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The Security Value of Inefficiency – Schneier on Security
- valuearb 6y ago“ First, we need to enforce antitrust laws. Our meat supply chain is brittle because there are limited numbers of massive meatpacking plants“ It’s interesting when engineered skilled in one subject matter believe that expertise applies elsewhere.
- Nevermark 6y agoIndeed, existing anti-trust law would seem to be a poor way to solve a systemic problem of no redundancy. But at least in theory, a law that required corporations of a given size to split (with some temporary tax advantages, etc., to continue incentivizing growth with splits, for the common good), would: * avoid centralizing power in epically large companies * improve corporate competition * preserve more market redundancy * introduce a powerful new form of evolution, since many new companies would efficiently inherit the culture, operation, innovation and resource "genes" of successful predecessors. The combination of greater competition, greater number of new companies, and greater transfer of company success genes seems likely to create conditions for even faster progress, in addition to greater resilience. This would be a shocking change from our current practices, culture and laws, not to mention the pushback from today's elite who's power may be vulnerable to such a change. I am only half seriously, and only half not-seriously, suggesting this. The half not-serious is the recognition that we have no experience with this kind of constraint on business. The financial gaming to avoid appearing to have too much revenue, etc., could create all kinds of new problems, while avoiding the seeming solutions. But it seems like a thought experiment worth considering deeply. EDIT: By encouraging greater numbers of smaller companies, the inequality between CEO vs. worker pay might also be mitigated.