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> capitalism not dismissing other points your making or questions you're asking, but what happens with search results is a phenomenon that's more or less relat
by throwitaway222 3y ago
> capitalism
not dismissing other points your making or questions you're asking, but what happens with search results is a phenomenon that's more or less related to monopoly power - so as they (Google) control more, the classical theories behind capitalism no longer hold. For example, they provide worse search, but there is no close second. Even if there is a close second, that "other guy" is unable to afford the 60+ billion Google is paying to other companies to make them the default.
- dragonwriter 3y agoWhat you think of as “the classical theories about capitalism” are after-the-fact rationalizations which reflect neither the motivation for the development of capitalism (class struggle between the mercantile class and the feudal aristocracy) nor its actual operation in the real world, and which were developed defensively in response to the original (and critical) theory about capitalism-as-an-existing-system, which absolutely does not cease to hold in the presence of monopoly, or view the emergence and maintenance of such a condition as aberrant.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 3y agoCompetition is a double edged sword. More competition means businesses are liable to go bankrupt if they don't optimize for profit above all else, ethics be damned. Less competition means lazy monopolies. If you're anti-monopoly, it's hard to think of a bigger "lazy monopoly" than the government. There isn't a simple solution here.