The Monopoly of Jeff: A Dystopian Market

  • 📰 GuardianAus
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 65 sec. here
  • 8 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 46%
  • Publisher: 98%

Business News

Market,Capitalism,Monopoly

This article discusses the concept of a market controlled by a single individual named Jeff, who owns all the shops, buildings, and even the land in a town. It explores the implications of such a monopoly and its resemblance to a dystopian society.

and you have exited capitalism. Despite all the buying and the selling that goes on there, you have entered a realm that can’t be thought of as a market, not even a digital one.” When I say this to people, which I frequently do in lectures and debates, they look at me as they would a madman. But once I start explaining what I mean, their fear for my sanity soon turns into fear for us all.

If that were all, the scene would evoke an old western in which a lonesome cowboy rides into town to discover that a podgy strongman is in charge of the saloon bar, the grocery store, the post office, the railway, the bank and, naturally, the sheriff. Except that isn’t all. Jeff owns more than the shops and the public buildings. He also owns the dirt you walk on, the bench you sit on, even the air you breathe.

Such concentrated power should scare the living daylights out of the liberally minded. Anyone committed to the idea of the market should recognise that what we’re witnessing is its death knell. It should also shake market sceptics, socialists in particular, out of the complacent assumption that Amazon is bad because it is a capitalist market gone berserk. Actually, it’s something worse than that.

Under feudalism, the overlord would grant so-called fiefs to subordinates called vassals. These fiefs gave the vassals the formal right to exploit economically a part of the overlord’s realm – to plant crops on it, for example, or graze cattle – in exchange for a portion of the produce. The overlord would then unleash his sheriff to police the fief’s operation and collect what he was owed. Jeff’s relationship with the vendors on Amazon is not too dissimilar.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 1. in İE

Ireland Ireland Latest News, Ireland Ireland Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

‘The winning candidate is my wife’: Court docs allege Market Herald breachesThe former managing director of The Market Herald, which operates the HotCopper trading forum, has been accused of using company cards to fund luxury holidays.
Source: FinancialReview - 🏆 2. / 90 Read more »

Trade negotiations between Australia and Europe collapse over market access for meat productsTrade negotiations between Australia and Europe over market access for meat products and naming right protections have collapsed, with talks unlikely to resume before the next term of government.
Source: theage - 🏆 8. / 77 Read more »