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Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

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151–160 of 179 posts

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#151
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Violence is inherently physical. It is the forceful physical violation of one’s person or property. Trying to expand the definition of “violence” beyond this scope dilutes its meaning beyond recognition and usefulness. However, I will agree it is harmful when a supplier terminates its services, particularly so if you were dependent on that supplier. People make their own choices about who to do business with and how…

> It is the forceful physical violation of one’s person or property. But not all property is physical. And increasingly, our property is just data located in somebody's servers: your Dropbox contents, your Steam games, the money in your online bank account.

Most of these things aren't really property. And even for banks, you partially forfeit your property rights when deciding to keep your money there...

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#152
post #80

So do several religions. As well as mafioso or cartels. I think of these groups as "states-in-waiting." Should their regional government grow too corrupt or too weak, they fill the void. [1] https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-net-worth-of-the-Catholic-... [2] https://fox13now.com/2018/05/30/mormonleaks-lds-church-contr... [3] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2660520/joaquin-el-chapo-guzma...

To transition into something resembling a government would not be very on brand for Apple. If anything they seem likely to blast off into space and colonize Mars with all the cash they've mined and stockpiled here.

Mars colonization would fit well, just like their recent products shiny and beautiful and utterly useless

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#153
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the amount of money, employees and resources these companies have, you can see that they are becoming and behaving like independent pseudo-nation states. Each of these companies (FAAMNG) apparently are more worth or near worth the GDP of Luxembourg and other developed countries and their businesses are built like an entire economy. There are also do’s and don’ts with some of them i.e rules that one citizen shou…

I understand the GAFAM, but is Netflix even in the same ballpark? (It's also extremely dependent on Hollywood, isn't it?) And Microsoft isn't in the Silicon Valley...

It's a play on faang. Which excludes Microsoft because cool people like Paul graham think (wrongly of course, as usual) I that Microsoft is dead

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#154

Problem is that states usually have constitutional safeguards that keep a safe balance of power between citizen and state. Not so with these companies. Step out of line and they can unperson you like that, and you can't vote on their leadership. And increasingly entire livelihoods and social existences are tied into them. This is why you're seeing states start to get so aggressive with them. The EU fining billions ou…

> states usually have constitutional safeguards that keep a safe balance of power between citizen and state I don't see much of that in China... which has too many people for that "usually" to work. Ironically, China's biggest companies are likely the ones on the tightest leach !

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#155
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nokia's woes were on software side, not hardware. Building a competitive software stack proved too slow an undertaking for a hardware company. It was Android in the end that ate Nokia's pie, not Apple.

Also they only took Apple seriously way too late.

Which was very foolish of them, considering the success of the iPod !

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nokia's woes were on software side, not hardware. Building a competitive software stack proved too slow an undertaking for a hardware company. It was Android in the end that ate Nokia's pie, not Apple.

They swapped to Android too late but honestly I would have seen them turning it around some. Bringing in Stephen Elop to then have Microsoft strangle em some more to push the winphones was what fucked em up more imo.

By the time Microsoft bought Nokia, they were already in deep trouble, having lost major parts of the smartphone market.

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#157
post #41

"Apple’s market valuation is roughly equal to the national net worth of Denmark (...). In all but name, this is a superpower" Denmark is a really nice country. Also, it is not a superpower.

It's also not true. Apples valuation is around $365 billion, Denmarks _GDP_ is around $370 billion per year. I'd argue a sovereign country's assets are essentially invaluable, but in Denmark's case there's the interesting historical fact that the US government offered to buy Greenland several times (and always being rebuffed by the Danes), so at least there's an estimate for the value of that island alone: https://en…

Denmark's net worth is only 3 years worth of its GDP?!?

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#158
post #137

As opposed to the Catholic Church? Oil companies? A number of retailers? Beating up tech companies specifically is getting irksome. There are many things wrong with our industry specifically, but beating them up over something true of many industries is .

They are being brought up more and more because they are starting to become as much if not more powerful than your examples?

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the GAFAM, but is Netflix even in the same ballpark? (It's also extremely dependent on Hollywood, isn't it?) And Microsoft isn't in the Silicon Valley...

It's a play on faang. Which excludes Microsoft because cool people like Paul graham think (wrongly of course, as usual) I that Microsoft is dead

Paul Graham ? Isn't "FAANG" specifically about Silicon Valley's labor market and local politics, but hardly relevant outside California ?

Re: Tech giants have as much money and influence as nations

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the GAFAM, but is Netflix even in the same ballpark? (It's also extremely dependent on Hollywood, isn't it?) And Microsoft isn't in the Silicon Valley...

It's a play on faang. Which excludes Microsoft because cool people like Paul graham think (wrongly of course, as usual) I that Microsoft is dead

Which excludes Microsoft because it was a stock-market term for hot tech stocks, at a time were Microsoft already was "established and boring".
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