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Topher's avatar

“… makes being the fence company the best play [of] all - it’s essentially police officers demanding bribes on the way to the market.” or governments demanding sales tax. A key difference is that sales tax and Facebook ads are legal, whereas bribes, less so.

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Tristan Markwell's avatar

Totally, although thinking of "legal" as a binary only makes sense in strong rule-of-law societies. The enclosure movement in England, for example, occurred both via acts of Parliament and by illegal seizure (per Krznaric; I haven't examined the primary sources). Social media sites consistently skirt the law especially on privacy, either thinking they won't get caught or seeing it as the price of doing business).

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