originally we all posted online to help each other, with problems we mutually have. it was community, and we always gave since we got back in a free exchange.
now, there is an oligarchy coming to compile all of that community to then serve it at a paid cost. what used to be free with some search, now is not and the government of the people is allowing no choice by the people (in any capacity).
once capital comes for things at scale (with the full backing of the government), and they monetize that and treat it as "their own" i would consider that plagiarism.
how can we be expected to pay taxes on every microtransaction, when we get nothing for equally traceable contributions to the new machine?
You aren't wrong, but you’re underestimating the inertia of $10M+/year B2B distributors. There are thousands of these in traditional sectors (pipe manufacturing, HVAC, etc.) that rely on hyper-localized logistics and century-old workflows.
Buyer pressure will eventually force process updates, but it is a slow burn. The bottleneck is rarely the tech or the partner, it's the internal culture. The software moves fast, but the people deeply integrated into physical infrastructure move 10x slower than you'd expect.
that is probably an easy path forward in their mind, as they are on death's door holding the ladder they pulled up behind them.