Monopolies, quasi-monopolies and cartels are
inherently exploitive and thus evil.
What was "normal" for the past two decades was to turn a
blind eye to the moral and financial bankruptcy of the American culture, the rot at the
heart of its social, political and economic orders. The pandemic has shredded
the putrid facade and revealed the rot, much to the dismay of the multitude of
minions tasked with sanitizing the rot behind narratives promoting the
normalization of predation, fraud and exploitation.
What's been absolutely verboten
is to call legalized pillage and predation what they really are: evil. We've normalized
exploitation and predation by the usual means: denial, legal justifications,
making excuses for the predators and the system that defends predation, and by
erasing the memory of a time when moral bankruptcy, predation and
institutionalized fraud were not yet normalized.
People have
always been self-absorbed and greedy, so goes the excuse; or, greed is good
because that's the magic of the invisible hand at work.
By stripping fraud and
predation of moral consequence, we've covered the putrid rot with a thoroughly
modern amorality which we can summarize as anything goes and winner takes
all. Monopoly,
quasi-monopoly and cartels (i.e. Warren Buffett's entire portfolio) are
presented as the natural order of things rather than an evil construct of
predation and exploitation that benefits the few at the expense of the many.
Nothing outrages the apologists
and the lackeys enriching themselves in the dens of thieves more
than accusations of evil, or indeed, anything smacking of moral standards or
judgments. Anything goes not just for individual choices, but for capital's choices
as well, and so it's simply not PC to question the morality of capital's
predations.
As for winner takes all,
this legalized looting is presented as a form of economic
Darwinism that is nothing but the healthy manifestation of a free market. This is the
Devil's handiwork, of course, presenting legalized looting that only
benefits the few as the inevitable result of open markets.
The greater the outrage of the
technocrats and monopolists at being called what they are--evil--the greater
the confirmation that the accusation is spot-on. The predators,
looters and exploiters must strip away any moral assessment of their actions,
as even the smallest shred of moral or karmic justice threatens their empires.
And so economics has been reduced to bloodless quantifications of profits,
costs and sales and obfuscatory mathematics designed to drain the risk of moral
consequences from the parasitic pillage.
The greatest monopolist of
early modern capitalism, John D. Rockefeller, struggled his entire life to
reconcile his Christian values with the evils of his monopoly. He never fully
succeeded, of course, ultimately using self-serving justifications of the
"good" he'd done by stabilizing erratic markets and selling predictably
priced oil products to the public (at prices fixed by his monopoly).
In effect, Rockefeller was
praising the model of a public utility: an entity that
is regulated to serve the public with essential products and services at a fair
and stable price.
This is why I've proposed
turning Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Amazon, et al. into public
utilities via regulations that make it illegal to 1) collect users' data and 2) sell
the data. Each quasi-monopoly should be broken into competing pieces that
cannot buy other pieces or pieces of other quasi-monopolies, or buy back their
own shares.
Monopolies and cartels are evil
because they are exploitive by their very nature. This is why the
political system imposed anti-trust legislation in the early 20th century. And
this is why technocrat apologists spew endless sophistries aimed at persuading
us that these Big Tech monopolies aren't actually monopolies and therefore
anti-trust doesn't apply to them. Their frantic efforts only confirm the truth:
Big Tech monopolies are in fact monopolies, and therefore they are evil.
Public utilities are ultimately
accountable to voters and taxpayers. Predatory private monopolies are only
accountable to their predatory, parasitic owners, a truth that their
immense armies of technocrat apologists, lackeys and apparatchiks attempt to
obscure.
Monopolies, quasi-monopolies
and cartels are inherently exploitive and thus evil, and so everyone profiting
from these evils is also evil. Yes, "shareholder value" derived from
monopolies, quasi-monopolies and cartels is evil. No denial, no excuses. The
karmic consequences-- let's call them moral dividends--are being readied
for delivery. Professing ignorance or sainthood won't stop or even delay the
delivery. The Devil is chuckling at your deliciously ironic (now long departed)
slogan, "don't be evil."
Dear shareholders and monopolists: the
banquet of consequences is being served. Don't choke on the cold serving of
karma.
Audiobook edition now available:
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)
(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)
(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).
Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our
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The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance
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Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15
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