4 ms·
I think we generally should discourage growth of any company beyond a certain size. I don't see any societal value in these large companies but a lot of disadva
by maxxxxx 8y ago
I think we generally should discourage growth of any company beyond a certain size. I don't see any societal value in these large companies but a lot of disadvantages.
- jimmaswell 8y agoWould a bunch of small companies have invented the smartphone? I feel like you often need to have concentrations of a lot of capital at once for big things to happen.
- purple_ducks 8y agoWhat 1 big company do you think invented the smartphone?
- maxxxxx 8y agoA bunch of small companies invented the smartphone. Who do you think invented it?
- rock_hard 8y agoI’d say a bunch of companies tried to invent the smartphone...but Apple actually did
- maxxxxx 8y agoThat's nonsense. Apple looked at what everybody else was doing and packaged it very well.
- ngngngng 8y agoApples stock price is over 16x higher today than it was when the iphone was released. By todays metrics, I might call 2007 apple a small company.
- Apocryphon 8y agoApple was not nearly the giant it is now when it invented the smartphone. What revolutionary ground-breaking products has that company produced now that it has become a giant?
- maxxxxx 8y agoExactly. they are kind of coasting on previous innovations made a long time ago. Same for Google: Since search, Gmail, Android and Maps I don't see much innovation coming from there either.
- jogjayr 8y agoWaymo? Duplex? Photos? Even Chrome is newer than the things you listed.
- maxxxxx 8y agoWaymo got bought, I don't know Duplex, Photos is not exactly innovative, Chrome is just another browser, they existed before
- davidcbc 8y agoWaymo wasn't bought
- nostrademons 8y agoIt was, actually, from the guy who then tried to sell the tech to Uber and created this massive lawsuit: https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/the-unknown-startup-that-built-googles-first-selfdriving-car https://spectrum.ieee.org/robotics/artificial-intelligence/t...
- Apocryphon 8y agoEven Android was bought, when you think about it.
- WAthrowaway 8y agoOr just a couple of smart, dedicated people in a garage
- cambaceres 8y agoBig companies add huge value to all our wellbeing. 1000 companies with a revenue of ten million dollars can afford to spend little to nothing on research, while one company with a revenue of ten billion dollars can spend a lot. How many startups comes up with new medicines, for example? Furthermore, you are implying that all that people do has to be done with the societal value in mind. What about the value for individuals? Look at yourself for example. Do you do everything you do for the societal value or to pursue your own separate interests?
- maxxxxx 8y agoCompanies benefit from protections given to them by society. E.g. limited liability, copyright, patents and lots of others. So I think it's prudent to ask ourselves as a society from time to time if these privileges are still useful or maybe should be modified or revoked. I agree that for a lot of research you need to be of a certain size but I don't think you need to be a multi-hundred-billion dollar company. Apple was pretty innovative in the 2000s when they were much smaller. From casual observation it looks to me that they are doing less innovation now than they did back then.
- cambaceres 8y agoWell, you don't think the society benefits from the companies? Where else would you get all the stuff we use for everything? Where do you get the factories? Where do you get the machines? Where do you get the software? If you don't think companies bring societal value, ask yourself what the alternatives are. There were a bunch of attempts in the 20th century, however it never ended good for the population.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI said "companies of a certain size". Don't make this into a socialism vs capitalism issue. Yes, companies benefit society. But I believe trillion dollar companies are a negative for society. They get way too powerful.
- 8y ago