Discussion
"I have spent 15 years working in the business sector, in sustainability primarily, so I... have seen the opportunity for business as a force for good. If we can harness the best of innovation, and great ideas, and competition, to solve some of the world's biggest social and environmental problems, that's a really exciting place to be."
#QiulaeWong, 2026
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/30-with-guyon-espiner/season-5/qiulae-wong
These are Business Idiot talking points.
(1/?)
@strypey I have spent 43 years in the Internet sector and initially saw it as a force for good, allowing us all to communicate more freely. I saw the innovations and great ideas and competition touted as ways to solve some of the world's biggest social and environmental problems and my question is this.
Like "trickle down" economics, when the fuck is it going to start working?
@artnacrea
> I have spent 43 years in the Internet sector and initially saw it as a force for good, allowing us all to communicate more freely
That's broadly my story too, although I haven't been at it as long as you.
I think it's important to separate out the civil society pitch for the net, and the DotCom boom talking points. One is about freedom and open communication, the other is about Business Idiot abstractions like "innovation" and "competition".
(1/?)
I think civil society has achieved a tremendous amount by adopting digital technologies, much of which we couldn't have otherwise.
If you don't believe me, do what I did a decade or so back, and spend a year not using it. I suspect you'll quickly realise - as did I - how easy it is to take the benefits of the net for granted. Access to reference tools like Wikipedia, or the ability to instantaneously communicate with people around the world, create real and lasting benefits.
(2/?)
But IMHO very little of this innovation comes from business. On the contrary, business has done very well out of building on top of the digital commons we've created (eg Linux, WordPress), and then where they can, enclosing it.
It certainly doesn't have much to do with competition, which is important as a means by which the public can keep business somewhat accountable. But has been heavily eroded, not encouraged, by business colonisation of the internet.
(3/3)
@strypey Given that almost nobody in positions of power seems to give a toss about part a) I definitely have days when I think that burning it all to the ground is the best course.
It seems that the Business Idiots have manipulated the Public Idiots so completely they can't or won't separate the two spheres.
@artnacrea
> It seems that the Business Idiots have manipulated the Public Idiots so completely they can't or won't separate the two spheres
That's their goal, which is why it's important we don't play into it. Also, see the other 2 posts in the reply.
But is Wong saying this stuff because she's a Business Idiot, or because she's trying to sugar-coat progressive policy in ways Business Idiots can swallow? Given the far more insightful comments Wong has made on podcasts like The Bradbury Group, I suspect it's the latter.
The Greens have done a certain amount of this over the years, which is why certain factions of the radical left write them off as "middle class" poseurs. But they're just playing the game as it has to be played.
(2/?)
One of the challenges of public politics - whether you're a politician, candidate or activist - is that you're up against a gotcha industry of reputation launderers. Whose entire job is to make people who work in the public interest - and thus against ruling interests - sound mad, and out-of-touch.
Either you just say 'damn the torpedoes', as I do, limiting your impact. Or, every aspect of your public messaging has to be obsessively crafted to make the reputation launderers' job harder.
(3/3)
"A Citizen's Income; there's a lot of benefits ... [to] providing a safety net for people when they are find themselves out of a job, for longer than they would like, having to care for a ... loved one who's become sick or needs extra support. There's lots of these things that hit us in life, and at the moment, our safety net isn't really designed to catch everyone that ends up there."
#QiulaeWong, 2026
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/30-with-guyon-espiner/season-5/qiulae-wong
This all sounds very sensible so far.
(1/?)
@strypey Still wonder how we avoid capitalising that into rents and property costs.
If the accommodation supplement is a subsidy to landlords, so is this :-(
"And particularly with things like AI joblessness, we might be seeing unemployment rates of 10% and upwards in the near future, and I don't think our welfare system is designed to cope with that."
#QiulaeWong, 2026
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/30-with-guyon-espiner/season-5/qiulae-wong
I was going to have a swipe at Wong for the "AI" boosterism. But on second thoughts, the fact that a Trained #MOLE can't do anyone's job properly won't necessarily stop bosses from replacing workers with them, as @pluralistic regularly points out.
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