> This seems to assume that this power is some permanent, unearned thing. It doesn't have to be permanent to be harmful. Suppose, I dunno, the Koch brothers s

> This seems to assume that this power is some permanent, unearned thing. It doesn't have to be permanent to be harmful. Suppose, I dunno, the Koch brothers somehow managed to buy Google (or maybe the Saudis, it doesn't matter really) and simply took over the existing power structure to use it for evil. Yes, maybe everyone would work to migrate, but it's hard not to think they could do some bad things in the mean time. > This isn't some Ma Bell situation where it's illegal to build another phone company. Well, if the alternatives get treated like the examples given up thread, that's quite an uphill battle, because you may not be able to get an ISP, payment processor, IP addresses, domain names, etc. Having to remake the entire infrastructure again makes some of these things natural monopolies even if it's not exactly illegal to build another one, network effects are still a pain.