Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

Comment by paulpauper | Hacker News Reader

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>The bills may change before they’re introduced, and they’ll inevitably go through a political process that will water them down. But even if only a portion of what’s written gets passed, the tech giants will lose several advantages they’ve exploited in recent years.

Yeah that is the rub.

It's like in 1998 "we're gonna break up Microsoft!"

2002: "ok Microsoft will agree to make some some changes to their business but otherwise whatever"

Big tech is going to get bigger. Congress does not want to risk destabilizing the economy and and losing reelection as a result by being too hard on tech. These companies employ a lot of people and generate a lot of econ value even if there are a lot of reasons to complain about their business practices.

Normally I'd agree with you, but I've been thinking on this for a while and when you look at history this is not the case. Prominent examples are Southwestern Bell and Standard Oil. The elected officials in the US government are happy to take campaign contributions and play the game and let the monopolies run wild, but when their behaviors threaten the monopoly of power the US government has or threatens political stability the US government acts, sometimes very heavy handed and often effectively.

I think the problem there is the assumption that the US government of today will behave the same as the government of 1911 or 1982.

Well, you have to make an assumption either way. I'd say it's more likely they'll do what they've done in the past than not, particularly where the status quo of power structures is threatened.

The federal government will destabilize the economy the nanosecond it sees big tech as a bigger threat to its power than economic instability.

The question is can tech boil the frog so they never notice.

>The federal government will destabilize the economy the nanosecond it sees big tech as a bigger threat to its power than economic instability.

Given that tech companies obey court orders, subpoenas, and the letter of the law, I don't think that slippery slope is currently a problem.

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