Ok, we do that, and, assuming it’s not one of the scam ones, or one who does charity by perpetuating dependencies, or one who owned/controlled by someone who lobbies for nothing to change, we get to feed some people for a year. For how many years do we do that, losing wage share, purchasing power, infrastructure, affordable bills, political power, etc, until we can say it doesn’t work?
I have no particular issue with the purchase, as I barely care about what any of the companies involved or affected sell. But it’s one more small step into having a tiny amount of corporations siphon rent out of allowing business to have a chance at growth-enabling profit, while double dipping by spying on consumer habits and selling the knowledge.
I don’t mean that cyberpunk is around the corner, or that any particular deal is a portal do the end times. But thinking that MS is now good, actually, because it doesn’t do the exact same things as 20 years ago, as if nothing else changed, is naive. But fine, say they are ethically amazing right now; what if they, or Amazon, or whatever, decide not to be when no one has any other profitable/affordable choice for a particular market (or they are all pretty much the same, as it tends to happen)? What then is my concern.
