Re:Congress is going to throw the kitchen sink at big tech
by smolder on Friday June 11, 2021 @06:35PM
(#27479337)
I can think of some incentives that would prevent hyperconsolidation. Sliding scale taxation based on some formula including a
ratio of revenue to people employed. Maybe take away big company's litigation advantage by making them pay an amount somewhat proportional to their size into a pool that covers the total costs of litigation. Let them recover money on wins. I think such incentives/disincentives would be met with the usual: "but if we're hostile to big business and restrict growth, they'll leave the US for greener pastures!". Is that really so bad? Let companies that are hostile to the US public leave the US. Penalize their advantage away in tariffs or something for fleeing to weaker regulatory environments.
ISPs can't leave and yet we don't seriously regulate them into doing public good or having a competitive market, which is mysteriously somehow contentious politically. Many others can't leave because their talent pools aren't willing to go with them, and that would be even more true if the workers had a government that worked for us.
There is a problem with government being full of people who would rather stay on the receiving end of a money hose than pinch it off for anyone's benefit. All the other apparent problems seem to me to be excuses to protect that. Check greed or we all suffer. You can check greed without stifling ambition. It's a valid choice.
What do you think are failed examples of this?
Even though you had eventual re-consolidation, the post-breakup phone industry seemed like a much more interesting and competitive place than the one before it. The fix for re-consolidation, of course, could be pretty simple...
Very few people want to do the harder, more innovative, more interesting thing if they can make a comfortable living doing what they've always done. This applies to regulators as much as to companies. We haven't found any better tool to force companies to be in touch with their customers and do what the customers want than competition, but we also have an economic system that encourages consolidation (because competition is HARD!). So the role of government to break things back up to keep competitive incentives feels quite natural. The market isn't gonna do it itself.