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Why We Should All Be Worried About 'Chokepoint Capitalism'
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/why-we-should-all-be-worried-about-chokepoint-capitalism/ar-AA12zKFc?pc=U483&cvid=99aac5dbbdcf4d5ebbab929a14847909Ten minutes into our Zoom call, Cory Doctorow’s voice begins to stutter. His internet connection is giving out—first the audio goes, and then the video too. He fiddles with cables for a few minutes while I, halfway across the world, wait behind a black screen.
When Doctorow reappears, he tells me a story. The city in California where he lives borrowed money to lay high-speed internet cables to serve businesses in the center of town. But the terms of the deal prohibited the city from connecting the cables to people’s homes. A cable carrying a 100 gigabit-per-second internet connection runs directly under the foundation of his house, Doctorow says. But he’s stuck using low-speed Internet—even though his taxes pay for servicing the bond the city took out to build the high-speed network. “I’m standing on the fiber,” he says. “I just can’t use it.”
It’s yet another example, Doctorow says, of a business practice he calls “chokepoint capitalism.”
“That’s the thing,” Doctorow says. “Once you understand this idea of chokepoint capitalism, you begin to see it everywhere.”
Chokepoint Capitalism is the title of a new book co-authored by Doctorow, an internet freedom activist, and Rebecca Giblin, a scholar at the University of Melbourne. The pair coined the term to describe what they say is the defining feature of the modern economy: corporations weaponizing their power to crush competition and lock in customers. The idea behind free market capitalism—that firms would compete fairly and thus drive prices down—has been corrupted in practice, Giblin and Doctorow argue. Chokepoint capitalism, they write, ultimately results in higher prices for customers and lower wages for workers. At the same time, the system diverts record profits to corporations, which they can reinvest to further cement their power.
When Doctorow reappears, he tells me a story. The city in California where he lives borrowed money to lay high-speed internet cables to serve businesses in the center of town. But the terms of the deal prohibited the city from connecting the cables to people’s homes. A cable carrying a 100 gigabit-per-second internet connection runs directly under the foundation of his house, Doctorow says. But he’s stuck using low-speed Internet—even though his taxes pay for servicing the bond the city took out to build the high-speed network. “I’m standing on the fiber,” he says. “I just can’t use it.”
It’s yet another example, Doctorow says, of a business practice he calls “chokepoint capitalism.”
“That’s the thing,” Doctorow says. “Once you understand this idea of chokepoint capitalism, you begin to see it everywhere.”
Chokepoint Capitalism is the title of a new book co-authored by Doctorow, an internet freedom activist, and Rebecca Giblin, a scholar at the University of Melbourne. The pair coined the term to describe what they say is the defining feature of the modern economy: corporations weaponizing their power to crush competition and lock in customers. The idea behind free market capitalism—that firms would compete fairly and thus drive prices down—has been corrupted in practice, Giblin and Doctorow argue. Chokepoint capitalism, they write, ultimately results in higher prices for customers and lower wages for workers. At the same time, the system diverts record profits to corporations, which they can reinvest to further cement their power.
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This stuff probably won't come as a surprise to DUers, but it's a good read.
7 replies
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