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> Compare the size of these companies, in their time, to the Soviet-scale bureaucracies of Facebook, Apple, Amazon or Google. At the risk of being flippant: lo
by perardi 6y ago
> Compare the size of these companies, in their time, to the Soviet-scale bureaucracies of Facebook, Apple, Amazon or Google.
At the risk of being flippant: lol. “Soviet-scale bureaucracies” and “size of these companies”.
The Bell System employed over 1 million people in the early 1980s. Apple is around 140,000 now. Amazon is close to a million, but compared to population growth, c’mon.
And I dare you to read about the history of the Bell System and somehow come to the conclusion it was a lean, mean streamlined machine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_System
- MiroF 6y agoIt somewhat astonishes me how many people will make really strong policy claims without having the historical chops to back it up. The idea of a lean, mean, non-bureaucratic Bell system against the Soviet-scale bureaucracy of Google and Facebook is just laughable.
- nitrogen 6y agoThe breakup of the bell system is what allowed dial-up services and the ISPs that followed them to flourish.
- andrewjl 6y agoYou can't compare headcount across time periods without taking into account productivity growth. This is an apples-and-oranges comparison.
- scarface74 6y agoApple “employs” 140K people only if you don’t count the thousands of people that basically “work for” Apple making hardware in China. Historically, manufacturers didn’t outsource their entire manufacturing facilities.