laws and rules focused on Facebook. But the very laws designed to regulate Facebook necessarily consider Facebook the default. That will make it harder for competitors to even have a chance to become a default social media platform. Free-marketeers and social conservatives can find common ground opposing companies carving out exceptions for themselves in the tax code, laws, and other regulations. All that said, however, if corporations continue to embrace wokeness, then nothing else will matter. Leveraging their capital, lobbyists, and access against conservative values and interests will just cause more conservatives to abandon their support of free markets in favor of legislative and regulatory revenge. © Creators The free-marketeers need to point out creative destruction can never happen if tech giants and other corporations are allowed to draft the laws and rules. Erick Erickson is the editor-in-chief of RedState.com, the most widely read right-of-center blog on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Prior to leading RedState, Erickson practiced law for six years and oversaw a number of political campaigns at the federal, state, and local levels.
There is the other issue for which I have no answer but think conservatives must give consideration. American antitrust law is premised on the idea that giving consumers cheaper prices is a good thing. The government loathes breaking up companies that drive down prices. But is it really a good thing that Amazon can drive down prices to such an extent that it prohibits innovation and competition? Cheapest is not always best, but Amazon’s marketplace – and its willful habit of turning a blind eye to cheap counterfeits on its website – prevents creative destruction in the free market. To the extent the average consumer benefits from cheap products delivered in 24 hours, he loses out on access to superior quality and innovation. In the supply-and-demand curve of the digital age, tech companies who profit from clicks can use their leverage to create ceilings on prices because of their size. They do so by limiting innovative competitors through patent laws and keeping prices exceedingly low, as well as through venture capital and size. Consumers benefit in the digital stores in which they shop but potentially lose as employees or entrepreneurs of businesses that directly – or even tangentially – come into conflict with a digital behemoth. Lastly, the free-marketeers need to point out that creative destruction can never happen if tech giants and other corporations are allowed to draft the laws and rules. Congress, in trying to regulate Facebook, will draft
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