Consumers Would Pay the Price for Breaking Up Big Tech
reason.com
reason.com
2. If consumers paid for breaking up the monopolies of the Gilded Age or even the Microsoft of the 90s, no one cares or remembers. We just remember that it was a good idea and made the world and economy a lot better.
We're in a new Gilded Age and it is a threat to human survival.
It's also not the only option. Public funding or a mechanical royalties paid in large part through broadband providers (ISPs / telcos / wireless providers), possibly along the lines of ASCAP / Harry Fox, might be an option.
"Free" Internet is not free. Advertising support is paid through spending on consumer products. That works out to north of $117/year per person in FB's most lucrative markets (US/EU/Japan), of about 1 billion people. That's $468 for a household of four. For Facebook alone.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32118404
Total global ad spend was $600 billion as of a few years back, or $2,400 for that household of four. Are you realy getting $2,400 worth of value via clickbait, disinformation, outrage media, and the like? Keep in mind that substantive content fares quite poorly under the "attention economy".
I've suggested an ISP-based content fee, indexed to regional wealth (more expensive in higher-income / higher-wealth areas). See:
shut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg
Where do I sign? Can we make it same-day delivery?