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Comment by treeman79 | Hacker News Reader

This is a prime example of why capitalism is good. If Reddit was state owned or equivalent with regulatory capture, then nothing could be done about it. Doesn’t matter how bad it is. Like the DMV.

Now since Reddit is determined to shoot itself in the foot, new competitors can rise up and replace them. Reddit did the same to its predecessors.

Capitalism punishes harshly companies that decide to be stupid.

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> Like the DMV.

Whens the last time you've been to the DMV?

The second MD started doing appointments it was 100x better. Even before appointments for simple things like returning plates there were people with ipads you could just checkout with.

The last time I was at the DMV, I waited 4 hours for a 10 minute appointment.

DMV experiences vary wildly from state to state.

Last year, I moved to Texas. Texas has a DMV, but most of its functions are semi-privatized so you can get your license plates from a private agency, which is super convenient. In contrast, I had to get my drivers license at the DPS, which was booked months out.

Same in MN. Typically I'm in and out in less than 10 minutes. Just don't go at the end of the month!

Purely anecdotal, but I’ve already started to see noticeably less activity in a few of the subs I follow. It’s still a long way from dying, but it’s a promising start.

That's a fair point about allowing competition. But frankly, it just sucks that Reddit choses to purposefully hurt its service. With social media, there's also a strong moating effect that is fundamentally anti-competitive.

"If x was state owned... nothing could be done about it." Is this fatalism or is the American disease truly that your democracy has inexorably evaporated? Theoretically you have much more input over state-owned functions than private ones. However that assumes you don't live in a dystopian oligarchy ruled by capital that has completely supplanted the function of your government. If that was the case though, surely that'd be a prime example of why capitalism is NOT good?

America has a huge problem with voter turnout.

If Reddit was state-owned, they wouldn't be desperately scrabbling for profitability and none of these problems would have happened in the first place.

That's not to say they wouldn't have other problems, or that state-owned social media is a good idea at all, but this particular argument doesn't work.

Yes, like BP. Such punishment.

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