On: The Moral Economy of Tech

[hartez]

> Why would we do something that benefits far away humans over something that benefits nearby humans? Don't help those foreigners (or people in NY)! Build a wall! Trump 2016! (Same idea, just directed at a slightly different target.)

You've misunderstood his sentence. He's not saying that we should prefer fixing things locally to fixing things globally. He's asking why we should believe that the tech elite can improve life on a global scale when they can't even improve it on a local scale.

[yummyfajitas → hartez]

If that's the question, the answer is pretty clear: we should believe they can do it because they already have and continue to do it every day.

And in spite of what the author claims, there are even solving some political problems. For instance, observe how Uber has improved governance in most major cities. AirBnB seems to be taking a crack at it too: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-27/airbnb-is-...

[TarpitCarnivore → yummyfajitas]

> observe how Uber has improved governance in most major cities

Do you mean like how Uber bailed on Austin after a law passed requiring a basic, simple, background measure?

[AlexandrB → TarpitCarnivore]

> Do you mean like how Uber bailed on Austin after a law passed requiring a basic, simple, background measure?

No, I think he means how Uber spends millions of dollars on ad campaigns to try to swing votes in their favour.

[yummyfajitas → AlexandrB]

Not to mention showing consumers how governance could be better, and then daring politicians to go back to the old corrupt way of doing business.

Uber is making an example of Austin. Hopefully the rest of the world will learn not to go that way.