I live here. Few facts: normal salary €1000 per month; houses €150–200–300k; house prices are rising because of foreign investors; seasonal workers from the philippines earn €500+ per month.
Officially, it's a 6-day working week - 48 hours (!)
The tourism economy requires only cheap labour, ideally buying all the properties and bringing in seasonal workers. That's sad.
""" Indeed we know in our hearts that they appeal to the weakest parts of human psychology, selfish, voyeuristic fantasies of omnipotence and omniscience. Yet they offer virtually no societal utility. """
Looks like the new toys my children want every day, but driven by their curiosity to explore the world.
> tragic waste of human and natural resources
People have solved major problems with technology: 5% of farmers can feed the world. There are no real visible challenges now. All problems are made to keep people on their toes to keep them moving. Otherwise, the heat death of the universe will come for humanity.
Google Search seems like a finished product that has been making money for years without much investment in research. AI chat systems, however, are currently spending heavily on research and development, and it's unclear what the final product will look like or how AI will generate revenue in the end.
Apparently you're not supposed to make comparisons to Nazi Germany (Godwin's law if you want to be too-online about it); it's considered gauche I suppose. What's funny is that that strikes me as a really good rule to follow if you do in fact want to sleepwalk your society into an analogue of Nazi Germany.
https://stan-kondrat.github.io/progressive-image-viewer/