Is it the End of Enshittification Economics?

It’s striking how quickly we default to cynicism about technology. We assume its most powerful capabilities will inevitably be used to exploit.

But technology itself is neutral. Exploitation isn’t physics, it’s economics.

For the last two decades, products were born expensive. Venture capital demanded venture-scale returns. Which meant optimisation, extraction, dark patterns, surveillance… not because builders loved them, but because the maths required them.

Now the cost of making things is collapsing.

If you no longer need enormous capital to create something meaningful, you may no longer need enormous extraction to justify it. Fewer expectations baked into the balance sheet, fewer incentives to enshittify.

So a question:

when the debt shrinks, does the behaviour change?

Maybe this wave of capability doesn’t have to follow the same arc as the last one. Maybe power paired with lower financial pressure produces tools that serve rather than squeeze.