How the New Technology ushered in authoritarianism?

[kentuck]

In my opinion, it began around the time of Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. For years, Microsoft had a monopoly on the new technology. Most computers were run by Microsoft and Bill Gates soon became one of the wealthiest people in the world very quickly.

In the next couple of decades, several other technology monopolies arose, such as Facebook and Twitter, and vast amounts of wealth were amassed by a few individuals. They were profitable beyond imagination.

But, the people, the workers, did not share in this wealth. It all seemed to accumulate in a few hands at the very top.

This presented a great challenge to social and democratic states around the world. Because they began to use their wealth to gain political power, such as the oligarchs in Russia, and all around the world.

Finally, it even reached the shores of America. The new wealth holders were ready to buy elections and to take over our democracies. The Supreme Court had given them permission to do so without public scrutiny. Dark contributions were everywhere. Corruption followed. It is likely the most corrupt times since the railroad barons, but on a much larger scale.

The mistake of the democratic governments was in their failure to regulate this new wealth so that it benefited society as a whole, rather than accumulating power for a few individuals. They could have done it in a couple of ways: by breaking up the large communication monopolies into several components or by instituting new tax policies to distribute the wealth in a more fair and balanced way.

In my opinion, this is why we are where we are today in America. We blew a great opportunity to use the wealth, created by the new technology, to make our country a better and more healthy society.