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Bonkers Dollars for Big Tech 49

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
In the Great Recession more than a decade ago, big tech companies hit a rough patch just like everyone else. Now they have become unquestioned winners of the pandemic economy. From a report: The combined yearly revenue of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook is about $1.2 trillion, according to earnings reported this week, more than 25 percent higher than the figure just as the pandemic started to bite in 2020. In less than a week, those five giants make more in sales than McDonald's does in a year. The U.S. economy is cranking back from 2020, when it contracted for the first time since the financial crisis. But for the tech giants, the pandemic hit was barely a blip. It's a fantastic time to be a titan of U.S. technology -- as long as you ignore the screaming politicians, the daily headlines about killing free speech or dodging taxes, the gripes from competitors and workers, and the too-many-to-count legal investigations and lawsuits.

America's technology superpowers aren't making bonkers dollars in spite of the deadly coronavirus and its ripple effects through the global economy. They have grown even stronger because of the pandemic. It's both logical and slightly nuts. The wildly successful last year also raises uncomfortable questions for tech company bosses, the public and elected officials already peeved about the industry: Is what's good for Big Tech good for America? Or are the tech superstars winning while the rest of us are losing?
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Bonkers Dollars for Big Tech More

Bonkers Dollars for Big Tech

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  • Um... everybody at the top is doing fine (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @12:16PM (#61332356)
    the stock market barely moved. The only thing that's hurting is travel & hospitality. The pandemic didn't reduce our ability to produce goods and services all that much.

    It's not like we put a bunch of effort into protecting factory workers and meat packers. We closed down for a little bit until we figured out the virus wasn't deadly enough to spread to the upper middle class.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by falzer ( 224563 )

      the stock market barely moved

      Were you watching? It's easy to say now after the carnage is over.
      S&P did move, about 30% top to bottom in a few weeks, with the highest single-day volatility index except for a day in 2008. Crude light futures tanked went below 0 for the last trading day of that contract around that time.

      • and immediately poured so much money into it that it didn't matter. The swing was pointless. Nobody who matters lost any money. I'm sure a few small investors who didn't have connections lost their shirt, but honestly, nobody cares about them. Not you, not me, not anyone (unless you happened to have been one of those or a family member was, in which case sorry, but that's how stock markets work).

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Which is why, TAH DAH, big tech pushed the pandemic because it was EXTREMELY profitable to do so, any who dared oppose, you idiots, were silenced and you just sucked that shit right on up, the sheeple that you are. Travel and hospitality were opposed but were cowed and silenced by big tech, on fucking purpose to make more fucking money.

      No fucking accident big tech supported the pandemic it was extremely profitable to do so.

  • Biden solution. (Score:3)

    by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @12:29PM (#61332408) Journal

    Is what's good for Big Tech good for America? Or are the tech superstars winning while the rest of us are losing?

    Isn't "soak the rich" suppose to take care of this problem. We need their billions to get everything we want.

    • Isn't "soak the rich" suppose to take care of this problem. We need their billions to get everything we want.

      Isn't "trickle down economics" supposed to care of people's issues? We need to give more money to the 1% and corporations to get everything we want.

      For the record, having the 1% pay an additonal 2% in taxes is hardly "soaking" anyone. You want to be soaked? Go back to the Repulican Eisenhower when there was a top rate of 90% (though later reduced). During that time Social Security was ex

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The 1% pay ~38% of all income tax; the top 10% pay ~70% of all income tax (source [taxfoundation.org]).
        The 1% also had the highest tax rate; the bottom 50% had the lowest.
        Seems to me the 1% are already paying their 'fair share'; if anything, the bottom 50% are a drain on the system.

        • Spoken like a true abuse victim.

          Marginal utility of money means they can pay more, like was mentioned, 70-90% was the norm in the 40s-60s, and is very fair since that is a marginal rate. The rich are able to easily get around that by the usual means, just put the money back into your companies, give it away, pay your employees more etc. Just don't expect to keep it. They'll still end up with millions year over year.

        • I've thought about this argument a lot. The flaw is it is stated with the pretence of some higher system that objectively decides who earns what, this couldn't be further from how it realy works. How it really works is that the people in the system decide how much the same people in that system earn, however it isn't a democracy, each person has a vote proportional to how much they have. Those with the most basically decide their own salaries at the cost of paying those with the least, the least, funneling

    • You likely paid more taxes than Donald Trump has in previous years. My heart weeps for him.

  • Do you really think companies will continue to pay for 5-6 competing chat and video conferencing apps?

    Every department in corporate America got a blank check to spend whatever they needed as governments locked down.

    Over the next few years youâ(TM)ll see companies consolidating this software and hardware. For the next few months or so people that just got a brand new laptop will simply kick the desktop to the curb just so licensing costs can be reduced.

  • ~50% of Americans are just squeaking by month to month.

    What's wrong with this picture?

    We need to organize the world's largest jail-break and then leverage OUR technology to provide breakfast in bed for 8 billion.

    • "~50% of Americans are just squeaking by month to month." vs "Every peasant should be able to put a chicken in his pot, once a week, on a Sunday" - Duke Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary.

      • I have no desire for martyrdom or circumstantially causing a bloodbath. But I cannot sit idly-by and welcome our new virtual overlords while the vast majority go without. Its undemocratic.

    • ~50% of Americans are just squeaking by month to month.

      What's wrong with this picture?

      That you used statistics incorrectly?

  • psl, not again msmash (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jm007 ( 746228 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @12:56PM (#61332532)

    thanks msmash, for passing along the most simple-minded market and economics analysis, in which one or two metrics are used without of context just to stir up controversy, but not for honest dialog... it's all about clicks to a page and thus ad revenue

    to come at this issue with that background immediately discredits any claims to good faith journalism; please up your game when it come to deciding on interesting topics

    of course, here I am taking the bait so my culpability is known

    "Is what's good for Big Tech good for America? Or are the tech superstars winning while the rest of us are losing?"

    is this false dichotomy even worth consideration? are we all really losing? is a little perspective needed?

    I already regret the time I've wasted on this stupid so I'll go back to feeling righteously indignant all by myself

  • Do you know who isn't complaining? (Score:3)

    by jmcbain ( 1233044 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @12:58PM (#61332542)

    as long as you ignore the screaming politicians, the daily headlines about killing free speech or dodging taxes, the gripes from competitors and workers, and the too-many-to-count legal investigations and lawsuits.

    The people who aren't complaining are the customers. These companies make money because they offer fantastic products and/or services. Customers aren't ignorant in the Internet age. They read the news just like everyone else, they understand the potentially shady things these companies do, and yet the customers keep coming back and buy things to the tune of $1.2 trillion a year.

    • I think it's adorable you think people read and understand tech news. Most people don't give a tenth of a fuck about what companies are doing day to day. If Fox/MSNBC hasn't told them who to hate, no one (American) is going to know or care if Google is murdering children by the hundreds in South Asia.

  • Big tech is fulfilling a market need (Score:4, Insightful)

    by djp2204 ( 713741 ) on Friday April 30, 2021 @01:06PM (#61332580)

    Amazon is not a monster company because they are mean and evil. Amazon is a monster company because consumers are willing to look past its labor practices and purchase products from them hand over fist because Amazon can get goods to their door in 48 hours or less. Apple is a monster company because they make products lots of people are willing to buy. Google is a monster company because they offer a good search engine and email services that allow them to mine data for marketing. Ditto for Facebook. If you don't like the practices of these companies then stop using their products and services. If you don't like their employment practices, then don't work for them. You have the freedom to make these decisions.

  • The rabble are starting to notice that the kings are milking them

    • One of the arguments for IP law is that it eventually benefits the society giving it, by granting controlling terms to those using it. A very similar argument can be made towards business incorporation as well as all the other perks a society has granted. So in this whole discussion how's the ROI on big tech so far for society?

      • Well that's the thing, you can't measure the "ROI of big tech on society". ROI is a simple financial instrument that doesn't consider externalities. The impacts of investment in a corporation are wide-ranging and some would even say subjective, so it's not only hard to measure, it's hard to tell what impact was caused by what, and whether it was good or bad.

        What we really need is a new set of instruments that measure not only financial equilibrium, but local & global economic equilibrium, societal equil

  • It is hard to specifically tax the rich, but what we can do is make this section of the economy have less of an obvious advantage. We need to pass online sales tax reform (higher than your typical state and municipality), that would be able to hit this revenue of these companies. I doubt there's an appetite for a higher capital gains tax, and taxing the high end earnings is rife with loopholes too. But a sales tax has no loophole. This would then give main street a fighting chance.

  • Back in the old day when you owned products, you could resell them for money. So that collection of 500 CDs that you owned, you could sell them back and make a few hundred buck. However now with streaming media, you can't sell it back or trade it, so the money that you spent for the rights to listen to the music, or watch a movie, just leaves your pocket and goes straight into these tech companies. Where they themselves, if have a price crunch, can sell their servers, or license their products differe

  • I think that is good name for a new pyramid^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hdigital currency. It is truthful and to the point.

  • Why are you comparing the top five tech companies to a single restaurant chain? And why are you using such weird time based comparison?

    The biggest tech companies make an average of 10x the revenue of the biggest restaurant chain. So what? That sounds completely reasonable if you don't frame it in a stupid way...

  • >"Now they have become unquestioned winners of the pandemic economy."

    Yep. And not just those five. Very large corporations, in general, have slaughtered small and mid-sized businesses. This is what happens when you:

    1) Throw tons of regulations at businesses and smaller ones don't have deep pockets and can't comply or fight them or survive through them.
    2) Shut down small and mid-sized businesses in the name of "safety", most of whom are brick-and-mortar and need to interact with the public.
    3) Allow the

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