The Sun Bay Paper Page 27 May 6, 2022 - May 19, 2022 You've probably heard of the high-flying Big Tech FAANG stocks Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. Among the five of them, their market cap reached $6 trillion last year, which is more than the GDP of all but a small handful of entire countries. Moreover, their net worth is larger than the entire annual output of India, with more than 1 billion people. These companies got so big and profitable so fast that politicians on the left, right and center started accusing them of monopolistic behavior. "Break them up!" shouted Democratic Sens. Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar. Some Republicans, such as Josh Hawley, endorsed the same strategy. But has anyone noticed what has happened to the stock values of these once-invincible powerhouses? Netflix's stock has gotten crushed of late. Just flattened. Its share price collapsed by 35% in one day. This was one of the most significant single-day sell-offs in the history of stocks. For now, the rout doesn't seem to be waning. Over the past year, Netflix's market cap has tumbled from $267 billion to close to $96 billion. Sorry if you own this stock. And most pension funds do own Netflix as part of their portfolios, so it wasn't just millionaires who got hurt. The Netflix brass blames its demise of late on "fierce competition" for subscribers. Meanwhile, Facebook has suffered even more considerable losses that exceed one-half a trillion dollars. That's not supposed to happen to monopolies that crush the competition. Instead, the hunters have become the hunted. Facebook is confronting serious competition from other social media platforms such as LinkedIn and China's TikTok, which are elbowing out Facebook's dominance. What are we to make of all this jostling to be king of the mountain in the digital domain? I carry no water for Big Tech, and I'm as frustrated with the free speech infringements against conservatives as anyone. But cries of "monopoly" are so early 20th century. Just as no one worries about Standard Oil, Microsoft or General Motors taking over their industries, we see the same cutthroat survival tactics in the hypercompetitive tech sector. This kind of competition is great news for the consumer. It lowers prices and makes a mockery of the "monopoly" rants. Companies such as Google better look over their shoulders. If you slip up, the marauders are coming to steal away your market share. Sometimes, the raiders aren't even American companies. Globalization and free trade have dramatically lowered the prices of nearly all digital products. That is as it should be in a free-market capitalist world. One day, you are on top of the world and seemingly in an impenetrable fortress, and the next, you lose half your market cap. We don't need trust-buster regulators in Washington, like the leftist Lina Khan of the Federal Trade Commission, policing our businesses. The market is doing that just fine, thank you. America has gained tech dominance over our rivals, especially China, Japan and Europe, because we have allowed the digital economy to remain mostly tax- and regulation-free. It's the Wild West in Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, which created the trillions in wealth in the first place. The high-tech industry has added value and wealth at a blistering pace, and how sad is it that when our American ingenuity and inventiveness succeed, the trustbusters want to tear it down? Then, when these tech giants start to surrender their competitive advantage, the fool politicians want to give them billions of dollars of corporate welfare handouts from taxpayers. The late and great Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter called the process of inventing new products to challenge the extant corporate power structures in business "creative destruction." The Netflix and Facebook sell-off is a jolting reminder that the market is a better way than government to keep companies honest and on top of their game. It also keeps prices low. Stephen Moore Another High-tech Titan Falters Not Now, Nor has it Ever Been, “For the Children” schools were failing in their task of turning out kids that could read, write and do basic math problems is that the teachers were underpaid, and the classes were too large. Americans bought into that because they wanted kids to have the tools to do well in life, and were willing to pay for it. What happened? It got worse! If they weren’t deliberately failing to do the work they have been hired to do, then perhaps they’re incapable of doing the work they were hired to do. We all watch the young person at the checkout counter trying to figure out how much tax is due, unable to figure it out without a handy chart. Giving teachers more money, which was their solution, did not solve the problem we wanted solved after all. We wanted kids who could read, write and do basic math. However, it did solve the “problem” they were concerned about ⏤ more money, less work, and better benefits with less accountability for how they act and what they do. They wanted tenure and unions, and they wanted to be protected from their failures. Now they blame the system, the parents, and anyone else who wouldn’t buy into the propaganda they have been spewing out for decades for the failure of our educational systems. So now what do we have? They’re still failing our children for a whole lot more money, and still, we’re told they’re grossly underpaid and overworked because the classrooms are still too large. It still comes down to this. Children are being turned out into society who can’t read, can’t write, can’t spell, have no idea where anything is in the world, and are clueless when it comes to profoundly important historical characters and events. However, they absolutely know that Rachel Carson was an environmental saint and global warming is going to kill everyone if we don’t turn all power over to the United Nations. Apparently, the teachers are capable of teaching them something … it’s unfortunate that something they’re teaching is nothing but radical socialism, multiculturalism, and environmentalist propaganda that would do nothing but destroy advanced western societies if allowed to continue much longer. But it won’t be. In November of this year, we will begin our journey on the way back. If our present government schools were turning out nuts and bolts instead of educated children, the purchasers would refuse them as defective. The only fix to that is to start with the basics one step at a time. Let’s start with firing bad teachers. Let’s start with pay decreases for poor work and pay increases for good work. Let’s start with the elimination of tenure. Let’s start with an outline of what they are expected to teach. Absolute total local control, starting with vouchers and help for those who wish to home school. When that happens, the education system will start paying attention and start performing. After all, no one is more concerned about how the children are taught and what they are taught than the parents. But most importantly, we have to understand that none of that can happen unless we start at the root of the problem. Ending union involvement in education. They represent the teachers and themselves, not the children. It has not now, nor has it ever been, “For the Children.” Rich Kozlovich Jay Lehr America Out Loud Cont from pg 23
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