Are they today’s robber barons?
As Glenn notes, unlike the Carnegies, Rockefellers and J. P. Morgans, these robber barons haven’t given us much except toxic social media. The exception being, of course, Elon Musk.
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I give Bezos a partial pass because Amazon was a step change in how people shop for retail. But even then I’d put him behind Sears & Roebuck in terms of disruption. And I think MS Office & the PC revolution were real productivity enhancements, but again not anywhere close to the steam and internal combustion engines.
The internet has so far been a huge disappointment. Sure it has democratized information and speech a bit, but in return it has enabled the massive panopticon we increasingly live under, with $600 transaction limits, massive KYC honeypot breaches de rigeur, and the virtual impossibility of meaningful pseudo- or anon- nymity for anyone without a CS degree.