Given the articles and comments I've read in the past year, I don't think a lot of people are exactly thrilled with the exchange.
Outside of HN I think there's some feeling of unfairness to see so much money being made off "our data", for better or worse. It's complicated because the data isn't worth much until it's processed and analyzed, and that's where much of the value-add is. But nonetheless unfairness is a very strong emotion.
It is certainly an emotion alright and not a rational one.
A lot of it is - expecting a pony with their can of coke while not considering such arrangements now mean thousands of dollars per can and a massive reserve of ponies outside every vendor.
True, I looked it up and per quarter it was maybe $30 in the US per quarter per big ad-tech company. A digital VAT would be easier to reason about IMO, but this idea of handing money directly to people has some populist appeal I suspect.
Personally I much rather preferred his original plan to fund a UBI with consumption taxes, but I suppose the primary voters weren't bought into that plan.
Given the articles and comments I've read in the past year, I don't think a lot of people are exactly thrilled with the exchange.
Outside of HN I think there's some feeling of unfairness to see so much money being made off "our data", for better or worse. It's complicated because the data isn't worth much until it's processed and analyzed, and that's where much of the value-add is. But nonetheless unfairness is a very strong emotion.