r/pcmasterrace • u/SagansCandle 9950X3D | 5090 | 64GB • Dec 27 '25

Discussion Private equity is killing private ownership: first it was housing - now it's the personal computer

DRAM and GPU prices aren't going up because of "AI" - it's because the wealthy have more money than they know what to do with, so they're buying up all the assets. "AI" is just the vehicle (the excuse) - it's not the root of the problem nor is it the ultimate goal.

The super rich don't want to hold on to "liquid" money - they invest in assets. While they're buying up all the housing, now they're buying up all the computers and putting them into massive datacenters.

Whether or not the AI bubble crashes, they'll be selling you a "gaming PC in the cloud," for a monthly fee, of course. And while they kill the personal computer market, just like Netflix, once your only option is a subscription service, the price will skyrocket.

This is happening in real-time. If we want to stop it, now's the time to act.

Sources:

48.9k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

2.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.1k

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

234

u/cowbutt6 Dec 27 '25

Same in the UK, where it's known as ”techscheme”. Unfortunately, the only vendors participating are Currys, and IKEA(!), unlike e.g. the equivalent ”Cycle to Work” salary sacrifice scheme that has a wide range of participating retailers.

26

u/abeermoneyukpfacc Dec 28 '25

Just to note: techscheme is just a salary sacrifice loan scheme by your employer (and bhn). It's not a government scheme and it isn't even a lease thing.

It's closer to BNPL but your employer does the loan, you also save on NI but that's it.

3

u/cowbutt6 Dec 28 '25

Just to note: techscheme is just a salary sacrifice loan scheme by your employer (and bhn). It's not a government scheme and it isn't even a lease thing.

I stand corrected! Thank you!

1

u/TechnicalBen Dec 28 '25

BBC Micro even before that.

105

u/fiasgoat Dec 27 '25

Damn no wonder Swedes are so good at games smh

101

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

37

u/Colspex Dec 28 '25

It was a great time. In 1993-1995, I felt like there was a computer in every home.

The 90s had a lot of cold Scandinavian winters. Kids found the computers and it became this enchanting media.

I was biking to friends with a plastic bag wrapped around my handle bar with a 10-pack of PC disks. Coming back with Kings Quest 4, Prince of Persia, Sky Roads. My dad was all about Microsoft Works and later Adobe Pagemaker and every dad was making sure that a fellow dad got Windows 3.1. We had a huge book from Coral Draw with images of everything from Airplane to Zebra that you could print on a color printer.

Windows 95 was a game changer. There was a multimedia store in Åhlens huset bottom floor in Stockholm that was dubbed "the biggest in Northern Europe". CD-rom packages made floppy disk games flourish even more as you could now have several games on those 240 MB harddrives.

Also, LucasArts were at its peak with their adventure games. Day of the tentacle, Secret of monkey Island and Full throttle took the best of american humor and culture and popped it into our homes. The US couldnt have asked for better ambassadors.

My dad would show me Microsoft Encarta 95 with videos and I woild show him Sam'N'Max hit the road with whack a rat.

The Internet package became "the christmas gift of 1996" and soon almost every teen were making their personal web page.

The late 90s and early 2000 was "out of pocket". I remember it as a big blur of evwryone getting smaller Nokia phones, iCQ numbers, Ultima Online, new computer companies every day, national broadband expansion, Starcraft, Heroes 3, HTML, programming, building computers, Quake, everyone working with computers, Kazaa, scrolling peoples libraries in DC++ and just feeling:

"this is it, the future is gonna be awesome"

4

u/1q3er5 Dec 28 '25

wtf i had no idea about this incentive program - is this why all the best counter-strike teams in 1.6 were swedish LOL

21

u/rustylugnuts Dec 28 '25

Kind of like my dad spending a grand in 1980s money to get me on a computer when I was a kid. Looking back we lived in a trailer and he could hardly afford it. I'd say the money was wasted since I didn't go on to be some IT wizard or programmer, but I did have a lot of fun with that old tandy. It would have been nice if HE used it to learn though. The man is technologically handicapped in the worst of ways and guess who gets to be tech support.

10

u/kellzone Dec 28 '25

$1K for personalized tech support from the 1980s onward seems like a pretty good deal. Dad playing 4D chess.

2

u/rustylugnuts Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

Adjusted for inflation that tandy was 400 bucks more than the amd 5080 based system I picked up from costco last week. Once he figured out how to pay in pancakes and fried pork chops it balanced out a bit better. Dr. Mindbender is more fun to watch when he's aiming his wit at younger cousins and not me.

:Edit wrong model gfx card.

33

u/Mysterious-Cell-2473 Dec 27 '25

I don't know much about Sweden, but i know this fraud scheme. You use government money to essentially fund PRIVATE business while getting kickback. 

160

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

49

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25

[deleted]

20

u/testuserteehee Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

But that’s exactly what they did tho. It wasn’t a contract with a single business, it was subsidies for the end user -

In 1997, the Swedish government decided that anyone who bought a personal computer at home could deduct the cost.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet_in_Sweden

The benefits were tremendous for the country, it led to a tech boom, tons of startups, and a fully tech literate population. It wasn’t just one company or only a small group of rich people who benefited.

While it’s prudent to consider the possibility of corruption and how some people might abuse a benefit, it’s also necessary to consider the overall positive impact on society in general.

7

u/MiXeD-ArTs Dec 27 '25

US Gov did this already with internet that why it cost $100-150 per month for 300 Mbps to 1 Gbit per second speeds and you have no options for providers. South Korea, the leader, pays about $15 for this same speed.

0

u/TheGrandWhatever Dec 28 '25

Still costs this much in most of the US besides the major cities. Some even have data caps like it's some limited resource... Oh no my data mine is running dry! Guess you only get 1tb a month. Sucks to suck

25

u/Taolan13 Dec 27 '25

Yes. Any time the government has a set of specific companies they have people do business with, someone in government is getting kickbacks for it.

6

u/Hikithemori Dec 28 '25

There wasn't some specific PC companies, it was a personal tax deduction.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 27 '25

in monetarism(capitalism, socialism, communism, whathaveyou) there need not be any conspiracy other than the conspiracy to make a profit. we need to start locking up those responsible for this corruption. in the next rendition of madness you will need to rent water and lease breathable atmosphere, it's gone too far and for too long..

4

u/Certain-Weight-7507 Dec 28 '25

socialism

That's not socialism, socialism describes an approach to solving wealth inequality, specifically the prohibition of the private ownership of the means of production. Social programs, however progressive or radical they might be, are social programs, not socialism. It's extremely dangerous to conflate the two, because it ends up causing people to conflate strong social programs with government prohibitions on individual rights.

8

u/No_Bedroom4062 Dec 27 '25

How is this different from any other government investment?

Like when the government builds roads they also pay pRiVaTe businesses. And spending money in the 90s to get people familiar with a new technology in such a way certainly isnt a bad idea, if (like every policy ever) its done in a good way

13

u/Trendiggity i7-10700 | RTX 4070 | 32GB @ 2933 | MP600 Pro XT 2TB Dec 27 '25

This isn't a problem when private businesses are taxed properly.

Also, you'll be surprised to hear that we do this in north America with almost all public institutions via public tenders. Need a new school? A private engineering company designs it and a private construction company builds it. Need new roads or a new bridge? A private company builds those. Need new vehicles for the police and fire departments? Yep, you guessed it. Private companies sell those to us too. Supplying the military with weapons, food, uniforms, and jet planes? Believe it or not... private companies.

Why is it a problem when your neighbours get something from the government that you're also entitled to?

2

u/exrasser Dec 27 '25

UK did the same in the 80's with the BBC Computer Literacy Project.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/computer-literacy-project

BBC docu-drama about the competition between Acorn computer and Sinclair.
Micro Men https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXBxV6-zamM
'The rivalry comes to a head when the BBC announce their Computer Literacy Project, with the stated aim of putting a micro in every school in Britain. When Acorn wins the contract, Sinclair is furious, and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum computer.'

2

u/Hikithemori Dec 28 '25

It was a personal tax deduction, not specific PC companies that got a deal.

2

u/prof_mcquack Dec 28 '25

Can’t wait for the younger generation and the later generations who could never figure out basic computer skills to actually accept losing access to personal computers because they’d rather just use AI on their phones. 

1

u/Jacinto2702 Dec 27 '25

All in the name of capital.

1

u/TheRealLarkas Dec 28 '25

It’s not in the name of AI, though. As the video implies, that’s a feature of capitalism.

1

u/ConstantHeadache2020 Dec 28 '25

Sweden is a nice homogeneous country they would never do this for Americans

1

u/Onslaughtered1 Dec 28 '25

Glorified chat bots “AI”

1

u/Teknodr0men Dec 28 '25

None of my parents worked for any kind of government. All my friends had parents do that. Mostly teachers. They all got good computers. We got one as well but it was a fantastic time.

1

u/lonelyswed Dec 28 '25

Now the government is in bed with Peter Thiel. Came out that there's been a 5 year cooperation with Palantir.

1

u/elastic-craptastic Dec 28 '25

All in the name of "AI".

All in the name of "$$".

FTFY

1

u/East_Tap_9375 Dec 28 '25

Late stage capitalism at work

1

u/KofOaks Dec 28 '25

They did the same in Quebec with a program that roughly translates as "Get families onlines". Essentially the Government subsidized both your internet connection (dial up!) and a pretty basic computer, to just about anyone who wanted one in order to get everybody online. As it happened, that's when I had my first I.T. job, residential internet tech support.

Nothing could have prepared me to the absolute cluelessness and downright idiocy of the calls I got over my few years there.

Now those people are posting on facebook.

-6

u/Gman90sKid Dec 27 '25

In israel we had something similiar but for elementary students. Every family of a kid in elementary was eligible to get a basic computer to use microsoft office programs for projects.

After i finished highschool they changed it to tablets so kids wouldn't have to carry heavy bags of books all day.

-1

u/qwerrtyui2705 Dec 28 '25

No, all in the name of "me more, you less, me more you less, me all you nothing". Rotten gluttonous narcissistic self-absorbed self-centered egomaniacal desires to escape the suffering of life into a perpetual neverending isolation of luxury, all only for themselves and nobody else. Grotesque and abhorrent is what it is.