Jonathan Taplin -- Move fast and break things
================================================

This book is a rant, perhaps even a screed, but it's a well focused
one that we need to hear.  It's also very clear and informative.

Taplin's major themes: (1) Much of the Internet is controlled by
monopolies, in particular by Amazon, Facebook, and Google, but also
monopolies and restricted competition among Internet service
providers.  (2) The Silicon Valley tech oligarchy is rapacious: they
take what they want and need without asking (our) permission and
without worrying particularly about breaking social norms; they
(especially Amazon) bully content producers.  Amazon, in particular,
uses its leverage to drive down the compensation that it pays to
content producers.  (3) The tech oligarchy is aided by a libertarian
agenda of rich political campaign donors and by a libertarian
leaning political class.  (4) Content producers (musicians, book
authors, video producers, etc.) are left with no no way to make a
reasonable profit on their work.

Libertarian philosophy is no longer fringe and extreme.  It is
mainstream to Silicon Valley tech executives and the Republican
party.  When enough powerful people think and act that way (in
accordance with libertarianism), it inevitably leads the economy to
a loss of jobs, to low wages, and to a "Gig" employment landscape
(i.e.  work for small payments without benefits, without job
security, and workers without leverage when they deal with their
employers).

Monopolies lead to oligarchies.  Oligarchies lead to an imbalance of
power, in particular with the wealthy having much more influence on
our governments at various levels.  And, that power imbalance leads
to economic inequality.  We are seeing lots of that in the U.S.,
now.  One specific way in which oligarchs use their power is to
fight back against government regulation and monitoring.  And, that
means that they and the corporations that they run become even more
powerful, forming a positive feedback loop.

Another effect of this power imbalance is that large corporations
and the people who run them can very effectively push-back against
the enactment of regulations intended to slow or prevent climate
change.  If we want to have any hope at all of taking action to slow
down the influence of humans on climate change, we will need to
control the power of large corporations and monopolies to impede
that.

Taplin gives some account of several Silicon Valley leaders (Jeff
Bezos of Amazon, Peter Thiel of Facebook, etc.) and how their
respective corporations gained the monopolistic powers and position
that they currently have.

The problems that Taplin identifies are: (1) Internet monopolies, in
particular, Google, Amazon, and Facebook; (2) the libertarian,
cowboy capitalist, anti-regulation, and anti-tax agenda that has
taken root in the U.S. Federal government; (3) the extreme wealth of
a small group of people in the U.S.; and (4) the feedback loop
between that wealth and government (the wealth influences and
controls government; government enables the creation of even more
extreme wealth).

There are several basic principles about the function and structure
of the Internet that enable the creation of huge, concentrated
wealth.  Some of those principles are: (1) the ability to use and
offer proprietary technology that gives its owners an advantage over
their competitors; (2) the use of network effects; (3) the ability
to use economies of scale (when everything is bits and bytes, you
can multiply content, connections, etc. very fast); (4) branding and
first to market which give a huge advantage and benefit (in
particular, they enable the creation of virtual, if not real,
monopolies).

Taplin seems to be arguing that we are being abused by these large
and powerful corporations.  However, part of the problem is that
many of us feel that we are benefiting from the services of Google,
Amazon, and Facebook.  Could it be that if their power were limited
and restricted, we would receive even better service?  Or, is it
that Taplin is arguing that there are collateral costs from those
monopoly powers?  He certainly does spend a good deal of time
describing the rough treatment of music content producers.

One question: Is this a problem that can be solved by individuals?
Or, is it something that can only be solved by larger institutions,
in particular by the U.S. Federal government?  If that is the case,
it's hard to imagine that there will be much done about these
monopolies, given the pro-business mindset in Washington, D.C.
Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Federal government
has done little to stop the growth of large monopolistic
corporations.  And, that's true of both Republican and Democratic
administrations.

See the following article by Barry Lynn from "The Atlantic" for a
good bit of backup and support on Taplin's claims that anti-trust
and anti-monopoly actions by the U.S. Federal government have been
weak and that the consequences have been harmful:
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/antimonopoly-big-business/514358/.
Another good reference is "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and
the Economics of Destruction", also by Barry Lynn.

We should not expect this to get better.  Rather it is likely to get
worse, and to worsen much faster, for several reasons: (1) As,
Taplin mentions, some companies, in particular those that leverage
the Internet and digital technologies, are able to grow and scale in
some extreme ways.  (2) Companies like Google and Amazon and
Facebook, too, I suspect, are investing heavily in data science and
machine learning technologies.  Soon, if not already, those
technologies will be multiplicative, that is, the already huge
companies that are able to invest in them will be able to grow and
out-run their competition even faster because of those technologies,
and to do so while employing even fewer people than they do now.
Even ignoring loose talk about "the singularity", some of the
companies with machine learning tools and weapons in their arsenal
are likely to have unimaginable advantages.

One thing to keep in mind is that some of us are hurt much more than
others by the out-sized power of some of these monopolistic
corporation.  For example, those of us who are retired are hurt less
by the destruction of jobs and the downward pressure on wages.

In addition to lower wages and fewer jobs, the concentrated power
and the power imbalance brought by monopolies and an oligarchy are
likely to push us more and more in the direction of a "Gig" economy
and an employment landscape where more and more of the available
work is short-term, piece-work, contracting work, most of which will
be without medical benefits and without any stability or security.

By the way, this "Gig" economy and "Uber-ization" and micro-payments
for small tasks seems drastic enough when we think in terms of
replacing taxi drivers and other tasks that must be done locally.
But there are many sectors and types of work that can be done
remotely.  So, what happens when people all over the work (many of
whom live at much lower standards of living that those of us in the
developed world) start competing for the same work?  I'm a computer
programmer.  It's disturbing for me to try to imagine what it might
be like if people from anywhere in the world could compete for the
kind of work I do.

We're being talked into this free-market capitalism with the
reasoning that it brings more economic growth.  But, there are
several things wrong with that argument: (1) The benefits are not
broadly distributed, and so those who need help the most receive the
least benefit.  (2) Workers end up with even less power, and so the
power imbalance continues to get larger.

Even as I'm writing this (February, 2018), the U.S. Supreme Court is
considering whether workers can be required to pay dues to a union
in their workplace.  A negative decision on that is likely to result
in even fewer unionized workers and an further shift in power away
from workers and toward employers.  I suspect that the political
pressure in that direction with increase.

"Move fast and break things" is a sobering book, and is worth
reading.

03/10/2018

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