I can’t stop thinking about this piece. I think you are wrong that people didn’t read it—it’s just so much to take in that I think it leaves you stunned and a little hopeless. This is how I feel at times but I’m not ready to give up on the American experiment yet even tho I loathe many Americans for what they’re doing to the country. I still want to believe that the Majority of America wants to stay a democracy. Whether we can do that in its current enshittified state remains to be seen but I hold onto hope that we can de-shittify…
JVL ... I am taken by this presentation ... well done indeed!
In terms of the enshittification of the US, it appears to me that all the players (the President; congress and the senate; local governments and the citizens themselves) hve forgotten the roles and responsibilities that each play in the initial step of the "business". The President is free to do whatever he likes without fear of accountability. Similarly, the house snd senate have largely give up their willingness to govern and provide the checks and balances necessary for true accountability in both governing and personal behaviour. Many in the press have given up reporting facts and truths in a responsible manner on which the voter can rely. Finally the voter is forced to swallow inconveniences like insurrection and corruption which simply serves to validate the behaviour of all other parties.
This may be enshittification ... it sure smells like it ... it just seems a whole lot more personal than any type of business plan or evolution.
Thanks again for provoking this stimulating dialog and I apologize for missing the article and waiting so long to read it
No idea how I missed this Triad. When you mentioned it on TSP, I had to check it out as we are surrounded by enshitification. Indeed, your analogies are spot on. Great column!
Sorry you don’t find this column appreciated enough. It is excellent. I’m very happy to see you writing again yesterday about the evils of monopoly, and reminding people that capitalism without regulation is not capitalism. Let capitalism devolve unfettered and we will have feudalism. So rich lords and starving peasants. Good times.
I am posting to ask you to speak about Cuba. I am extremely alarmed that Cuba is about to collapse and what Trump will do, particularly after the galling behavior in China, ceding power to Xi (and not knowing he did it) and the world-wide bond market sell-off.
My fears in re-electing Trump were 1. He’d start WWIII and civil war in the US and 2. The next market correction would be closer to the Depression than the Great Recession, and generally collapse our system of government. I may be out-darking Dark-JVL, but so far we seem to be making good progress on these paths. We’ve announced to the world that we are weak in geopolitical power, in military power, and our economic power is looking shaky. The super-rich are grabbing everything they can before it devalues. We’ve wasted tons of munitions on senseless wars and expelled everyone with a shred of skill from the state department, so there’s nobody left to actually make any deals. We’ve weakened every federal government department so it can barely function without a crisis, in any one area, never mind a series of simultaneous crises.
I used to teach risk management, and honored the doomsayers because they could see the potholes in the road ahead better than the rest of us. Then we could plan for how to address them. I’m not the best doomsayer, I’m just the one who let their voice be heard and got people to plan for it. I’m not hearing any of those voices. A few vague hints in the hallways. Americans don’t like people who talk about this stuff, they think it is pessimistic and un-American. Even if a good attitude could counter any disaster and save us, we don’t have much good attitude around these days.
So good job. Dig in, I really appreciate your ability to connect the dots and say it out loud. We can’t solve a problem we don’t name.
I read it! Listening to the secret pod and I took out my phone to write you this note because you’re having feels JVL. It’s a great piece and I’ve been mulling it over for days.
So sorry that I didn’t tell you earlier that I loved this Triad. I love them all. I am an American living in Germany and all of you at the Bulwark are the only thing giving me hope that my beloved country can be saved.
Dang. Second post today (and I am a quiet majority that doesn't respond directly - although I may repost things to Facebook or forward to friends). I have this one in my Best Posts folder. I agree with your theory. So there. (Heard you didn't get many favorable responses during the $1.7b bullshit-ness podcast, so felt I needed to follow up.) (BTW: That Secret Podcast is going into the same Best folder)
It's interesting that you pick 25 years ago as the point enshittification took hold. I think Bush v. Gore will be held up by historians as the watershed moment when our decline began. The second Bush administration was a disaster for the country in so many ways. From 9/11 and our wars of choice, expanding income inequality, the decline of the middle class, deficits exploding, unaffordable housing, to the GOP learning it didn't have to actually appeal to the majority to gain power. So many of our problems today trace their sources back to that time.
I agree with this, and it’s a commonly held view point that America’s best days peaked pre-911. That’s probably why so many people in my generation (Xennial) have such strong nostalgia for the ‘90s.
This is exactly right! And how sad I am for our decline. I feel like the book ISHMAEL touches on this course of enshittification, too. Anyone read that book? I just remember feeling the same way then (impending doom) as I do now that we've reached the decline/pain phase of being treated like shit/being enshittified (Ishmael predicts this, i admit, it's been many years sincei read that, but it stayed with me even though a bit blurry now). This is another banger Triad,, thanks JVL. I'm definitely sharing it, thanks for no paywall, this needs to be read. How can we stop the enshittification of America? It would take some visionary, quick implementing people to 1.get in power asap 2. Work 1uickly implementing strong working solutions in all facets of government 3. Work together with the same vision to turn the ship in time to miss the iceberg.
You have one party dedicated to destroying democracy, while the other party is terrified to fight back against them. What did you think was going to happen?
@jvlast nails it again. I remember when I was a teenager (1980s) my dad used to tell me this country is going downhill and I thought he was being negative. It turns out he was right and I was wrong.
Several things on the corporate evolution toward enshittification.
1) The growth phase of every business / industry is seen with countless opportunities to offer value to the customer. In fact, as that new invention is unfolded, the shear scale of the opportunity seems to continuously expand. See Facebook, Apple, OpenAI, Tesla as all things that found a latent need that could be filled and expanded to help society in numerous ways that were previously never considered.
2) That growth seems hyperbolic in nature. Look at Nvidia. A company that made video game chips and was struggling, until it found other uses for its chips. The stock has grown to heights hardly ever seen in what appears to be a short period of time.
3) Others try to replicate the product (fast followers). Some succeed (think Anthropic or Google vs. OpenAI; Volvo or Hyundai vs. Tesla) and others fail (think Grok vs. OpenAI; Ford vs. Tesla). All of a sudden, that form of competition creates limits to how high each of these inventions can go without some additional invention.
4) Choices need to be made between using an overvalued currency (i.e. Stock Value) to go acquire competition before they can become a threat (think Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook). But, sometimes you can get too far out over your skis (think of Yahoo! buying Broadcast.com for $6 billion or Tumblr and Right Media for $2 billion). If you pick the wrong thing to buy, you could destroy your growth.
5) Whether you chose the correct entity to acquire to limit competition or not, the final phase is the kryptonite of every publicly traded company: Earnings Growth! What happens when the hyperbolic expansion hits reality of ever-increasing numbers? Meaning, it's a lot easier to grow 100% from $10 million to $20 million than it is to grow from $10 billion to $20 billion. Or, as it is today, it's a lot easier to grow from $100 billion to $200 billion than it is to go from $1 trillion to $2 trillion. When the market capacity hits limits, the only way to expand earnings is through cost cutting (aka Margin Maximization Exercises). MME = Enshittification.
It's inevitable.
Now, look at how our fast-followers have emerged every year of our existence. Whether it was Russia during the Nuclear Weapon expansion, Japan and S. Korea's efforts to take over telecommunication, automobile and tech industries during the 1980s-2000s, or China's pursuit of being the clear manufacturing supergiant to the rest of the world.
The one place that never truly focused on being a fervent fast-follower and competitor to the United States was Europeanized Western Civilization (i.e. Canada, Europe, Oceania). Instead, they tried to mirror our body politics (in many cases improving on our system of government via a Prime Minister setup instead of a President and what-has-become a more independent Judicial branch), but acquiesced to America's superior socioeconomic business structure that generated countless new products/ideas (i.e. Social Media, Smart Phones, AI and Electric Vehicles).
But, over the last decade-plus, our government has begun its own MME program that started with higher taxes on NATO allies, tariffs, revamped trade agreements (USMCA v. NAFTA v. Screw them all), every nation has all-of-a-sudden been faced with a choice: Continue to acquiesce to America's innovation dominance or compete out of necessity? It's clear that the effort is to establish new partnerships, build new industries within their own borders, and divorce themselves from the products and services that have increasingly become enshittified by America.
The next phase of globalization is evolving. And, it's doing so at our expense now instead of under our leadership. It will be interesting to see how things evolve.
I can’t stop thinking about this piece. I think you are wrong that people didn’t read it—it’s just so much to take in that I think it leaves you stunned and a little hopeless. This is how I feel at times but I’m not ready to give up on the American experiment yet even tho I loathe many Americans for what they’re doing to the country. I still want to believe that the Majority of America wants to stay a democracy. Whether we can do that in its current enshittified state remains to be seen but I hold onto hope that we can de-shittify…
Quality over quantity.
Profits over people.
Slop over substance.
Thanks JVL for always having the right words:
“Good luck America.”
JVL ... I am taken by this presentation ... well done indeed!
In terms of the enshittification of the US, it appears to me that all the players (the President; congress and the senate; local governments and the citizens themselves) hve forgotten the roles and responsibilities that each play in the initial step of the "business". The President is free to do whatever he likes without fear of accountability. Similarly, the house snd senate have largely give up their willingness to govern and provide the checks and balances necessary for true accountability in both governing and personal behaviour. Many in the press have given up reporting facts and truths in a responsible manner on which the voter can rely. Finally the voter is forced to swallow inconveniences like insurrection and corruption which simply serves to validate the behaviour of all other parties.
This may be enshittification ... it sure smells like it ... it just seems a whole lot more personal than any type of business plan or evolution.
Thanks again for provoking this stimulating dialog and I apologize for missing the article and waiting so long to read it
No idea how I missed this Triad. When you mentioned it on TSP, I had to check it out as we are surrounded by enshitification. Indeed, your analogies are spot on. Great column!
Sorry you don’t find this column appreciated enough. It is excellent. I’m very happy to see you writing again yesterday about the evils of monopoly, and reminding people that capitalism without regulation is not capitalism. Let capitalism devolve unfettered and we will have feudalism. So rich lords and starving peasants. Good times.
I am posting to ask you to speak about Cuba. I am extremely alarmed that Cuba is about to collapse and what Trump will do, particularly after the galling behavior in China, ceding power to Xi (and not knowing he did it) and the world-wide bond market sell-off.
My fears in re-electing Trump were 1. He’d start WWIII and civil war in the US and 2. The next market correction would be closer to the Depression than the Great Recession, and generally collapse our system of government. I may be out-darking Dark-JVL, but so far we seem to be making good progress on these paths. We’ve announced to the world that we are weak in geopolitical power, in military power, and our economic power is looking shaky. The super-rich are grabbing everything they can before it devalues. We’ve wasted tons of munitions on senseless wars and expelled everyone with a shred of skill from the state department, so there’s nobody left to actually make any deals. We’ve weakened every federal government department so it can barely function without a crisis, in any one area, never mind a series of simultaneous crises.
I used to teach risk management, and honored the doomsayers because they could see the potholes in the road ahead better than the rest of us. Then we could plan for how to address them. I’m not the best doomsayer, I’m just the one who let their voice be heard and got people to plan for it. I’m not hearing any of those voices. A few vague hints in the hallways. Americans don’t like people who talk about this stuff, they think it is pessimistic and un-American. Even if a good attitude could counter any disaster and save us, we don’t have much good attitude around these days.
So good job. Dig in, I really appreciate your ability to connect the dots and say it out loud. We can’t solve a problem we don’t name.
I read it! Listening to the secret pod and I took out my phone to write you this note because you’re having feels JVL. It’s a great piece and I’ve been mulling it over for days.
YES! So glad that I read this, all true! Thank you and bravo JVL, great piece.
So sorry that I didn’t tell you earlier that I loved this Triad. I love them all. I am an American living in Germany and all of you at the Bulwark are the only thing giving me hope that my beloved country can be saved.
Dang. Second post today (and I am a quiet majority that doesn't respond directly - although I may repost things to Facebook or forward to friends). I have this one in my Best Posts folder. I agree with your theory. So there. (Heard you didn't get many favorable responses during the $1.7b bullshit-ness podcast, so felt I needed to follow up.) (BTW: That Secret Podcast is going into the same Best folder)
It's interesting that you pick 25 years ago as the point enshittification took hold. I think Bush v. Gore will be held up by historians as the watershed moment when our decline began. The second Bush administration was a disaster for the country in so many ways. From 9/11 and our wars of choice, expanding income inequality, the decline of the middle class, deficits exploding, unaffordable housing, to the GOP learning it didn't have to actually appeal to the majority to gain power. So many of our problems today trace their sources back to that time.
I agree with this, and it’s a commonly held view point that America’s best days peaked pre-911. That’s probably why so many people in my generation (Xennial) have such strong nostalgia for the ‘90s.
This is exactly right! And how sad I am for our decline. I feel like the book ISHMAEL touches on this course of enshittification, too. Anyone read that book? I just remember feeling the same way then (impending doom) as I do now that we've reached the decline/pain phase of being treated like shit/being enshittified (Ishmael predicts this, i admit, it's been many years sincei read that, but it stayed with me even though a bit blurry now). This is another banger Triad,, thanks JVL. I'm definitely sharing it, thanks for no paywall, this needs to be read. How can we stop the enshittification of America? It would take some visionary, quick implementing people to 1.get in power asap 2. Work 1uickly implementing strong working solutions in all facets of government 3. Work together with the same vision to turn the ship in time to miss the iceberg.
You have one party dedicated to destroying democracy, while the other party is terrified to fight back against them. What did you think was going to happen?
@jvlast nails it again. I remember when I was a teenager (1980s) my dad used to tell me this country is going downhill and I thought he was being negative. It turns out he was right and I was wrong.
Several things on the corporate evolution toward enshittification.
1) The growth phase of every business / industry is seen with countless opportunities to offer value to the customer. In fact, as that new invention is unfolded, the shear scale of the opportunity seems to continuously expand. See Facebook, Apple, OpenAI, Tesla as all things that found a latent need that could be filled and expanded to help society in numerous ways that were previously never considered.
2) That growth seems hyperbolic in nature. Look at Nvidia. A company that made video game chips and was struggling, until it found other uses for its chips. The stock has grown to heights hardly ever seen in what appears to be a short period of time.
3) Others try to replicate the product (fast followers). Some succeed (think Anthropic or Google vs. OpenAI; Volvo or Hyundai vs. Tesla) and others fail (think Grok vs. OpenAI; Ford vs. Tesla). All of a sudden, that form of competition creates limits to how high each of these inventions can go without some additional invention.
4) Choices need to be made between using an overvalued currency (i.e. Stock Value) to go acquire competition before they can become a threat (think Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook). But, sometimes you can get too far out over your skis (think of Yahoo! buying Broadcast.com for $6 billion or Tumblr and Right Media for $2 billion). If you pick the wrong thing to buy, you could destroy your growth.
5) Whether you chose the correct entity to acquire to limit competition or not, the final phase is the kryptonite of every publicly traded company: Earnings Growth! What happens when the hyperbolic expansion hits reality of ever-increasing numbers? Meaning, it's a lot easier to grow 100% from $10 million to $20 million than it is to grow from $10 billion to $20 billion. Or, as it is today, it's a lot easier to grow from $100 billion to $200 billion than it is to go from $1 trillion to $2 trillion. When the market capacity hits limits, the only way to expand earnings is through cost cutting (aka Margin Maximization Exercises). MME = Enshittification.
It's inevitable.
Now, look at how our fast-followers have emerged every year of our existence. Whether it was Russia during the Nuclear Weapon expansion, Japan and S. Korea's efforts to take over telecommunication, automobile and tech industries during the 1980s-2000s, or China's pursuit of being the clear manufacturing supergiant to the rest of the world.
The one place that never truly focused on being a fervent fast-follower and competitor to the United States was Europeanized Western Civilization (i.e. Canada, Europe, Oceania). Instead, they tried to mirror our body politics (in many cases improving on our system of government via a Prime Minister setup instead of a President and what-has-become a more independent Judicial branch), but acquiesced to America's superior socioeconomic business structure that generated countless new products/ideas (i.e. Social Media, Smart Phones, AI and Electric Vehicles).
But, over the last decade-plus, our government has begun its own MME program that started with higher taxes on NATO allies, tariffs, revamped trade agreements (USMCA v. NAFTA v. Screw them all), every nation has all-of-a-sudden been faced with a choice: Continue to acquiesce to America's innovation dominance or compete out of necessity? It's clear that the effort is to establish new partnerships, build new industries within their own borders, and divorce themselves from the products and services that have increasingly become enshittified by America.
The next phase of globalization is evolving. And, it's doing so at our expense now instead of under our leadership. It will be interesting to see how things evolve.
Suspect you know this, as you pulled it out from behind the pay wall - that’s really well done. Depressing, but well done. And now, what can we do?
JVL quoting Hamilton in the "highly stylized version of the American story" - 🤌😘