Is It Time to Break Up Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google?

These big tech companies hold unimaginable power.

This photograph taken on September 28, 2017, shows a smartphone being operated in front of GAFA logos (acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon web giants) as background in Hédé-Bazouges, western France. / AFP PHOTO / Damien MEYER        (Photo credit should read DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)
This photograph taken on September 28, 2017, shows a smartphone being operated in front of GAFA logos (acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon web giants) as background in Hédé-Bazouges, western France. / AFP PHOTO / Damien MEYER (Photo credit should read DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

In a new Esquire essay, entrepreneur Scott Galloway argues that it’s time to break up the Four: Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook. The Four combined have the same market capitalization as the GDP of France. Galloway argues that the wealth hoarded by the Four helps to further weaken and erase the middle class and makes the rise of competition virtually impossible, all while other markets are failing across the US economy. The Four are unrecognizable to those who battled past monopolies, but still demand anti-trust legislation. The Four as currently constituted pay shockingly low taxes, and breaking big tech up, Galloway argues, would add incredible revenue to the government, in addition to creating jobs in mid-size companies that currently can’t compete.

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