Hi again, Richard from The Old Net here.

I read through the comments and there is a lot of good philosophical and political conversations going on.

I usually stay out of politics and preaching to strangers in general but here is my take on what I think happened, is happening and needs to change going forward. If I can move anyone's mindset a little bit then that's a win.

The problem? We as consumers don't pay the real cost for software and services.

That's it. Everything bad that we can point our finger at stemmed from this.

Look at any industry in the internet world, find something you don't like about it and then just ask, is this because we don't pay the real cost of this?

Mobile gaming is an obvious example. The whole industry is a disgusting mess all because nobody wants to pay for the games.

Business will always find another way. It's pretty crazy how some of the wealthiest tech companies don't directly collect money for their products.

It makes you wonder as an aspiring entrepreneur why you would ever start an honest B2C business in 2020 when a) you know nobody wants to pay for stuff and b) you could make so much more money by selling their data.

I'm not saying anything new here, just that maybe we should put a firm foot down and only use things that you can buy with money with ZERO strings attached.

We should have done this in the first place decades ago but the Napsters and such really got us accustomed to having exactly what we want and not having to pay for it. Something we were quite comfortable with.

We should have paid the real cost for things back then and maybe it wouldn't have lead business to invent new ways to generate revenue.

I believe we are paying for that mistake now and I worry that maybe we can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Will companies turn down the chance to monetize you even if you pay for a subscription? Why would they stop if they don't have to?

What is the real cost of the service or product? What is the dollar figure that makes us whole?

Hell, I pay $120 a year for a travel VISA and they still spy on my purchases. We have been doing this since what the 80's?

What's changed? Well AI and Big Data changed. As a human it's hard, if not impossible, to understand how the exact same data available to you, to review as you see fit, if given to a machine could determine all kinds of things that you couldn't have predicted.

And the internet itself has made it way easier to supply this vast amount of data like never before. Businesses used to analyze your credit card purchases. Now, anything and everything.

So what is the true cost? Well I don't know but think about this. Say you pay $100 for a Google Home speaker. $100 isn't nothing, but what did you really buy with that money? My answer is you bought the hardware. But the hardware is useless without the service, not unlike a cell phone. Are you paying a monthly subscription for the Google Home Service?

I'm not even sure if $100 bought you the hardware. It could be subsidized by the company, they will make the money back on you later don't worry.

Just recently spotify had a promotion where you would get a free google home mini. Great sign me up, wait what's this? I have to link spotify to my google account to quality for the promotion? This gives Google access to my spotify listening habits?

How strange to think this deal could be worth it to Google. They're taking a $50 hit on every customer. It's not like it is a subscription service, where they could give the hardware away for free and do the razor blade model for recurring revenue.

I think it's safe to say your personal music listening habits is somehow worth at least $50 to Google.

Did you know in the 1980's it cost $499 for spreadsheet software? It didn't matter which program, $499 across the board.

What changed between now and then? Who would pay $499 for a boring spreadsheet app? No one.
Who uses boring spreadsheet apps for the most important parts of life? Everyone.

Still, spreadsheet software needs high-skilled people to make the product. How will they get paid if you don't pay the sticker price? Well, Google makes a decent spreadsheet program. I use it all the time. It's free. So I suppose they got paid to make that somehow.

I'm not trying to directly single out Google here, just what easily came to mind.

Anyway, blaming us, the humans is only one side of the story. The other side is the business practices. To me it seems simple. The same sociological techniques that worked in the land of the infomercial has been amplified on the internet. It certainly doesn't help that technology is so good you can build professional quality video content with basically no investment.

The internet has been the great equalizer for humanity. In the best of ways and the worst all the same.