Everything wrong with how artists are paid coupled with interesting possible remedies. A guidebook to fixing the age-old exploitation that creative people suffer at the hands of behemoth corporations. Maybe some of this could come to fruition. Most of it, sadly, not.

My second book of 2023 and it was one of those, "Oh I had no idea it was this bad already" eye-openers. Must-read.

I think the most impressive con libs have ever pulled was convincing the world that socialists (and the anti capitalist left as a whole) are delusional 'pie in the sky' believers when libs, in turn, want a system of left-leaning policies to peacefully coexist with billionaires frothing at the mouth to gut any and all progress.

Chokepoint Capitalism is a breakdown of how monopoly capitalism (primarily through big tech) has left the creative industries in a destitute state. It’s split in two in parts, one half describing the problem and the other offering ways to tackle it.

The book has a very strong and interesting first half. The dissection of monopolies rising to their respective points of total and utter control is clear and well-delivered. In every single industry where some monster was able to dream it up tactically enough: competition was either killed or swallowed; workers were reduced to becoming option-less, indebted & neglected; governments were successfully lobbied to turn laws against their citizens; and enough money was amassed that crime is now almost always worth committing by the rich, because the punishment is nearly always cheaper than the monetary gain behind said crime. Nowhere does this seem clearer (to the authors) than in the creative sector, because the 'artistic' drive of culture producers allows business people to abuse these hopes and dreams, forcing the vast majority of creatives everywhere to work for practically nothing and earn practically nothing in return.

The amount of financial and entrepreneurial history that is boiled down in the first 130 or so pages of this book is actually impressive, giving us a cogent understanding of the absolutely romanticised myth that is 'capitalist competition'. The aim behind every industry-ruling organisation was, is, and always will be to ensure competition dies a cruel death, respecting the end goal of "competition" which is total domination. Nobody should have any other option but to buy from me, the king of the universe, and thus I may dictate quality, prices, relations, rules, human rights, the order of nature itself, etc etc.

Where the book goes wrong is in the soc-dem 'humane capitalist' solutions that Giblin and Doctorow throw at us for the second 130 or so pages. Yes, it is obviously good to have unions, striking, cooperatives and worker-owned industries to combat capitalism, but the authors deeply misunderstand (or actively ignore) what truly motivates capitalists. To have any of these 'answers' sit in a world where monopoly companies and billionaires can still exist and compete against them is akin to throwing sheep in a pit of self-described 'good faith' wolves. Capitalism has and always will lead to feudalist practices specifically because it is a system designed by and for the bourgeoisie. In the same way that early 20th century Keynesian policies were eventually dumped for the fresher, sexier neoliberal economics that enriched the already-rich at the cost of working people, capitalists will stop at nothing to continue on this already dark path so long as they get to keep living in a system that gives them to option to do so.

Proposals about changing some terms around royalties and interoperability offer this incredibly weak 'new world' where creatives are maybe getting paid a tiny bit more than before, but where the authors' naivety is most blatant is in their failure to address the buying power of mega companies. Doctorow and Giblin proudly parade around Joan Robinson's term 'monopsony' for most of the book, referring to one all-powerful buyer controlling the market rather than a 'seller' organisation. However, besides mentioning some Governments attempting to block anti-competitive acquisitions and mergers, there's never any clear strategy in tackling or addressing companies' ability to make these ambitious purchases properly. And of course not, that would go against the capitalist mentality and these two are capitalists at heart. There's even a bit where they do this condescending 'SO close to getting it!' schtick with obviously bad faith conservatives, and it's absolutely baffling to read when the authors, in turn, want to progress things just up to the point that some improvement starts happening, but wish to halt it just before we can permanently stop the owning class from being able to do these things again. There is a failure to dream big enough that inadvertently means Doctorow and Giblin think the answer is to allow a system where monopolies can easily be established still.

I cannot recommend the first half enough. As far as detailing the problem it does a genuinely great job at making sure people understand how capitalism, lawfully and unlawfully, always returns to impoverishing the world for the sake of the privileged few. But it’s for this reason alone that the second half of the book feels naive at best and dishonest or opportunist at worst. The suggestions Doctorow and Giblin make to combat this deep inequality are even wilder than more radical alternatives bc they want these ideas executed without challenging the existence of its main antagonists and blockers.

Thanks for the info on the plight of creative industries, at least!

A spectacularly detailed, well-researched, fascinating, eye-opening, and incredibly depressing look at modern capitalism.

While really interesting, the book serves as a restatement of a lot of things Doctorow has said before in talks, articles and blog posts. He goes into depth here and clearly Giblin brings her own expertise to balance out his frequent hyperbole with a more grounded approach to the facts. If you're a fan of Doctorow, this book is like a 'greatest hits' collection of what he's been saying lately. But in the end, it doesn't leave you feeling very optimistic that any of what he complains about is possible to change.

A good overview of the dangers of monopolies and monopsonies. While the main idea was to look at the harms of concentration of capital and of corporate market power, by identifying chokepoints and middle men as major problems, the book was able to look at broader and more complex ways that power can be exercised and used to control the choices we have. In some cases even with a relatively small share of the market (especially in the case of buyers).

The book had many concrete and reasonable policy proposals, though there were some that seemed not fully-formed or lacking. However, the authors recognized the limitations of a one size fits all solution and explicitly encouraged people to critique, engage, and adapt their ideas to different market conditions.

Great book, with an encompassing theory on how corporations (especially in the arts and creative media) strive and succeed to create a bottle neck or choke point for consumers to eliminate choice and squeeze as much as they can from both consumer and creators. Loads of examples, Spotify, Amazon, Disney, attempts in other industries. They offer concrete examples, ways to improve and concerns if we don't address it. Excellent book, one that all citizens and consumers should read and put into action.

I really liked the premise of this book and found the first part absolutely rage-inducing to learn about all the ways that creative people have been exploited over the years, even before big tech. While the second part talks a lot about collective action and big ideas, there weren’t clear ideas or directions for people who wanted to start making this new approach a reality.