneliness have shockingly... See more

When someone's daily struggle with instability is met with lectures about macroeconomic indicators, it doesn't change their reality, it only deepens their alienation from institutional expertise.