Capitalism is a beautiful system.  It rewards hard work, talent, innovation, those willing to take chances with great ideas and encourages competition.  It is not perfect and greed can get things out of hand. But generally, your wealth is more in your own control verses socialism.  Winston Churchill said, “The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”  Socialism is a government controlled economy, so by definition, the individual has less control and influence on their financial outlook. Socialism and more government control seems to be the new mantra of the progressive Left, and the mid term elections will show if Americans find that idea appealing.

Not all Cultures are Equal:  Most people would have a hard time pointing to any government agency that runs an efficient organization.  The Post Office losing money every year is the easy example. Capitalism, as our economic system, and democracy, as our political system has allowed people and companies to thrive in this nation’s short history.  That culture has fueled our prosperity compared to countries that have existed far longer than the USA. There have been times when the government has stepped in to reign in corporate monopolies. In this age of serious government mistrust from both sides of the political aisle, the last thing we need is more government intervention and influence.  But what happens when corporations become too powerful?
The Alphabet of Power:     Is Google too powerful? Google’s market cap is 850B, greater than the GDP of many countries, such as Switzerland.   Google directs most of the internet traffic, and owns the popular YouTube site. But Google, as well as Facebook and Twitter have been known to block certain content, typically citing it as “hate” speech.  Translated to English: Google loves free speech as long as it agrees with you. Google knows better than you, I suppose. And privacy? You don’t have any. Not only do tech companies know everything about you, they can listen in on your conversations if you use products like Google Home and Amazon Alexa.

On the one hand:  The free market capitalist in me thinks that a company should create its search algorithms any way it likes and be in charge of its content.  Nobody is forcing you to use it services, right?

On the other hand:  Using a quick on-line query, it is estimated that people use Google for over 75% of internet searches.  That’s a lot of power directing your information content, from news to education, and of course politics.  Who knows if the content is really accurate? Yet we trust the highest ranking searches. There are many examples of Google (including YouTube) and other tech companies censoring content; they don’t like conservative points of view.  They certainly don’t shut down all conservative points of view, but they arbitrarily will make decisions without input from the content’s owner. They are a judge and jury, yet they certainly don’t apply the rules consistently.

It’s time to ask:  When does corporate power and influence become too much?  Can we have an honest debate on how close Google is to becoming a monopoly?  Why aren’t our politicians asking these questions? Why aren’t they looking out for us?  I’m not suggesting that tech companies be regulated, but I can tell you that I don’t want some millennial weenie in a cubicle in California deciding what speech is “hateful” and should be censored.