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Break 'em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money by Zephyr Teachout
cfc's review
5.0
There are a bunch of book about monopolies and antitrust but none combine so clear an explanation of how corporate monopolies harm average people, the forces behind the problem with antitrust laws as they have (not been) enforced, and easy-to-understand common sense suggestions about what to do (without overstating the promises of antitrust enforcement -- which is particularly important in cases such as the tech sector where the concerns that people have about privacy etc. will probably have to be addressed through different regulatory approaches).
The chapter on farming/ag and the "chickenization' of the rest of the economy is particularly good and gains from her experience growing up in a rural community. The contractual restraints on farmers (e.g. prohibition on discussing the terms with other farmers) are ridiculous.
The chapter on farming/ag and the "chickenization' of the rest of the economy is particularly good and gains from her experience growing up in a rural community. The contractual restraints on farmers (e.g. prohibition on discussing the terms with other farmers) are ridiculous.
samle1e's review
5.0
Teachout pens the prescription for how to fight out-of-control corporate concentration--the type that hurts workers and disenfranchises citizens: Just break 'em up. It's not enough to boycott bad companies. That's not really going to make a difference. To realize the utopian vision she describes in the last chapter, we need renewed enforcement, political attention, and public condemnation.
foxw99's review
5.0
One of my very favorites. Once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. The best part about it is that the current administration is taking her advice to heart!
miguelf's review against another edition
5.0
There have been several good books on the state of monopoly power in the US in including Philippon’s “The Great Reversal” and Stoller’s “Goliath”, and Teachout also does a great job in outlining just how bad the situation with monopoly power has become. She does so in a way that’s a bit folksier and more relatable than the average economist which is not necessarily a bad thing. She provides a number of different examples, whether focusing on Big Tech and their textbook monopoly status (and the knock-on effects to other vital areas like the news media) to food chain suppliers and how that relates to and has knock-on effects to how much the average worker earns. The impact from these monopolies / oligopolies has been net negative to society as a whole.
There’s a look back at the historical struggle with temporary wins in the late 19th Century and early 20th with the emphasis on breaking up trusts compared to the easing of these restrictions starting with Reagan to pare back regulations and allow concentration in industry which was only ratcheted up further during the Clinton administration.
She outlines a path to break up the current oligopolies with some specifics on how this would apply to the big 4 in the Tech space. She ends with a nice comparison between the issue of profit seeking and profit maximization, the latter of which has been adhered to as a religion for the past 50 years much to societies’ detriment.
One noted point she raises is the general ineffectiveness of consumer boycotts, which although not overly surprising shows just how little individual and even attempted mass consumer action yields – without legislation.
The book ends on an unintentional sad note: she describes an imagined path forward of reform in which she envisions in 2040 many of her ideas have implemented, and while this paints a world more worth living in it’s also unfortunately a world which will only exist on paper as there will likely never be enough political will mustered to implement these lofty goals.
There’s a look back at the historical struggle with temporary wins in the late 19th Century and early 20th with the emphasis on breaking up trusts compared to the easing of these restrictions starting with Reagan to pare back regulations and allow concentration in industry which was only ratcheted up further during the Clinton administration.
She outlines a path to break up the current oligopolies with some specifics on how this would apply to the big 4 in the Tech space. She ends with a nice comparison between the issue of profit seeking and profit maximization, the latter of which has been adhered to as a religion for the past 50 years much to societies’ detriment.
One noted point she raises is the general ineffectiveness of consumer boycotts, which although not overly surprising shows just how little individual and even attempted mass consumer action yields – without legislation.
The book ends on an unintentional sad note: she describes an imagined path forward of reform in which she envisions in 2040 many of her ideas have implemented, and while this paints a world more worth living in it’s also unfortunately a world which will only exist on paper as there will likely never be enough political will mustered to implement these lofty goals.
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