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

challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

The analysis I’ve wanted for not years but decades (dramatic for a 37yo but nonetheless true), that takes seriously the plight of creatives *as* workers, who represent the canaries in the coal mine of late capitalism. (Cue me yelling at Marxist n union bros in the early 2010s about how they needed to take seriously the struggles of artists in order to understand the gig economy!) Clearly outlines the economics of the exploitation of creative labour, which we’re so often told just doesn’t generate sufficient profit for us to receive living wages, when in fact it’s just that all the wealth we do generate gets cannibalised by the giant landlords of industry. The first half of the book is bleak, but the second provides a series of interesting ideas for other ways of organising artistic production and distribution that better serves actual creators — with examples of some of these put into practice — and ultimately weaken the beast of capitalist monopolies (and fingers crossed capitalism itself).