8 ms·

It'd be great if states actually focused on real problems like education and medicine instead of going after tech which provides services for free and is genera

It'd be great if states actually focused on real problems like education and medicine instead of going after tech which provides services for free and is generally liked. No one is blaming tech for debt or financial ruin.

krono 5y ago
You cannot be serious. Where do you think all that money went?
- Nasrudith 5y ago
  Serious zero sum financial thinking there - assuming profiting from a transaction means the other party must be worse off. And implicitly applying the thieves's syllogism too that is "you have it, I want it, therefore you stole it from me".
  - krono 5y ago
    I was alluding to the antitrust accusations. My comment being placed in the broader context them was perhaps too far-fetched of a hint.
- danielmarkbruce 5y ago
  Self driving cars, free email, free docs, sheets etc. It is a serious point. Protecting advertising companies from each other is a perplexing choice of resource allocation given the alternatives.
  - ajvs 5y ago
    "don't go after monopolies which are abusing their dominance to keep everyone else poorer"
  - onion2k 5y ago
    Given the choice between free email and Google paying enough tax to improve the entire education system of the US, why do you think people would pick email? Do you believe everyone is stupid?
    - charcircuit 5y ago
      >why do you think people would pick email I don't like taxing so I would never advocate for taxing a person or a company.
    - danielmarkbruce 5y ago
      It's an antritrust suit.
  - krono 5y ago
    So big tech gave all this stuff away without asking or taking any sort of compensation (i.e. free), and yet they've managed to accumulate levels of influence and wealth previously only beholden to sovereign states. Coincidentally, around the same time big tech came into being, the nation that birthed, nurtured, and protected them started losing its world dominance to rival sovereignties that took the opposite approach in dealing with these generous givers by monitoring their behaviour, limiting their power and influence over the nation and its citizens, enforcing compliance with national policy (for good or bad), and extracting a fair share of the profits in return for their use of public infrastructure.
    - danielmarkbruce 5y ago
      They took the money they made in search ads and built a lot of products they give away, yes. The wealth is all from search ads. The US had a little moment of time where it was the dominant power. It wasn't the dominant power in 1900 and it won't be in 2050. The idea that the decline is because of Google etc defies a much simpler explanation. As soon as China moved off of straight communism they were bound for dominance due to their population and general work ethic. There is no reason that over the long term China should have lower GDP per person than the US. Hence they'll have about 4x the total GDP and be able to spend 4x as much on military due to their 4x population size v US.
lenkite 5y ago
Yep tech companies should continue to cheat and break laws as long as they offer some free stuff to folks. We should kneel and worship them as gods.
Oddskar 5y ago
> provides services for free It's not free when you are the product being sold.
liveoneggs 5y ago
Google's abuse of the market takes money away from small businesses (buyers of ads, sellers of ads, displayers of ads) and consolidates that money back into Google's hands. It has a direct trickle down effect on financial ruin by making it less and less possible to operate a small business. The stealing of this money also raises prices on everything else (google-caused inflation) which harms consumers.
ViViDboarder 5y ago
Why not all of the above? The AG is an attorney. Their job is this kind of action, not education or medicine. The AG should be doing this and the appropriate people should be doing their jobs to improve education and medicine as well.

krono 5y ago

You cannot be serious. Where do you think all that money went?

Nasrudith 5y ago
Serious zero sum financial thinking there - assuming profiting from a transaction means the other party must be worse off. And implicitly applying the thieves's syllogism too that is "you have it, I want it, therefore you stole it from me".
- krono 5y ago
  I was alluding to the antitrust accusations. My comment being placed in the broader context them was perhaps too far-fetched of a hint.
danielmarkbruce 5y ago
Self driving cars, free email, free docs, sheets etc. It is a serious point. Protecting advertising companies from each other is a perplexing choice of resource allocation given the alternatives.
- ajvs 5y ago
  "don't go after monopolies which are abusing their dominance to keep everyone else poorer"
- onion2k 5y ago
  Given the choice between free email and Google paying enough tax to improve the entire education system of the US, why do you think people would pick email? Do you believe everyone is stupid?
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    >why do you think people would pick email I don't like taxing so I would never advocate for taxing a person or a company.
  - danielmarkbruce 5y ago
    It's an antritrust suit.
- krono 5y ago
  So big tech gave all this stuff away without asking or taking any sort of compensation (i.e. free), and yet they've managed to accumulate levels of influence and wealth previously only beholden to sovereign states. Coincidentally, around the same time big tech came into being, the nation that birthed, nurtured, and protected them started losing its world dominance to rival sovereignties that took the opposite approach in dealing with these generous givers by monitoring their behaviour, limiting their power and influence over the nation and its citizens, enforcing compliance with national policy (for good or bad), and extracting a fair share of the profits in return for their use of public infrastructure.
  - danielmarkbruce 5y ago
    They took the money they made in search ads and built a lot of products they give away, yes. The wealth is all from search ads. The US had a little moment of time where it was the dominant power. It wasn't the dominant power in 1900 and it won't be in 2050. The idea that the decline is because of Google etc defies a much simpler explanation. As soon as China moved off of straight communism they were bound for dominance due to their population and general work ethic. There is no reason that over the long term China should have lower GDP per person than the US. Hence they'll have about 4x the total GDP and be able to spend 4x as much on military due to their 4x population size v US.

lenkite 5y ago

Yep tech companies should continue to cheat and break laws as long as they offer some free stuff to folks. We should kneel and worship them as gods.

Oddskar 5y ago

> provides services for free It's not free when you are the product being sold.

liveoneggs 5y ago

Google's abuse of the market takes money away from small businesses (buyers of ads, sellers of ads, displayers of ads) and consolidates that money back into Google's hands. It has a direct trickle down effect on financial ruin by making it less and less possible to operate a small business. The stealing of this money also raises prices on everything else (google-caused inflation) which harms consumers.

ViViDboarder 5y ago

Why not all of the above? The AG is an attorney. Their job is this kind of action, not education or medicine. The AG should be doing this and the appropriate people should be doing their jobs to improve education and medicine as well.