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Christopher Leonard's book 'The Meat Racket' is a good primer for anyone interested in the subject. He does an excellent job walking through the simultaneous ri

by vwcx 9y ago

Christopher Leonard's book 'The Meat Racket' is a good primer for anyone interested in the subject. He does an excellent job walking through the simultaneous rise of "big chicken" and the legislative steps corporations like Tyson and Cargill took to ensure their long-term domination of farmers, the law and the consumer. https://www.amazon.com/Meat-Racket-Takeover-Americas-Business/dp/1451645813 https://www.amazon.com/Meat-Racket-Takeover-Americas-Busines...

rayiner 9y ago
Here's the NYT book review: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/books/review/the-meat-racket-and-in-meat-we-trust.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/books/review/the-meat-rac.... I think the bigger picture issue is that there is nothing special here about meat, nearly every industry is like that. Big corps are inherently more efficient at this sort of thing, and technology has helped them overcome any inefficiencies of scale they might have suffered in the past. You used to be able to walk into a Comp USA (or even local computer stores) and see aisles of CDs from all these different software companies. Today, Google/Microsoft/Apple control everything through their app stores and bundle most of the software you might want to buy with their devices. Heck, we're watching this happen right now in several industries, and cheering it along. Amazon is putting all the smaller retailers out of business (because there is pretty much no way to compete with Amazon's economics of scale). Uber is an international mega-corp that's systematically wiping out the dozens of taxi companies (almost all small businesses) that used to exist in each city.
- patio11 9y ago
  You used to be able to walk into a Comp USA (or even local computer stores) and see aisles of CDs from all these different software companies. This is true. Those were terrible, terrible times to be in the software business. If you want me to elaborate, I can elaborate at some length.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    I would be happy to Patreon you for a blog post on this subject.
    - patio11 9y ago
      Thank you for the offer. I'm not sold on Patreon, for a number of reasons. I get the intuitive appeal of it if one is a starving artist, and I get the appeal on the consumer side. I am not really a starving artist, though, and as a commercial proposition it competes with things like my market clearing price as a W-2 employee, my rate card as a consultant, or selling software to businesses. When I compare those numbers to my guesses at the impact of Patreon-ing, I find myself thinking "Patreon does not come close to a motivational number, but it probably pays just enough to activate Disutility From Working Strictly For Money." Or, as someone once put it, "I have two prices: free and expensive."
      - HeyLaughingBoy 9y ago
        "I have two prices: free and expensive." Time to put that on a T-Shirt :-)
      - toomuchtodo 9y ago
        Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure if there was any way to properly compensate you for your time for sharing your usual extremely valuable experiences, and that was the first thought that came to mind. No offense intended.
        patio11 9y ago
        None taken!
  - rayiner 9y ago
    I'd certainly be curious to know what you mean.
    - 9y ago

by vwcx 9y ago

rayiner 9y ago

Here's the NYT book review: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/books/review/the-meat-racket-and-in-meat-we-trust.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/books/review/the-meat-rac.... I think the bigger picture issue is that there is nothing special here about meat, nearly every industry is like that. Big corps are inherently more efficient at this sort of thing, and technology has helped them overcome any inefficiencies of scale they might have suffered in the past. You used to be able to walk into a Comp USA (or even local computer stores) and see aisles of CDs from all these different software companies. Today, Google/Microsoft/Apple control everything through their app stores and bundle most of the software you might want to buy with their devices. Heck, we're watching this happen right now in several industries, and cheering it along. Amazon is putting all the smaller retailers out of business (because there is pretty much no way to compete with Amazon's economics of scale). Uber is an international mega-corp that's systematically wiping out the dozens of taxi companies (almost all small businesses) that used to exist in each city.

patio11 9y ago
You used to be able to walk into a Comp USA (or even local computer stores) and see aisles of CDs from all these different software companies. This is true. Those were terrible, terrible times to be in the software business. If you want me to elaborate, I can elaborate at some length.
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  I would be happy to Patreon you for a blog post on this subject.
  - patio11 9y ago
    Thank you for the offer. I'm not sold on Patreon, for a number of reasons. I get the intuitive appeal of it if one is a starving artist, and I get the appeal on the consumer side. I am not really a starving artist, though, and as a commercial proposition it competes with things like my market clearing price as a W-2 employee, my rate card as a consultant, or selling software to businesses. When I compare those numbers to my guesses at the impact of Patreon-ing, I find myself thinking "Patreon does not come close to a motivational number, but it probably pays just enough to activate Disutility From Working Strictly For Money." Or, as someone once put it, "I have two prices: free and expensive."
    - HeyLaughingBoy 9y ago
      "I have two prices: free and expensive." Time to put that on a T-Shirt :-)
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure if there was any way to properly compensate you for your time for sharing your usual extremely valuable experiences, and that was the first thought that came to mind. No offense intended.
      - patio11 9y ago
        None taken!
- rayiner 9y ago
  I'd certainly be curious to know what you mean.
  - 9y ago