UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
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Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#2Maybe . . . It's not intellectual property that keeps internet companies at the top of the pile, for the most part, unless we are counting trade secrets and domain names as intellectual property (and they are in a sense, but not the sense that requires a government to create an artificial market for them).
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#3Maybe . . . It's not intellectual property that keeps internet companies at the top of the pile, for the most part, unless we are counting trade secrets and domain names as intellectual property (and they are in a sense, but not the sense that requires a government to create an artificial market for them).
There is a strong underlying point to this though, pretty much predicted by RMS and it so far seems to be going in that direction. The last revision of the GPL tried to address some of the IP related consequences but there is only so much that can be done from that angle.
Large piles tend to get larger, that's the major issue.
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#4Maybe . . . It's not intellectual property that keeps internet companies at the top of the pile, for the most part, unless we are counting trade secrets and domain names as intellectual property (and they are in a sense, but not the sense that requires a government to create an artificial market for them).
There is a strong underlying point to this though, pretty much predicted by RMS and it so far seems to be going in that direction. The last revision of the GPL tried to address some of the IP related consequences but there is only so much that can be done from that angle. Large piles tend to get larger, that's the major issue.
Except if it's Sears, RCA, IBM, Kodak, etc.
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#5This reminds me of a book called Four Futures, that explores different economic futures that humanity might face, and it just so happens that one of those futures is Rentism, similar to what is described in this piece.
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a strong underlying point to this though, pretty much predicted by RMS and it so far seems to be going in that direction. The last revision of the GPL tried to address some of the IP related consequences but there is only so much that can be done from that angle. Large piles tend to get larger, that's the major issue.
Except if it's Sears, RCA, IBM, Kodak, etc.
All of which were blatantly mismanaged. More importantly, it's not as though the collapse of these piles suddenly led to a redistribution of the wealth they amassed...
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#7No wonder it's so hard to roll back all the copyright garbage that accumulated in the various laws.
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a strong underlying point to this though, pretty much predicted by RMS and it so far seems to be going in that direction. The last revision of the GPL tried to address some of the IP related consequences but there is only so much that can be done from that angle. Large piles tend to get larger, that's the major issue.
Except if it's Sears, RCA, IBM, Kodak, etc.
They get larger until the next paradigm shift. But what if we reach an asymptote, and there is no paradigm shift to serve as the force of decay? Of course, such a thing is unprecedented so we won't realize it until it already happens. Personally, I think that point was reached in about 2007, and the internet itself has been carving up every interaction that can be usefully computer mediated by a handful of super-scale vendors.
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a strong underlying point to this though, pretty much predicted by RMS and it so far seems to be going in that direction. The last revision of the GPL tried to address some of the IP related consequences but there is only so much that can be done from that angle. Large piles tend to get larger, that's the major issue.
Except if it's Sears, RCA, IBM, Kodak, etc.
Do you think Amazon, Facebook or Google won’t buy out their would-be destroyers, regulators willing? And I don’t see any signs of unwilling regulators lately.
Re: UN Study Warns: Growing Economic Concentration Leads to “Rentier Capitalism”
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except if it's Sears, RCA, IBM, Kodak, etc.
All of which were blatantly mismanaged. More importantly, it's not as though the collapse of these piles suddenly led to a redistribution of the wealth they amassed...
Agreed, the only way this has been achieved in the past has been taxes on corporations and high net worth individuals as well as anti-trust laws (which target both large companies and high net worth individuals). At this point you have to wonder how long this Gilded Age will last.