Okay so hipsters are a problem in Berlin, but it is not like this is not a problem in other cities. Hipsters are a problem everywhere.<p>IMHO a place with 1€ falafel sandwiches and 1€ beers is a pretty good place in terms of runway ;)
of course, smart phones were anticipated to have this gentrification effect, and were incentivized and designed to maximize it while reducing the owner's control over it. i.e. you will not find apps were you can pipe the valuable data into your own sorting criteria to expose the type of product you're looking for, instead the app developer is incentivized to control how the user would use an app to shop, in the same way finding iApps is a made to be a huge pain in the ass.<p>Nothing new though, it's the same manufacturer/distributor/retailer model used since forever. Now that smart consumers can bypass the distributor in a lot of markets, the consumer becomes "too powerful" and capable of making decisions that subvert macro economic controls needed to keep control of the direction and pace of technology and other development.<p>Before you know it, you'll be buying mini reactors for your house on Silk Road 2.0. Nuclear power countries aren't so hot when every family household is a nuclear power.