Chokepoint Capitalism: how big tech and big content captured creative labour markets, and how we'll win them back

In the book "Chokepoint Capitalism", Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow argue that we are in a new era of 'chokepoint capitalism' where exploitative businesses create insurmountable barriers to competition, enabling them to capture value that should rightfully go to others. They analyze how powerful corporations construct 'anti-competitive flywheels' to lock in users and suppliers, make their markets hostile to new entrants, and force workers and suppliers to accept unfairly low prices. The book calls for workers of all sectors to unite to smash these chokepoints and take back the power and profit that is being heisted away.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 10 November 2022
Publisher: Scribe Publications

Corporate concentration has reached unprecedented heights, accompanied by soaring corporate profits. An array of industries has transformed into monopolies or monopsonies, where sellers wield excessive power over buyers or buyers hold the upper hand over sellers. This phenomenon, known as "chokepoint capitalism," is characterized by exploitative businesses erecting insurmountable barriers to competition, allowing them to capture value that rightfully belongs to others. This erosion of fair competition affects all workers, but creative workers bear the brunt of its impact.

Take, for instance, Amazons use of digital rights management and bundling, which revolutionized the economics of book publishing. Similarly, Google and Facebook's siphoning of ad revenues from news media has significantly impacted the financial stability of news organizations. Moreover, the Big Three record labels' use of inordinately long contracts to maximize their own margins at the expense of artists exemplifies the pernicious nature of chokepoints.

In their insightful analysis, scholar Rebecca Giblin and writer and activist Cory Doctorow shed light on how powerful corporations create "anti-competitive flywheels" to lock in users and suppliers, make their markets inhospitable to new entrants, and force workers and suppliers to accept unfairly low prices. By examining book publishing, news, live music, music streaming, screenwriting, radio, and other industries, Giblin and Doctorow deftly demonstrate how corporations construct these chokepoints, ultimately hindering innovation, competition, and fair remuneration for workers.

Chokepoint Capitalism serves as a clarion call to workers across all sectors to unite in the fight against these chokepoints. It urges them to reclaim the power and profit that are being stealthily taken away, before it becomes too late. The time has come for workers to stand together, challenge the dominance of big corporations, and advocate for a more equitable and sustainable economic landscape.

Weight: 260g
Dimension: 129 x 199 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781915590015