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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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I pay for YouTube Premium or whatever it’s called (because I hate ads) and I even own some Google shares. It is good for me in a very narrow sense when people watch YouTube ads.
But from a philosophical and economics standpoint, rent-seeking monopolists are bad for society and the economy as a whole, whether it’s a landlord charging rent to productive people, a toll road, or a monopolist dictating terms to productive people for the use of their infrastructure.
Google did not make any of my favorite YouTube videos. They do not give creators anywhere near 100% of the ad revenue. Maybe the split is fair but since they have a monopoly, it’s not. They are the equivalent of pre-capitalist English land barons who added very little (besides maybe some accounting) and took more than their share. YouTube’s profits are a tax on the creator economy in the same way Apple’s App Store tax is terrible for developers. We do not have a moral responsibility to pay taxes to private companies.
I disagree with the classification of "rent seeking". It's a service, with active expenses that you're not paying.
If you buy a toaster, the company that made the toaster isn't paying for the power that made the toast. That's different from say, a ticket to a zoo, a kayaking trip company, mini-golfing, cable, Internet, phone, or the power bill itself.
And nobody could, even if you operated your own site, you'd have operating costs.
I honestly don't even think it's fair to say they have a monopoly. Their service offering is unique, but there are other models that aren't YouTube clones. Reddit, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, TikTok, and even "X" have video hosting options in slightly different formats.
The lack of a clone of a literal clone of YouTube is not a lack of competition. Additionally YouTube's business model is extremely expensive and requires significant investment in storage.
IMO, those are some serious mental gymnastics equating renting land you need to survive, that you're forced to pay to a government entity, or an app store which is the only possible source of apps for an entire operating system vs a website you have the choice to use or not use and that had active and large operating costs because of its extensive catalog of freely uploaded content.
I’m traveling right now but I’m gonna respond to thia and if I don’t, nag me.