Trump's Right for the Wrong Reason: Bust Social Media into Dozens of Little Pieces
The Business Built to Circumnavigate Capitalism
John Rockefeller established Standard Oil in 1870. Through various means of refining agreements, the Supreme Court declared Standard Oil to be a monopoly in 1911 (the trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt era). The government surely did “bust” up Stardard OIl into 34 separate little standies. The bust made Rockefeller the richest man on earth; Adam Smith would have told him that competition creates wealth and Rockefeller was (obviously) a large shareholder in each new company.
But from a pure “power” perspective, Rockefeller became just another really rich guy, the richest of all. Unfair! He could no longer dictate national policy!
Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, The American Tabacco Company, and Bell Telephone, all gigantic companies declared monopolies or near-monopolies in the 20th Century. Every single bust was successful from a national perspective and the average shareholder perspective.
The Department of Justice still has an anti-Trust division but I’m at a loss to explain what it’s up to nowadays. After it determined to not bust up IBM (When IBM was a threat) and when it lost to Microsoft, it seems to have lost its courage, or its mission. Maybe the pols just love monopolies nowadays, there is a lot of money in politics. Now that money is speech, there’s no TDR coming to save us, either.
Someone better find the courage and who better than Joe Biden - with MAGA backing! - to do it? This goes well beyond the financial health of the nation, these companies risk the health of our democratic republic.
Facebook, Twitter, and Google must either be busted or be treated as utilities because one of the most obvious assumptions of capitalism simply doesn’t apply to these groups. Capitalism presumes that people will purchase the best product on the market.
With respect to the three companies above, the “best product” has fck all to do with the actual product. The '“best” product is the one everyone else uses. Yes, yes, “Parler,” and the other meager start-ups try, but none will succeed and if they succeed just a bit too much, one of the three above will buy it with an offer that cannot be turned down.
Facebook isn’t huge because it’s a great company with a great product. It is huge and powerful because even if someone has a prettier face, no one will use it because their 516 friends are still on Facebook, not Pretty Face!
See? The best product is defined by the monopolistic character itself.
Just as was the case with Standard Oil, shareholder value will almost surely rise, competition creates new ideas, new options, new income. Bust Facebook into 34 babyfaces, lay 34 little blue eggs, and let’s all have 34 little giggles. It would work IF - and this is the most important premise - every new baby face has software compatible with all the other baby faces such that users can see each other and interact. The same rule must apply to all the others. When I tweet this article out, it would appear across 34 platforms.
The differences would lie in who truly has the better product! Who has the best user interface, which one keeps people’s information more private, which one adds new features, and on and on. They must compete, and put a smile on Adam Smith’s face, while Rockefeller growls again from above.
But if the DOJ moves, the largest shareholders and CEOs of these three companies will fight to their last breath despite gaining even more wealth and not just because life is much easier as a monopoly.
No, they will fight because these social media platforms are no longer about money, they are about power. Facebook, Twitter, and Google are not so much business entities as they are free-standing nations. God knows they have more money than a lot of nations. They even have a military. It is a nuke called everyone’s personal information and in the year 2021 it’s more explosive than just about any bomb devised.
The move would not only make the world safer for consumers but it would spurn technological leaps more than anything since the development of the silicon chip. Regulating them would be much easier. They will “tell on” one another if they find one violating the new rules.
Either bust their asses into tiny little pieces or make them utilities, just like the power company that brings electricity into your home. You don’t see a lot of competition there, either, but a utility is a quasi-government entity and far easier to regulate.
So Trump is right about one thing, just for the wrong reason. Do not bust them up as Donald Trump’s revenge. Bust them up because they are a threat every bit as big as Trump.
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jmiciak@yahoo.com and on Twitter
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