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It cuts both ways. Yes, there has been horrendous tech legislation that has been passed before. On the other hand, there is a lengthy list of serious abuses by
by bart_spoon 6y ago
It cuts both ways. Yes, there has been horrendous tech legislation that has been passed before. On the other hand, there is a lengthy list of serious abuses by individual companies and entire industries, both in and out of tech, that have been enabled due to weak or non-existent legislation that would have prevented it.
At this point, both the hyper-capitalist trust in the free market, as well as the hyper-socialist belief that labor/the state are always better than private corporations are both closer to dogmatic religious beliefs than actual reality. There are certainly instances when the government will do a much worse job at running an economy than free enterprises. And there are instances when clearly government intervention and regulation is needed to protect society from bad actors (as what seems to increasingly be the case for certain megacorporations in tech, finance, the insurance industry). A balanced, case by case approach is necessary.
Unfortunately, more simplistic, easy to digest platforms based on worthless platitudes get more traction, probably because those fit on a bumper sticker or in a tweet more easily.
- cmrdporcupine 6y agoIt's also questionable whether we can really call Amazon a "tech" company. Yes, AWS and the foundations of their website are "tech". But the massive beast that is Amazon is mostly now a distributor/retailer/warehouser/logistics behemoth that is operating very much in meatspace. It's no more a tech company than Wal-Mart. And if we extend "tech" to include that, then pretty much any corp is "tech." So we're on much more familiar territory here -- a large semi-monopoly corporate entity with an industrial workforce. There's not a lot of Alvin Toffler here, and more of Henry Ford.
- scarface74 6y agoAmazon has 5% of retail and 30% of online commerce - neither is a monopoly.
- cmrdporcupine 6y ago30% of online commerce is rather large for one single entity wouldn't you say?
- scarface74 6y agoSo now we should break up any company that has a 30% share of a share of the market? The definition of a “monopoly” is not 30% even if you define the “market” as online retail not retail in general.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoSemantics. When a few big players dominate any market its called a Trust or a Monopoly. Choose Trust if that makes us feel better.
- scarface74 6y agoWow so now the law is “semantics”. “Words Mean Things”. The minute we allow people’s feelings to control how the law is enforced we are all in trouble. A trust is when multiple companies are in collusion. Are you claiming that Amazon is in conclusion with its competitors?
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoOh! This was a law being discussed? I thought it read pedantic wordsmithing. To call 'online sales' a single market is silly. Because other companies use the internet changes nothing. Amazon owns their segment.
- cmrdporcupine 6y agoFWIW, I never argued for breaking anything up. I don't think anti-monopoly laws really accomplish much. I think this kind of thing is instrinsic to capitalism; and some bigger shark will eventually come around to eat this one. But I still disagree with the notion that somehow because Amazon is "tech" this is different. No, my solution is far more radical and is more along the lines of the socialization line above. And almost nobody here will agree with it :-)