The Four

There are laws, and there are innovators. Good money is on the
innovators.
Uber not only evades the regulations traditionally applicable to
car-for-hire services; it also evades labor law by posing as an app that
links independent drivers—a posture that nobody seriously believes.
Yet despite all of this, Uber continues to sign up drivers and riders at a
furious pace—myself included—because its basic service and simple
app are vastly superior to the coddled, protected taxi model. Uber has
recognized that if an industry is broken enough, consumers will
conspire to violate the law in favor of a far preferable service. And, in
the long run, do you really think Congress is going to fight both Wall
Street and millions of consumers?
Amazon has also effectively conspired with half a billion
consumers to use algorithms to starch the margin brands used to
garner and deliver those savings to their ally, consumers. A retailer
leveraging its power to grow a higher-margin private label is not new.
We’ve just never seen anybody this good at it. Just as U.S. allies were
“shocked” we were listening in on world leaders’ phone calls, they all
knew we spied on each other. What pissed them off is how much better
we, the United States, are at it. This alliance between Amazon,
consumer, and algorithms gives consumers enormous value, and
Amazon’s resultant (blistering) growth garners hundreds of billions in
shareholder value for employees and investors. As consumers we
benefit enormously from a relationship with the most powerful allies
you could ever have on your side. As citizens, wage earners, and
competitors, we know we are being abused but just can’t break up with
the hot girl.
There is a justice system, but it isn’t blind. It’s good to be as rich as
one of the Four when caught red-handed. Facebook assured EU
regulators seeking approval of the acquisition of WhatsApp that it
would be impossible for the two entities to share data in the short
term. This promise assuaged regulators’ concerns over privacy, and
the acquisition was approved. Spoiler alert: Facebook figured out how
data could jump silos... pretty fast. So, feeling lied to, the EU fined
Facebook 110 million euros. This is tantamount to getting a $10
parking ticket for not feeding a meter that costs $100 every fifteen
minutes. The smart choice: break the law.