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Apparently nobody in DC understands how capitalism works.If the worst happens Alphabet can always spin off a subsidiary, or maybe teach US lawmakers that global

• adventured 8y ago
  > or maybe teach US lawmakers that global corporations can change headquarters very quickly if threatened. That's incorrect. The US was willing to do almost anything necessary to prevent Pfizer from pulling an inversion and moving their HQ. They can craft legislation & rules almost overnight and stop Google from being able to easily move HQ. If that power move somehow fails, they can go a more malevolent direction (see Joseph Nacchio) to make an example of you. Big tech is very, very aware of this fact. That's why they all got in line (eventually) and signed on to prism et al. The Feds were perfectly willingly to bankrupt Yahoo for example, if they kept resisting. [1] The US is not an unregulated free market. The US is a massively regulated welfare state with dramatic intervention into the economy by the Federal and State governments. 40 or 50 years ago it may have been reasonable to call it a mixed economy, the power and size of the state has drastically increased since ~1970. [1] https://www.wired.com/2014/09/feds-yahoo-fine-prism/ https://www.wired.com/2014/09/feds-yahoo-fine-prism/
• balls187 8y ago
  What lesson would Alphabet be imparting to US Lawmakers by moving head quarters?