Antitrust, data protection and intrusive tax investigations were, as far as Tim Cook of Apple was concerned, nothing more than “political crap,” antiquated road bumps on the highway to the future.40 As tech oligarch Peter Thiel told audiences and readers: “Creating value isn’t enough—you also need to capture some of the value you create.” That depended on market power. “Americans mythologize competition and credit it with saving us from socialist bread lines,” but Thiel knew better. As far as he was concerned, “[C]apitalism and competition are opposites. Capitalism is premised on the
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