Why we should just nationalize Facebook

When a private company becomes a monopoly, it might as well be publicly owned

Facebook

I have a modest proposal: Let's nationalize Facebook.

Just have the U.S. government take controlling ownership of the company. We've done it before, sometimes in the case of emergencies and wars, but also in the case of natural monopolies. That's an instance where the natural costs to enter a market are really high, but operating costs for a business once it's entered the market are low, so there are natural barriers to competition. Roads, water utilities, and electrical utilities are the classic examples, since different companies aren't going to build competing physical systems of highways, pipes, or power line towers. And publicly owned utilities in America are particularly common at the municipal or regional level.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.