Interview with Rebecca Giblin, author of Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back
Rebecca Giblin, co-author of Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back recommends an interesting list of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Rebecca's book:
Review from Book Depository:
A call to action for the creative class and labour movement to rally against the power of Big Tech and Big Media.
Corporate concentration has breached the stratosphere, as have corporate profits. An ever-expanding constellation of industries are now monopolies (where sellers have excessive power over buyers) or monopsonies (where buyers hold the whip hand over sellers) - or both.
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Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back
Scholar Rebecca Giblin and writer and activist Cory Doctorow argue we're in a new era of 'chokepoint capitalism', with exploitative businesses creating insurmountable barriers to competition that enable them to capture value that should rightfully go to others. All workers are weakened by this, but the problem is especially well illustrated by the plight of creative workers.
By analysing book publishing and news, live music and music streaming, screenwriting, radio, and more, Giblin and Doctorow deftly show how powerful corporations construct 'anti-competitive flywheels' designed to lock in users and suppliers, make their markets hostile to new entrants, and then force workers and suppliers to accept unfairly low prices.
In the book's second half, Giblin and Doctorow explain how to batter through those chokepoints, with tools ranging from transparency rights to collective action and ownership, radical interoperability, contract terminations, job guarantees, and minimum wages for creative work.
Chokepoint Capitalism is a call to workers of all sectors to unite to help smash these chokepoints and take back the power and profit that's being heisted away - before it's too late.
Buy On:
Book Depository €11.36
Waterstones £10.99
Wordery $12.99
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
This is like asking me to choose a favourite child, and my answer is always going to be different depending what I’m thinking hardest about at the time. I’m going to nominate Zephyr Teachout’s Break ‘em Up: a resoundingly clear and well-researched indictment of corporate concentration in America which was slightly ahead of its time, and hasn’t yet found the audience it deserves.
Review from Book Depository:
A passionate attack on the monopolies that are throttling American democracy.
Every facet of American life is being overtaken by big platform monopolists like Facebook, Google, and Bayer (which has merged with the former agricultural giant Monsanto), resulting in a greater concentration of wealth and power than we've seen since the Gilded Age. They are evolving into political entities that often have more influence than the actual government, bending state and federal legislatures to their will and even creating arbitration courts that circumvent the US justice system. How can we recover our freedom from these giants? Anti-corruption scholar and activist Zephyr Teachout has the answer: Break 'Em Up.
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Break 'em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money
This book is a clarion call for liberals and leftists looking to find a common cause. Teachout makes a compelling case that monopolies are the root cause of many of the issues that today's progressives care about; they drive economic inequality, harm the planet, limit the political power of average citizens, and historically-disenfranchised groups bear the brunt of their shameful and irresponsible business practices. In order to build a better future, we must eradicate monopolies from the private sector and create new safeguards that prevent new ones from seizing power.
Through her expert analysis of monopolies in several sectors and their impact on courts, journalism, inequality, and politics, Teachout offers a concrete path toward thwarting these enemies of working Americans and reclaiming our democracy before it's too late.
Buy On:
Book Depository €24.68
Waterstones £22.99
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
Douglas Rushkoff’s Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. We’ve been inculcated with the idea that infinite corporate growth is the natural way of things, but as Doug shows, there’s nothing natural about it – it’s a deliberate construct designed to funnel money from labor to capital. A little embarrassed to admit it took six years to make it to the top of my TBR pile, but well worth it!
Review From Book Depository:
Why doesn't the explosive growth of companies such as Facebook and Uber deliver more prosperity for everyone? How could things be different?
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Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
In San Francisco in 2013 activists protesting against the gentrification of their city smashed the windows of a bus carrying Google employees to work. But these protests weren't just a question of the activists versus the Googlers, or even the 99 per cent versus the 1 per cent. Rather they were symptomatic of the true conflict of our age, between humanity as a whole and a digital economy in which boundless growth is valued above all else.
In this groundbreaking book, Douglas Rushkoff - named one of the world's ten most influential thinkers by MIT - lays out a ground plan for a different economic and social future. Ranging from big data to the rise of robots, from the gig economy to the collapse of the eurozone, Rushkoff shows how we can combine the best of human nature with the best of modern technology to achieve a state of sustainable, distributed wealth.
It's time the economy finally worked for the human beings it's supposed to serve.
Buy On:
Book Depository €16.73
Waterstones £10.99
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
The Black Stallion, by Walter Farley
Review From Book Depository:
First published in 1941, Walter Farley's best-selling novel for young readers is the triumphant tale of a boy and a wild horse. From Alec Ramsay and the Black's first meeting on an ill-fated ship to their adventures on a desert island and their eventual rescue, this beloved story will hold the rapt attention of readers new and old.
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The Black Stallion
Buy On:
Book Depository €7.84
Waterstones £5.99
Wordery $6.99
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
It’s context dependent – mostly paper, but delighted to have the option of audio when cleaning my house and ebooks when I’m on the move or need something right now.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
My locals – Paperback and Readings in Melbourne. Both run by proper book people, always delightful to visit.
Many thanks to Rebecca for recommending an interesting list of books! Please don't forget to check out Rebecca's book Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Scribe Publications (Chokepoint Capitalism), St Martin's Press (Break 'Em Up'), Penguin Books Ltd (Throwing Rocks At The Google Bus), Random House USA Inc (The Black Stallion).
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