The premise of the discussion here is wrong, which is, after all, a common problem with discussions of public policy.  “Trade is zero sum.”  Wrong.  “People do not respond to incentives.”  Wrong.  “Socialism had nothing to do with the collapse of the Venezuelan economy.”  Wrong.  Or in the present case, “When a company such as Facebook or Google has suddenly grown, it must be a dangerous monopoly and needs to be regulated by wise heads in Whitehall.”  Wrong.

Sure, in the short run we are all terrified that the big shoe company will sell us only its own shoes, or that Cadbury under Kraft will change the formula for Whole Nut, or that in other ways “the corporations” such as Google will upset our lives. 

There are two things wrong with such a premise.  For one thing, it is not at all obvious, in the case of the computer giants no less than in the case of New Balance or Cadbury, that the government can do better.  Suppose the Monopolies Commission or the Anti-Trust Division of the Department of Justice intervenes.  What makes us think that the interventions will be efficacious?  It is wrong, of course, to believe that government agencies always get things right.  Sometimes they do.  But often enough not.  Let’s see: cladding on high rises?  With the best will, they too make mistakes. 

And governments - local and national - are especially sensitive, as they should be, to political influences, but influences that often have no connection with our welfare.  Donald Trump keeps coming up with so-called policies that please his base voters, yet hurt the rest of us.  Jeremy Corbyn recommends that we go the way of his friends in Cuba and Venezuela.  Theresa May cleaves to Brexit to keep her feeble grip on one wing of the Tories.

A company that does not do well by its customers gets punished pretty quickly, in the precisely targeted sense of losing sales of shoes or candy or Google clicks.  After all, we buy their stuff, and can refrain from doing so, and send a letter instead of an email if we wish.  The regulators and their politicians, by contrast, get punished only for the political menu as a whole, not for the rotten item served up for the desert, and then only according to the Fixed Term Parliament Act.  The question always is, should we make economic decisions according to voluntary markets or according to compelled laws?

Yes, there is a “role for government.”  Got it.  Sometimes compulsion is a good thing.  Don’t drive on the M20 at 100 miles per hour.  But in the case of the computer side of the economy, developing at the speed of light, is the clumsy, if sometimes useful, visible fist of government such a good idea?