bit48

Question is what happens if one really does not use social media, at least mainstream playforms such as facebook. I'm guessing I'm not the only one around here with a small social media footprint...

Higher profits aren't always due to increases in productivity. Profits can grow due to decreases in the price of raw materials (e.g. oil), decrease in competition (e.g. due to an aquisition or a bankruptcy of a competitor), relaxation of regulation (e.g due to lobbying), and a variety of other chnges in the market.

At least they've stopped running "rm -rf /" on user machines (https://github.com/valvesoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/3671). So it's a step in the right direction.

Finance reform is a step in the right direction, but it is no magic bullet. The wealthy will just find other, less direct, ways of buying influence.

> How is this portrayed as a bad thing in the article?

It takes some of the humanity out of the time spent together. Being generous with each other is part of how friendships and other relations are formed.

Among friends, boiling it down to a precise transaction is petty. If a friend is abusing this approach, that says something about both him and your friendship.