Why do software companies have high profit margins then? Why aren't Google and Facebook ads a lot cheaper than they are since it's all built on dirt-cheap software?
Rent-seeking, enabled by a lack of competition, enabled by network effects and natural monopolies.
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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
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but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
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Notes -
Rent-seeking, enabled by a lack of competition, enabled by network effects and natural monopolies.
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