Chokepoint Capitalism

Doctorow is known for his activism in favor of the open web and privacy rights. In this book, with Rebecca Giblin, they describe how the corporate monopolies and monopsonies are strangling the culture industry and especially creators and makers upon whose content and creativity these corporations and platforms rely. And so, we learn a lot about how Amazon, Spotify, Live Nation, and Youtube, among others, have created bottlenecks (or chokepoints, hence the title) between creators and audiences, to the detriment of both. This accomplished through network effects, vertical and horizontal integration, blocking new entrants, regulatory capture, and manipulation of copyright laws, as well as non-compete clauses which lock in workers (as time of writing, FTC chair Lina Khan is proposing to eliminate those, which would be great). The first part of the book describes these mechanisms in clear detail. The second part of the book focuses on potential solutions to break those chokepoints and restore competition for healthier, more pluralistic, and more competitive cultural markets. Such potential solutions include reform of copyright and antitrust laws, unionization and minimum wage for cultural producers, among other things. The authors specify that, while the focus of the book is the cultural sector, monopolies and monopsonies exist elsewhere in our economies. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because it does go into the weeds of the cultural sector, which is sometimes tedious to read, especially in the second part of the book. That being said, it is well worth reading and important.