> AI [is] costing a whole lot and providing, at best, dubious benefits
A wild take. Technology like GPT-4 being available today was unimaginable to us just 5 years ago. Our company saves hundreds of thousands of engineering-hours a month using generative AI. It has let me automate the humdrum boilerplate bullshit out of my workflows, both professional and personal.
It's also essentially replaced Google for me. Just today I've already used GPT-4 at least 5-10 times. Immensely useful, the $20/mo is a drop in the bucket for the value it provides to me.
> Ride-hailing services? Those flouted regulations, hooked users on cheap prices, drove down wages and made employment more precarious.
Has this guy ever stepped foot outside a major city? Has he ever gotten drunk and needed a ride home without friends in the immediate vicinity? Uber/Lyft provide immense value that simply wasn't there before.
Has he even ever spoken to any Uber drivers, or ex-taxi Uber drivers? Does he realize that people often prefer working for Uber as opposed to a "regular, stable job" and that customers actually like using it over taxis? Compared to taxis, Ubers tend to be cleaner, the drivers tend to be nicer, and it's just a easier, better experience.
The taxi cartel is even more powerful and "extractive" than Uber in many cities, and they exert undue market power, especially at airports and resorts, not Uber.
> streaming platforms that are actively rolling back up into something analogous to cable
Spotify still provides me with far more value/$ than having to buy every single song from iTunes or whatever. Apple TV is still quite useful to me and I far prefer it to ad-riddled cable with set showtimes for what you want to see.
Tale as old as time: people seeing the past with rose-tinted glasses so they can have a pessimistic "hot take" about today vs the good old days.