Fops’ follies, and tomfoolery taboo

Tech’s illicit behaviors, tax evasion, political corruption and misaligning co-option, all of which have aided few, are maladaptive pieces that drive today’s run-amuck capitalism, wherein the top 1% control global markets, wherein our freeways and infrastructure are being confiscated for their agendas, and our homes/markets are being priced-out beyond belief. I do not believe all business suffers through these lawsuits. Think of the press’ acrobatics surrounding the internet’s profuse schemes and subversive “free” mediums; likewise, how Amazon devoured Borders. Online business models are often fabricated paradigms, which disperse talents, create ambiguous voids and anti-social behavior. Tech believes its enterprises are “green,” yet until our power is generated away from fossil fuels and its servers cease using our water (extensively), the industry is culpable.

For the small businesses that will and do suffer, tech companies have done nothing to support your brick and mortar. Their initiatives have elongated the Pandemic, suiting their virtual-worldly fantasies, and pacified you with an app instead of advocating for an end to the dilemma — currently normalizing an ailing society. Time to ditch the con and unravel this mess: focus on the community, preservation, enduring solutions with deepening business models. Coordinated ownerships with staff and employees may provide more incentivized futures, whereas physical infrastructure improvements — not just bikes, but light rail — will induce permanence in a community. Lastly, establishing cohorts of small business and the working indebted (proletariat and faux-bourgeois) may foster necessary reforms.

Kenneth Lustenberger

Burlingame