May 19, 2026
Silicon Valley vs literally everyone
'Capitalism has to become more humane': a Stanford economist on big tech
Stanford says tech billionaires are breaking democracy — commenters say that’s just capitalism doing its job
TLDR: Stanford economist Mordecai Kurz says giant tech companies have become so powerful they’re hurting democracy and squeezing out real competition. Commenters mostly responded with: that’s not a bug, that’s capitalism — with sarcasm, rage, and a few brutally funny one-liners.
A Stanford economist just lobbed a grenade into the big tech debate, arguing that a handful of ultra-rich tech bosses have piled up so much money, media power, and political influence that democracy itself is starting to wobble. In his upcoming book, Mordecai Kurz says this isn’t a weird new accident — it’s history repeating itself, with today’s tech titans playing the role of old-school robber barons. His warning is blunt: when regular people feel shut out, angry politics rushes in to fill the gap.
But in the comments, readers were not in the mood to politely workshop reforms. They went straight for the jugular. The hottest reaction? A furious chorus saying Kurz’s idea that capitalism should become “more humane” is like asking a shark to go vegan. One commenter called the whole thing “Ethical Theft,” while another argued capitalism doesn’t just sometimes go bad — it is built to reward hoarding, exploitation, and people who are comfortable stepping on others. That turned the thread into a mini ideology cage match: reform it, regulate it, or admit the whole machine is the problem.
There was also plenty of sarcasm. One zinger mocked the economist’s big conclusion with a dripping “Wow, such insight,” basically accusing academia of arriving centuries late to the party. And the bleakest joke of all may have been the simplest: “abusing people wholesale is profitable.” Ouch. The article brought the history lesson, but the comments brought the flamethrower.
Key Points
- •The article centers on Stanford economist Mordecai Kurz’s book *Private Power and Democracy’s Decline*, which argues that concentrated technological and monopoly power is eroding US democracy.
- •Kurz compares today’s tech oligarchs with industrialists of the first Gilded Age, arguing that both periods involved elites using concentrated economic power to shape society.
- •The article says Kurz views New Deal reforms as having reduced monopoly power and improved economic distribution, while Reagan-era reversals enabled a “second Gilded Age.”
- •Kurz argues that large technology firms and startups increasingly operate in a market structure oriented toward collaboration and acquisition rather than direct competition, reinforcing monopoly power.
- •The article says Kurz believes social media and unregulated AI could further weaken democracy by amplifying misinformation, polarization, and job displacement across both blue-collar and professional work.