Part of my (now deleted, due to heavily downvoted) argument was with the issue that if we rely on corporations to take on more and more responsibilities of governments, we’re also giving away a major part of power.
Governments are supposed to be controlled democratically, but if we rely on corporations – especially ones like Google, where the two founders retain absolute control over the company – we’re replacing them piece by piece with autocratic entities.
Google is currently doing a lot of good stuff, and so are many other companies, but this is a question that may become an issue in the long term; often once the founders are out, their less idealistic children run the company far worse, and try to gain as much profit as possible.
You wouldn’t want a Google that’s run like Comcast with the power Google has.
There is a large segment of the US population that has the opposite thesis; i.e. that if we give more responsibility to government, we are giving a way a major part of power.
Do you feel just as strongly about charitable donations from Warren Buffet? Bill Gates? Mark Zuckerburg? Jeff Bezos?
Well, that part of the population has an interesting perspective then.
And it’s not about charitable donations, it’s about giving away responsibilities of governments to entities that are controlled autocratically.
Google is controlled by its two founders, and once they’re dead, their children will have none of the idealism, but all the power.
A major part of the social contract of modern society is that for everything, there’s either a market with many roughly equally sized companies, or, if there’s only one or two options, those options are under control of the people, elected.
With Google, Amazon, etc we’re getting a situation similar to the US ISP and media landscape, with a handful of companies controlling major parts of the economy, and our society relying on these companies without having democratic control over them.
Governments are supposed to be controlled democratically, but if we rely on corporations – especially ones like Google, where the two founders retain absolute control over the company – we’re replacing them piece by piece with autocratic entities.
Google is currently doing a lot of good stuff, and so are many other companies, but this is a question that may become an issue in the long term; often once the founders are out, their less idealistic children run the company far worse, and try to gain as much profit as possible.
You wouldn’t want a Google that’s run like Comcast with the power Google has.