Network theory provides rigorous foundations for understanding collective cognition

Social media journalists and commentators are deeply incentivized to generate views and virality, not to mobilize collective civic action. Outrage cycles make money, but rarely translate engagement into action

This analysis documents a fundamental shift in how transportation services generate and distribute economic value. Traditional taxi structures—despite regulatory capture, medallion speculation, and driver misclassification—retained approximately 60-65% of economic activity within local communities and created ownership pathways (however imperfect) for wealth accumulation. Platform ride-sharing extracts approximately 40% immediately to corporate shareholders