A review by eznark
Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back by Rebecca Giblin, Cory Doctorow

2.0

Doctorow presents a (false) choice between choke point capitalism and what comes across as entitlement capitalism (until, of course, we can overthrow capitalism altogether). I support private unions and think there are places for regulator intervention (Ticketmaster is a perfect example) however in too many of the chosen “choke points” the Doctorow solutions would make the bulk of the population worse off, add friction to nearly frictionless transactions and create a bizarre layer of content regulation boards which would necessarily devolve into the same payola scams he rails against.

Throughout the book there is a weird tension between Doctorows ideological opposition to capitalism itself and his clear grievance that Amazon won’t sell his books the way he wants them to (more expensive).