
Time to break up Google and Facebook, says New York attorney general candidate - Jerry2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/07/25/time-break-up-google-facebook-says-new-york-attorney-general-candidate/?noredirect=on
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aphextron
It's time. A solid 100% of the gains in wealth we've seen over the past decade
have gone straight to this new aristocracy 10% of the population that has been
fortunate enough to latch on to these gigantic companies that have
concentrated wealth in a way never possible before in history.

And this will be a good thing for everyone. Look at what happened to Standard
Oil. Rockefeller was forced by the DOJ to break things up at the height of our
first gilded age, and the subsequent companies went on to be hundreds of times
more valuable than Standard Oil alone, while creating thousands of jobs and
spreading the wealth to more Americans.

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mkempe
Your diatribe is a complete distortion of economic history and facts, best
crystallized by your use of "concentrated wealth" when what we have witnessed
is an _enormous creation_ of wealth.

Search engines, social networks, mobile phones, high-speed Internet, same- and
next-day e-commerce, interactive maps, video streaming, 24/7 access to world-
wide news and commentary, electric cars, cloud services, solar panels, wind
farms, fracking, online banking, fitness monitors, 4K tvs, retina displays,
tablets, e-book readers, voice-activated assistants, cleaning robots, advanced
medical devices, tailored drugs, reusable rockets, etc. etc. are all _created_
and those who create and finance the creation of these products and services
deserve a) our accolades and admiration and b) reaping the rewards of their
actions.

~~~
aphextron
>Your diatribe is a complete distortion of economic history and facts, best
crystallized by your use of "concentrated wealth" when what we have witnessed
is an enormous creation of wealth

Yes, created _and_ concentrated. It used to be that economic activity led to
the improvement of everyone's lives. Think the model that worked great for us
from post WWII, until the financial deregulation and tax cuts of the 70s/80s.
Now it leads to record corporate profits which enrich a select class of
wealthy shareholders.

The average American has been absolutely forgotten and left behind, as
evidenced by our current political climate.

~~~
mkempe
Please get a grip on reality. The average American has access to vastly better
products, services, and health care than past kings couldn't even have dreamt
of. Even the amazingly wealthy Rockefeller did not have access to the modern
bounty that the average American can easily buy and use today, the bounty that
is being created by entrepreneurs and people in the corporations you
apparently envy so much.

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dragonwriter
Now, we just need a CA AG candidate to propose breaking up the Wall Street
giants...

~~~
e9
Not the same. There are many wall street giants so competition is there vs
there are basically no competition for tech giants

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jstewartmobile
If it ever did happen--not that it would--it would happen like brexit: " _Bust
them up! We don 't need them. Wait a sec... Where'd my cat videos and fake
news go?!_"

~~~
e9
you are misunderstanding, break them up meaning separate them into multiple
independent entities that together still provide all the services. Here is a
good summary: [http://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-
research/c...](http://www.stern.nyu.edu/experience-stern/faculty-
research/case-breaking-amazon-apple-facebook-and-google)

edit: link to full article [https://www.esquire.com/news-
politics/a15895746/bust-big-tec...](https://www.esquire.com/news-
politics/a15895746/bust-big-tech-silicon-
valley/?src=nl&mag=esq&list=nl_enl_news&date=020818)

~~~
jstewartmobile
I am understanding perfectly. These things started out separate. They ended up
together... for a reason.

We are spoiled western last men with broadband connections. It isn't enough
that we can have all of these things without getting out of our chairs. Oh,
no! It has to all be under the same login, integrated with alexa and siri,
one-click checkouted with apple pay and google wallet, and cost somewhere in
the ballpark of a couple dollars to free.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, conglomerate to conglomerate. Just like the AT&T
(temporary) breakup.

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spacemanmatt
Also, Microsoft.

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anothergoogler
As a software developer, I'm hugely in favor of this. These companies conspire
to suppress wages via anti-poaching agreements and H1B lobbying. Not only
that, but Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are using their size to put software
developers and sysadmins out of work, McDonalds-icizing software with
proprietary, walled-garden service stacks. The money those three make on their
hosting services is coming out of our pockets (see: AWS cost monitoring and
optimization is its own role!), but nobody seems to notice or care.

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harryVic
"Putting sysadmins out of work?" Why not just make computers illegal and use
pen and paper to create jobs?

~~~
anothergoogler
You took that out of context, I said "software developers and sysadmins out of
work, McDonalds-icizing software with proprietary, walled-garden service
stacks." Implying that the result is lower-quality and disempowering of
software businesses who aren't Amazon, Google, or Microsoft.

So, pen and paper vs. the computer is not a fitting analogy. The PC vs. the
mainframe is a better one.

