Jayson_Virissimo comments on Facebook worries me. - Less Wrong

-8 Post author: Laoch 22 June 2012 09:50AM

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Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 22 June 2012 10:43:02AM *  18 points [-]

How do others here feel?

I feel fine. Thanks.

In my opinion the food industry having a monopoly on what we eat, just as Google and Facebook will have a monopoly web content. Is this a risk on society?

By definition, "the food industry" is that set of all suppliers that supply food to consumers. It shouldn't surprise us that they have a "monopoly", because if there were another supplier, they too would be part of the "food industry". In general, tautologies aren't cause for concern. Also, both Google and Facebook can't possibly have a "monopoly" on web content. If there are two of them, there is a duopoly (but there are, in fact, many more than just those two).

What does this have to do with rationality exactly (or unexactly, if you prefer)?

Comment author: oliverbeatson 22 June 2012 11:35:52AM *  18 points [-]

+1 for

In general, tautologies aren't cause for concern

This would have been a useful phrase during philosophy classes.

Comment author: Laoch 22 June 2012 10:48:51AM 5 points [-]

Yes I see what I've done there and you pretty much dissolved the problem for me. Thanks.

Comment author: fortyeridania 22 June 2012 11:17:38AM 6 points [-]

dissolved the problem

So, you didn't have an underlying concern regarding concentration in the food industry?

If you did, here's some data on full-service restaurants. (Actually, this table does not use the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Instead, it gives data on the top 4, 8, 20, and 50 firms in the sector.)

Perhaps someone out there is better at interpreting this table than I am, but it looks like, as of 2007 in the US, the top twenty firms took in slightly more than a sixth of the total revenue.

Note: This is only about full-service restaurants. Here is data about other sectors, though. I did not see anything else specifically about food.

Comment author: Laoch 22 June 2012 04:47:45PM 1 point [-]

I'm not sure what my concern was, I was probably just panicking at the thought of FB's power. It is worrying however that people still consume food from fast food chains and the centre aisles of supermarkets. I most say the post was sloppy and not well thought out, but I need to articulate more so I had to start somewhere.