1. By broader macroeconomic trends, I was suggesting that HN commenters might be criticizing "charge more" simply because consumers in general, who may not be able to afford as much as they used to, would be adversely affected. Of course, tech companies who monetize by pursuing any number of alternate policies (adding ads, selling data, F2P loot boxes) would be just as roundly criticized. Lose-lose.
2. I'm not sure how feasible it is to expect the amount of labor crossing into capital to be on par with how it was in the dot-com bubble, or even just a decade before. Sure, a large amount of dumb money continues to slosh around in tech so long as interest rates and other economic conditions remain favorable for investing, but that doesn't mean the number of entrepreneurs will increase proportionally
3. Tech industry trends have shifted over time, and corporations don't simply make decisions at the expense of labor only for the sake of shareholders, but also for the founders themselves (who are also technically shareholders, sure). Witness this rather curious pre-pandemic thread from December 2019 where the HN commentariat almost overwhelmingly denounces joining startups, in favor of joining FAANG or starting one's own startup instead. (Though the latter would seem to contradict the 'less of software labor wants to join capital' idea.) As the second comment puts it pithily, "the math changed."
I think we essentially agree. #2 is an interesting point to think about. Especially as the FAANGs continue to consolidate, while there will be a greatly increased appetite for software engineers as labor, thanks to network effects (and a bit of #3) you end up with fewer opportunities for labor to become capital and vice-versa.
1. By broader macroeconomic trends, I was suggesting that HN commenters might be criticizing "charge more" simply because consumers in general, who may not be able to afford as much as they used to, would be adversely affected. Of course, tech companies who monetize by pursuing any number of alternate policies (adding ads, selling data, F2P loot boxes) would be just as roundly criticized. Lose-lose.
2. I'm not sure how feasible it is to expect the amount of labor crossing into capital to be on par with how it was in the dot-com bubble, or even just a decade before. Sure, a large amount of dumb money continues to slosh around in tech so long as interest rates and other economic conditions remain favorable for investing, but that doesn't mean the number of entrepreneurs will increase proportionally
3. Tech industry trends have shifted over time, and corporations don't simply make decisions at the expense of labor only for the sake of shareholders, but also for the founders themselves (who are also technically shareholders, sure). Witness this rather curious pre-pandemic thread from December 2019 where the HN commentariat almost overwhelmingly denounces joining startups, in favor of joining FAANG or starting one's own startup instead. (Though the latter would seem to contradict the 'less of software labor wants to join capital' idea.) As the second comment puts it pithily, "the math changed."
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21865065