{"id":23133,"date":"2026-05-18T15:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/capitalism-has-to-become-more-humane-a-stanford-economist-on-big-tech-power-hoarding-and-democracy\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:37:14","slug":"capitalism-has-to-become-more-humane-a-stanford-economist-on-big-tech-power-hoarding-and-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/18\/capitalism-has-to-become-more-humane-a-stanford-economist-on-big-tech-power-hoarding-and-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Capitalism has to become more humane\u2019: a Stanford economist on big tech, power hoarding and democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mordecai Kurz argues tech oligarchs erode democracy through monopolies \u2013 and predicts how the trend may end<\/p>\n

The billionaires of today are unusually aggressive in their hoarding of cultural and technological influence, according to Mordecai Kurz, a Stanford economist whose research connects<\/a> monopoly power with political and economic inequality. In his new book, Private Power and Democracy\u2019s Decline, publishing 19 May, he argues the US is living through an extreme version of a pattern that has repeated itself since industrialization: technological power concentrating in the hands of a few, which is eroding democracy.<\/p>\n

According to Kurz, technological moguls have long seen themselves as superior beings whose natural role is to shape society \u2013 so they have no problem disrupting the institution of democracy. During the first Gilded Age, in the late 19th century, as the US was enjoying its first ascent as an industrial powerhouse, wealthy industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller \u201cinvented all kinds of theories about human evolution\u201d, twisting the logic of social Darwinism<\/a> to convince themselves that their success was a sign they had been selected by nature to influence society, Kurz explained. Now, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has suggested his technology<\/a> has a mystical potential to become a transcendent good. He\u2019s also openly acknowledged it could lead to mass unemployment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nMordecai Kurz argues tech oligarchs erode democracy through monopolies \u2013 and predicts how the trend may end
\nThe billionaires of today are unusually aggressive in their hoarding of cultural and technological influence, according to Mordecai Kurz, a Stanford economist whose research connects monopoly power with political and economic inequality. In his new book, Private Power and Democracy\u2019s Decline, publishing 19 May, he argues the US is living through an extreme version of a pattern that has repeated itself since industrialization: technological power concentrating in the hands of a few, which is eroding democracy.
\nAccording to Kurz, technological moguls have long seen themselves as superior beings whose natural role is to shape society \u2013 so they have no problem disrupting the institution of democracy. During the first Gilded Age, in the late 19th century, as the US was enjoying its first ascent as an industrial powerhouse, wealthy industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller \u201cinvented all kinds of theories about human evolution\u201d, twisting the logic of social Darwinism to convince themselves that their success was a sign they had been selected by nature to influence society, Kurz explained. Now, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has suggested his technology has a mystical potential to become a transcendent good. He\u2019s also openly acknowledged it could lead to mass unemployment. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mordecai Kurz argues tech oligarchs erode democracy through monopolies \u2013 and predicts how the trend may end The billionaires of today are unusually aggressive in their hoarding of cultural and technological influence, according to Mordecai Kurz, a Stanford economist whose research connects monopoly power with political and economic inequality. In his new book, Private Power …<\/p>\n

\u2018Capitalism has to become more humane\u2019: a Stanford economist on big tech, power hoarding and democracy<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":23134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23133"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}