Holy shit.

(Speaking of the near-unfathomable profitability of the surveillance business model, take a min to contemplate what the ability to pay tens of billions to cement their dominant position means vis-a-vis the revenue that dominant position redounds to Google.)

@Mer__edith Imagine what they could have done if they believed "Don't be evil" and spent this much accordingly on something else.

@Mer__edith

That isn't capitalism in any shape or form.

Saying we have to get rid of capitalism is late. Its gone.

The coercive closed monopolies and monopsonies control access to you, to goods, to price, to markets.

Amazons Bezos announced if you want entrance to his 'market' you have to make your company ready to be taken over, for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coercive_monopoly

Coercive monopoly - Wikipedia

@kevinrns @Mer__edith That's literally capitalism, my dude. ๐Ÿ˜‚

@soc @Mer__edith

The "control of pricing by the market" is capitalism, and cited as such in religious fervor..

That the mechanism's of the system become monopoly is only useful if you want to "gain monopoly power through the exploitation of economies of scale" for example.

Historically Baker's lowered pricing by "adding sand" to the four. The market doesn't correct for that, it needs law.

Agricultural workers wages are FAR BELOW MARKET.

Sand must be added to the flour.

@soc @Mer__edith

Steam engines boil water. Add more fuel, they boil harder. But boiling harder is dangerous pressure, its just metal parts, explosions common.

Controlling the tendency to increase pressure until its dangerous is prevented by a governor. It works by spinning faster as pressure increases, tio release more pressure.

Trust busters curtailed monopoly power like a steam engine's governor.

Coalitions of coercive monopolistic social and political power removes the 'governor'

@Mer__edith tl;dr If it wasn't worth that, they wouldn't have spent it. "If you don't pay for the product, then you *are* the product".
@Mer__edith Holy shit indeed. It's so sad to think about, what we could have done in the last 20 years with all this money, brain power, energy and time.
@Mer__edith @SallyStrange Whaaaat? Thatโ€™s not the dominant global advertiser that will do anything to mine usersโ€™ data that I know!
@Mer__edith the advertising industry must be destroyed
@Mer__edith @ciaran This is almost the entire business model of Mozilla.