Big Tech: Monopolies, Corruption, & Philosophy

I look at the potential problems of Big Tech monopolies from the point of view of corruption. Learning lessons from big monopolies of the past - the Catholic Church and the Soviet Union, in particular - I argue that corruption is always likely when there s a lack of competition. What are the economic and philosophic problems with monopolies? I look at price signals, transparency, returns to scale, deep sunk costs, and the infrastructure perspective. Should we fear Facebook, Google, and Amazon? Should we regulate? Then & Now is FAN-FUNDED! Support me on Patreon and pledge as little as $1 per video: http://patreon.com/user?u=3517018 Or send me a one-off tip of any amount and help me make more videos: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JJ76W4CZ2A8J2 Buy on Amazon through this link to support the channel: https://amzn.to/2ykJe6L Follow me on: Facebook: http://fb.me/thethenandnow Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thethenandnow/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lewlewwaller Credits: Stock footage provided by Videvo, downloaded from https://www.videvo.net Sources: Tom Standage, Writing on the Wall: Social Media, the first 2000 Years. Orudzheva, L., Salimath, M.S. & Pavur, R. J Bus Ethics (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-4022-z Ryvkin, Dmitry and Serra, Danila, The Industrial Organization of Corruption: Monopoly, Competition and Collusion (February 10, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2852523 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2852523 Dimant, E. and Tosato, G. (2018), CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION: WHAT HAS PAST DECADE S EMPIRICAL RESEARCH TAUGHT US? A SURVEY. Journal of Economic Surveys, 32: 335-356. doi:10.1111/joes.12198 Rahman, K. Sabeel, Regulating Informational Infrastructure: Internet Platforms as the New Public Utilities (February 23, 2018). Georgetown Law and Technology Review, Vol. 2:2 (2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3220737 https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/corruption/