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funchords 
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Re: VZ, AT&T, and TW... I don't really disagree with you and I have been more defender than critic of google. I just tend to take the long view and I'm an old enough fart to know the predictable way things generally play out.
"I hate to punish an outfit simply for being successful. "
I'm not looking to punish google. I'm looking for norms and boundaries that reinforce people's better tendencies and counteract their worst. As long as google continues to behave relatively well sound rules shouldn't be a particular burden to them.
"But examples like these demonstrate to me that they tend not to use that power to disadvantage its users or unethically hit at its competitors."
I agree with what you say but companies have a life cycle. Google is still a young, rising, growing company driven by its original creators idealism and vision. They won't be rising forever and we know how power warps everything it touches. Down the road the original visionaries retire or are forced out, growth slows, upstarts come along trying to get a foot in the door, one no longer feels like a young buck but feels old and threatened, the seductiveness of leveraging power to protect one's established position becomes overwhelming. In short they will become a thorn in the side of society as have nearly all who came before them. I agree they aren't that presently. Wise policy can delay that inevitable day. |
