Opinion: How did Silicon Valley fall from idealism to ruthless exploitation?

Uber started because a couple of tech-savvy friends wanted to make it easier for people to catch a cab in San Francisco. This week, it agreed to pay US$290mil to settle a wage theft case in New York. Lyft owes US$38mil. — AFP

Adam Bowen and James Monsees – the focus of the Netflix docuseries Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul – originally set out to make the world a better place. I had to remind myself of that, given the role their company played in getting young people hooked on nicotine.

They were just a couple of college kids wanting to get people to quit cigarettes. Then the money came in. Decisions were made. And that's when idealism gave way to capitalism and the heroes of Big Vape began to fall as the villains of their own stories, like characters in a Greek tragedy.