An #empire collapses when the #wealth #inequality reaches a tipping point inside the empire and the #rentseekers show themselves to be nothing but leeches. There is a myth around empires and dynasties of the strong and scrappy that start the empire and subsequent generations that get weak and decadent. That is not the case. Empires get powerful by having a more equal society than the aging collapsing empire from inequality and rent seeking and then feeding off the dying empire or kingdom or smaller population to boost its prosperity. The equality of citizens of the new empire increase while the the inequality of the subjugated increases. At a certain point the greedy at the top want even more and begin to take more from citizens which causes it to collapse. The inequality and greed is what fuels the decadence, the #decadence is a symptom not a cause. A new nation has a more equal system and takes its place.
Example: China focused on nepotism over meritocracy. The mongols were mostly meritocratic and the most efficient fighting force. The post-Genghis hoards only lasted so long and they stuck with Meritocracy. For one thing local folks of the hoard knew they had a way up in this new system if they worked hard. After that went away, all support for the outsiders collapsed completely.

Its not a cycle of strength vs decadence but a cycle of equality vs inequality. It doesn't have to be very equal, just more equal than the last guy. Equality creates both efficiency and loyalty and makes one less likely to question the narrative of the powerful.

My wife is on the phone with HP and looks exasperated. We had a working printer that, in my opinion, was surveiling us too much. It knew when our ink cartridges were almost empty and had our credit card number so it could send us new cartridges when we needed them. My wife loved that because ink cartridges always go dry right when you need them, and it was getting more difficult to find the proper cartridges. Yes, the printer knew if we installed third party cartridges.

But, the credit card on file just passed the expiration date, and the printer magically stopped working. That is why she is calling. And, of course, they are telling us it is obsolete and we should big a new one with even MORE surveillance! That, folks, is #enshittification

#HP
#printers
#SubscriptionHardware
#RentSeekers

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/05/your-money/irs-tax-filing-free-online.html

Tax software companies are the fucking worst

#taxes #rentseekers

@angiebaby @davidaugust #ClownFlare aka. #CloudFlare are just #ValueRemoving #rentseekers and part of the Problem, not solution!

Their entire business model should not exist to begin with!!!

@trashheap @Raspberry_Pi The worse part of this is that #scalpers #botting their #distributors are the problem, and people buying from said #ValueRemoving #rentseekers instead of the distributors, when the only winning move is to starve those into insolvency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ6eM5OZtm0&t=108s