Statliga regleringar är inte alltid (e.g. sällan) bästa sättet att styra en utveckling.

Big Tech can afford AI regulation. Its competitors cannot

Dr. Robert W. Malone Sep 15, 2026

M A L O N E . N E W S

Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906. He wrote it about the men and women working in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. He wanted readers to see the conditions under which those workers lived and worked. Instead, the public focused on the meat. Sinclair described the result that October: “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach” (Sinclair 1906b).

Congress responded quickly. Senator Albert Beveridge introduced his meat inspection bill in May. It passed as part of the agriculture appropriations bill and was signed into law on June 30, 1906. One of the landmark food-safety laws of the Progressive Era was therefore enacted as part of legislation appropriating funds for the Department of Agriculture.

The large Chicago meatpackers did not oppose federal inspection. They had supported federal inspection since 1891, when Congress established a federal inspection system in response to European restrictions on American meat imports over sanitary concerns. Federal inspection allowed American meatpackers to regain access to important European markets. Armour, Swift, and the other large packers had a substantial commercial interest in maintaining that system.

The dispute was largely over who would pay for it. Beveridge wanted the meatpackers to bear the cost of federal inspection. The packers wanted the Treasury to continue paying for inspectors, as it had since 1891. The packers prevailed. Economist Patrick Newman describes the result as a system that allowed the major packers to block legislation they opposed, retain government-funded inspection, and extend federal compliance requirements to their smaller competitors (Newman 2024).

That history matters because this is how regulatory capture works. Regulation sold to the public as a restraint on an industry can instead protect its largest companies. Large corporations can absorb the lawyers, compliance departments, audits, licensing requirements, and other costs imposed by government. Small producers and new competitors cannot. Federal regulation then becomes a barrier to entry, protecting the dominant firms from competitors that might otherwise challenge them. The largest companies remain in the market. The small producers do not get to play.

Something very similar is now happening in artificial intelligence.

Eight days in September

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