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It is the runaway nature of our late-stage capitalistic "utopia" that large companies just absorb anything that touches their edges, continually growing larger,
by TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
It is the runaway nature of our late-stage capitalistic "utopia" that large companies just absorb anything that touches their edges, continually growing larger, and absorbing ever more. Skype, LinkedIn, GitHub, StackOverflow, and Slack were all nicely-running, profitable businesses, with agendas that made them attractive to end users. But their owners all had a price, and now they're all part of monstrous companies with agendas that do not necessarily line up with mine. On the one hand, this is perfectly understandable. On the other, I think the government needs to stop these sorts of mergers and acquisitions to create vertical (as well as horizontal) monopolies. We're living in an age of modern-day "robber barons," and we need the government to return to policies from those days, including STEEPLY progressive taxes, and vigilant anti-trust action. Unfortunately, the Citizens United ruling will make this an impossibility until it is "repealed" with new law.
- amelius 5y agoBut what if China allows these mergers for their own companies, while the US doesn't allow them for SV companies?
- asddubs 5y agoI don't see how that would lead to anything bad happening
- gopiandcode 5y agoThere are a lot of things that China does that other countries don't do, some of these things are bad, and personally I wouldn't want them to be implemented where I live (social credit score, censorship etc.). I don't see how engaging in a race to the bottom with China here is a particularly useful line of thought.
- kinjba11 5y agoThe CCP has recently been favoring anti-trust policy. Having enormous all-encompassing companies that absorb everything is not necessarily a great economic strategy. https://www.ft.com/content/01b7c7ca-71ad-4baa-bddf-a4d5e65c5d79 https://www.ft.com/content/01b7c7ca-71ad-4baa-bddf-a4d5e65c5... https://www.reuters.com/world/china/exclusive-china-readies-tencent-penalty-antitrust-crackdown-sources-2021-04-29/ https://www.reuters.com/world/china/exclusive-china-readies-...
- TheRealDunkirk 5y ago"I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." - Charles Babbage The only people benefitting from these mega-mergers are the handful of VC's and the C-levels involved. Everyone else suffers harm, including the government, which has reduced influence on actual governance. Money talks, even in Communism, and huge mega-corporations also impact China's government's ability to govern. I expect them to limit these sorts of arrangements more strictly than the US.